Campaigns use music to appeal to voters’ emotions and influence their feelings about candidates and issues

Its a known fact that music can influence the mood of people, but not many are aware that music can have a much bigger impact on people than they realize. A new study now suggests that residents also get influenced by campaign music.

Politicians contesting elections are always on the lookout for things that can get voters on their side, and they definitely think that music is one of the things that can influence voters.

Watch: 1952 Eisenhower Political Ad – I Like Ike – Presidential Campaign Ad

Using a bright piano tune to compliment a candidate’s positive message, or using a heavy dirge to back up a negative ad, are some examples where music plays a critical part.

Several of the ads produced by George W. Bush’s campaign in 2004 included the “Wolves” about terrorist attacks
The “Windsurfing” ad characterized his opponent John Kerry as a flip-flopper.

Paul Christiansen, associate professor of music at Seton Hall, and author of the upcoming book, “Orchestrating Public Opinion: How Music Persuades in Television Political Ads for US Presidential Campaigns, 1952-2016” has done a decade-long study of campaign music – in which he considered the tunes used by presidential candidates running in the general elections from 1952, the first year of televised presidential campaign ads, to this year – the researcher concluded one party has certainly trumped the competition, in terms of the effective use of music (Republicans seem to be more savvy at choosing music) to impact voters.

Eminem wins lawsuit against New Zealand political party, to donate proceeds

The New Zealand National Party have to pay almost 500,000 New Zealand dollars ($415,000) for copyright infringement after it copied rapper Eminem’s hit “Lose Yourself” for an ad.

“Eminem Esque” was featured in Party advertisements and played on television, the internet and at a Party conference in the lead up to the 2014 election.

The court found there were enough similarities between “Lose Yourself” and “Eminem Esque’ to rule in the company’s favor.

Lose Yourself by Eminem

The $415,000 award was based on what the party might have paid in licensing fees, had they actually been granted permission to use the copyrighted original.

The original song was written by Eminem along with his frequent collaborators Jeffrey Bass and Luis Resto. Detroit based Eight Mile Style, the publishing company which holds the copyright to “Lose Yourself,” filed suit.

The court’s decision sets a major precedent in New Zealand and will be influential in Australia, the UK and elsewhere and is a warning to ‘sound alike’ music producers and their clients everywhere.

Eminem intends to donate the proceeds from the settled case to hurricane relief efforts to provide aid to those affected by the recent destructive storms.