Listen close after a Mitt Romney rally, and you’ll hear a soundtrack with a very un-Romney-like tone.
Romney’s main theme song for this campaign is a bland, upbeat anthem: “Born Free,” by Kid Rock.
But, after his speeches, Romney plays music with an angrier edge.
“Winter gettin’ colder. Summer gettin’ warmer. Tidal wave comin’ ’cross the Mexican border,” country artist Toby Keith now sings over Romney’s loudspeakers at some rallies.
The campaign has started using the song “American Ride,” which channels blue-collar unhappiness about immigration, gas prices and political correctness. (“Don’t get busted singin’ Christmas carols.”) It has a sardonic tone that seems out of sync with the genial, G-rated Romney himself.
As does the cursing.
“Daddy works his ass off, paying for the good life,” the speakers boom. Then: “Hot dog! Hot damn!”
None of this year’s GOP candidates really seem to have mastered the art of the campaign song. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) blares “Independence Day,” a tune about domestic violence and death-by-arson. Texas Rep. Ron Paul once took the stage to the menacing dum-dum-dum-dum-da-dum of Darth Vader’s theme song. And former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) sometimes uses no music at all: When his rallies end, an awkward silence descends.
In Romney’s case, his campaign playlist has already traced a shift in his political persona — from 2008’s Boston businessman (playing the Fenway Park standard “Sweet Caroline”) to 2012’s untethered American conservative (“like an untamed stallion,” Kid Rock sings).
Now, the music seems to show Romney reaching out to the right-wing voters who have spurned him so far.
“There is no chance that these songs are chosen at random,” said Benjamin S. Schoening, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Barron County who co-wrote a book on presidential campaign songs. “If you’re playing songs that have these very conservative messages within them, you can set a mood for the audience that you are actually a conservative candidate — without actually having to say it in your stump speech.”
The campaign song is almost as old as the presidential campaign itself. Supporters of John Adams sang “Adams and Liberty,” set to the tune that would later become “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
In modern times, however, candidates have generally turned away from custom-written tunes. (1964’s “Hello, Lyndon,” set to the tune of “Hello, Dolly,” may have been the beginning of the end. Or maybe it was 1972’s oddly hippie-ish “Nixon Now.”) They repurposed old pop songs instead.
In the best case — as in Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Stop” — these familiar hits can fire up a crowd and send supporters home with the candidate’s tune on mental repeat. In the worst case . . . well, the worst case is probably Ross Perot. He chose Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” in 1992.
“The best ones, really, capture some message about the candidate — that really distills [the candidate] to an essence — and then gets people excited about it,” said Mark Clague, a professor of musicology at the University of Michigan. The music also allows a candidate to send a message to voters without actually saying the words.
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