Country Music and Politics

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Now that the election is over, I have seen a few stories on major cable news networks looking back at what part music played in this year's presidential elections.

No matter what your political views are, country music has won again.

President Bush's campaign included many big names in the spotlight at rallies all over the United States from the country music world. Toby Keith for instance I know showed at one of the events, and I'm sure there were more.

Each night on the FOX News Network's "Hannity & Colmes" they had a few second clip from the campaign trail for each candidate and their music they were using at rallies called "Sounds from the Trail." John Kerry's included Bruce Springsteen and other classic rock artists. President Bush's included country almost exclusively. In post analysis of the election by news networks, they came to the conclusion that basically domestic and moral issues (such as gay marriage) were largely the issues at focus, more so than international (like Iraq.)

I fully believe that the music was an influence on the election, maybe not as a actual campaign issue, but definately setting the stage for what background and the lifestyle of each canidate have.

The citizen's spoke and just maybe country music influenced it as well as more exposure to the great music from the country artists.