A short lecture video on the importance of campaign songs from the musicologist creator of Trax on the Trail.
Use our streaming databases to find historical campaign songs.
Since it seemed timely, I chose to focus on candidates for the 2020 presidential race (including some past candidates). I decided to include songs that were "walk on songs" for candidates at their campaign launches, because these seem carefully chosen to project something about the candidates and their campaigns.
The original challenge list suggests this website as a source for information about campaign songs. The site includes not only official campaign songs, but all the songs associated with candidates: songs played at rallies, in commercials, and even in videos criticizing or parodying candidates. I searched for "walk on songs" and limited my search to campaign launch rallies.
To find more digital music scholarship, browse Harvard's list or check out one of the examples below.