Musik als politisches Mittel in Barack Obamas Wahlkampf 2008

Abstract

On his way to victory in the presidential election in the USA in 2008, Barack Obama and his team benefitted from the use of a wide variety of strategic means. Obamas election campaign did not only stand out by involving modern social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, but also by the cumulative presence of popular music and its performers. This article gives an overview of the occurrence of popular music during the Obamas campaign in 2008 and discusses it as an intentionally established political instrument. Furthermore, the author presents the results of her research on officially negated connections between an Obamasupportive music video, the music industry and Barack Obama himself. Although the discovered facts do not give evidence supporting the conjecture of popular music as an intentionally applied means in Obamas campaign, nevertheless this paper proves the power and influence music can have on politics as a medium of so called soft power.