Listen to the Music: Growing Usage of Campaign Music and Social Media

Music holds a long history of communicating specific messaging from artists and connecting musicians with their fans. However, music also helps individuals make statements, both political and nonpolitical, via the subliminal themes found within songs. Thus, my research question asks, how has campaign music become increasingly important within American elections, as seen through social media, and how can candidates utilize engagement from their younger constituents to their political advantage? Prior research (Blankenship and Renard 2017; Brader 2006) has focused on the effectiveness of campaign music within American elections, but my thesis examines campaign music through a new lens: social media. I created and distributed a study to undergraduate students at UNC Chapel Hill with a simulated social media feed of videos for two candidates, and randomized music genre for each participant, based upon typical music genres associated with both the Republican and Democratic party. Based on participants’ interaction with the feed, I measured their engagement, along with how certain genres and political party combinations of participants affected engagement. I found that country music decreases engagement amongst young voters, and the inclusion of music that is not associated with one’s party, displayed with a politically aligned candidate, leads to increased engagement. I also discovered other engagement outcomes that were substantively significant based on party and genre associations. By analyzing the effects of engagement based upon altering music genre, many implications arise, including the effects of social media for young voters and political campaigns, and the continual usage of campaign music to elicit specific actions from individuals.