2. Platz: 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. Obama's 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 Obama's 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 Obama supportive 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 Obama's campaign, nevertheless this paper
proves the power and influence music can have on politics as a medium of so called soft power.