Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania could not believe their good fortune.
Looking down from their sky box at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, they saw more than 20,000 die-hard fans in the biggest city in the swingiest of swing states, responding with deafening cheers to a speech by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam on one of Ms. Harris’s signature campaign issues: abortion.
“We find ourselves reaching out to ladies, young women, whose lives are at risk,” Mr. Vedder said. “And we’re reaching out to moms who want their daughters to have the same reproductive freedoms that they had and they fought for, and also men too, who don’t want government dictating the path of our daughters, our sisters or even our partners.”
After the Covid-19 pandemic forced musicians off the road during the 2020 presidential cycle, rock activism is back, with new sophistication. Tours are prioritizing swing states. Artists are making their pitch before live audiences and on their significant online platforms. And bands are leveraging voter targeting methods once used exclusively by the political class.
“Being at a rock show, it’s one of those things where you feel so connected to your community,” Jeff Ament, the bass player for Pearl Jam, said in an interview. “And if you’re not the person that goes to City Council meetings and is involved with your community that way, voting is the one time every year where you get to go out and voice your opinion on equal terms to everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re a millionaire or a 20-year-old going to school and working at the coffee shop. It should be the great equalizer.”
Activism in music is a tradition that goes back decades. Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie penned pro-communist, and then pro-war, anthems during World War II as members of the Almanac Singers, and then supported Henry A. Wallace’s nomination to the Progressive Party. John Lennon and Neil Young were among the loudest voices protesting the Vietnam War. Bruce Springsteen criticized Ronald Reagan’s use of his name during the 1984 presidential election.
Over time, most major music acts have tended to support Democrats, a trend that continues this year. Some notable stars have also lent their platform to former President Donald J. Trump, such as Jason Aldean, the country star who sat next to Mr. Trump at the Republican National Convention. But none have done more for the former president than Kid Rock.
The late-90s rap rock star performed at the R.N.C. and then headlined a touring music festival called Rock the Country. The festival skipped swing states, opting instead to build stages in deeply red areas of the Southeast. Festival organizers said that civic engagement was never necessarily a goal, that instead they wanted to create a sense of community and belonging. They also pointed to a Clemson University study finding that the festival had brought millions in wages to a South Carolina county.
Representatives for Kid Rock did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Trump and Republicans have been focusing on other live events with similarly devoted and engaged fan bases — notably college football and the Ultimate Fighting Championship — with the former president attending games and matches himself.
Music activism has long included calls to action. The Lollapalooza festival, which featured Pearl Jam in the early 1990s, had tables registering voters. The band itself held a free concert in Seattle to register voters before the 1992 election. And in 1995 Pearl Jam, with Mr. Young, hosted a benefit concert that raised more than $180,000 for Voters for Choice, an abortion rights political action committee co-founded by Gloria Steinem.
“I just think back to the first time that I voted, how there is a real sense of power there and pride that I voted on these things based on all the research I did, and I’m voting this way and this way and this way,” Mr. Ament said. “And it should be easier.”
At the Pearl Jam show in Philadelphia, Mr. Vedder urged his fans to get involved. “Pennsylvania, you have the power,” he said. “Folks are counting on your vote.”
Throughout the arena and in the legendarily long merchandise lines, volunteers encouraged fans to sign a pledge to vote. In between sets, Jumbotron screens displayed a QR code with a similar request. Voters who signed would be contacted later to make sure they got their mail-in ballots and returned them.
Pearl Jam is unique in running its own voter engagement program, known as PJ Votes. Many artists have partnered with HeadCount, a nonpartisan organization that works with musicians to help register people to vote.
The organization has already registered about 350,000 voters this cycle at more than 3,000 events with more than 100 artists, and has been on more tours with more artists than ever before in its 20-year history.
As the election approaches its final weeks, major artists — including Charli XCX and Troye Sivan, Usher, Stevie Wonder, Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish — will be out on tour in battleground states with HeadCount, making voter registration a priority. HeadCount is also leveraging the return to the road by major acts like Green Day and seizing on popular young pop stars like Olivia Rodrigo.
Green Day, for example, has a “Don’t be an American Idiot” campaign, a reference to its popular song, reminding voters of deadlines to register, request a ballot and return it, often with multiple prods.
“Having everybody inside during 2020, not touring, figuring out how they can be connected, really has had this boomerang effect in 2024,” Lucille Wenegieme, the executive director of HeadCount, said. “Talent are, on average, getting a little bit more sophisticated with it, thinking, So if I’m going to use the real estate of my tour for something, how do I make it as impactful as I want it to be?”
Activism from musicians has not been confined to their tour schedules. Perhaps the most coveted endorsement of the election cycle came in an Instagram post shortly after the presidential debate by Taylor Swift announcing her support for Vice President Kamala Harris. The pop-culture icon’s endorsement spiked visits to voter registration sites, including HeadCount: The group saw a 530 percent increase in digital registrations and other activity the day after.
On the road, the twists and turns of this election have been evident from the stage. Jim James, the lead singer of My Morning Jacket, said that his band had been vocal about asking fans to vote and to get involved, and that he could see a change in his audience since Ms. Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee.
“It’s been encouraging to see folks start to fully take her in and begin to realize ‘Oh WOW — we can have THAT kind of strong, positive, compassionate leadership in this country?!’ ” Mr. James said in an email. “We really need to vote!”
Being back on the road during a presidential election has also allowed bands to leverage the connection made with fans during a show in a way that’s different from traditional political outreach.
“There’s a trust there that’s sort of a spiritual trust, like, I’m connected to this music in a way that is sort of unexplainable,” said Matt Quinn, the lead vocalist for Mt. Joy, a rock band from Pennsylvania.
He compared the effort to pastors urging their congregants to support political candidates. “I think it’s no different in the sense that like, hey, look, you’re connected to this thing spiritually that we created,” he said. “I think it would be bizarre not to try to influence people to create the world that is also part of your vision.”
Peaches, a longtime pop icon, performed last month at the Sea.Hear.Now festival in Asbury Park, N.J., about an hour outside of Philadelphia. Toward the end of her performance, she stripped down to a “Vote the Pain Away” shirt, a twist on her most famous song with a more profane title. The shirts went up for sale after the show, and they are often out of stock.
Peaches was clear in her politics from the stage and donned pro-Palestine and pro-transgender rights shirts. In an interview, she said she was unconcerned with any backlash for taking a political stand.
“If I’m doing something that you don’t agree with, you can either take it or leave it,” she said. “But I’m not going to change.”
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