Music in the Political Marketing on the Example of Polish Presidential Campaigns (1995–2015)1

The purpose of this article is to present a broad spectrum of relations between music and politics on the example of Polish presidential campaigns (1995–2015). The first part will show a current state of research signalised by many researchers from different scientific disciplines: from musicologists to political scientists and sociologists, as well as explain the topicality of the described problem. The next part will introduce a short overview of ways of using music with political aims, mentioned, for example, by Iwona Massaka in her dissertation Music as an Instrument of Political Impact. In this context, the author will characterise the most distinctive form of existence of music in a so-called “election song”—also in relation to Adorno’s theory of popular music. The conclusion is that the most important role in presidential campaigns is played by popular music, especially in a form of song. In that case, music tends to advertise political candidates in a way, as it can emphasize their intended image and influence a growth of support for a politician in a campaign.

The article is based on analyses of electoral campaigns, presented by the author in the MA thesis Music in Polish Presidential Campaigns (1995–2015), written under the guidance of Prof. Dr hab. Teresa Sasińska-Klas and defended in 2018 at the Institute of Journalism of the Jagiellonian University. It contains main conclusions resulting from the research and focuses on the musicological considerations, but omits scrupulous commentaries from the field of political and communication studies, replacing them with the general picture of the political processes, which determinate new uses of music as the instrument of the political influence.