Sweet Home Alabama to Washington DC - an election Spotify playlist

Posted on: 28 October 2020 in 2020 posts

Map of the United States
Photo by John-Mark Smith from Pexels

Dr Stuart Wilks-Heeg, Senior Lecturer in Politics, provides your soundtrack to the US election with a playlist of songs to represent each state.


Presidential candidates have adopted music for their campaigns to sometimes mixed results in the past. In 1984 Bruce Springsteen rejected Regan’s use of the song Born in the USA during his 1984 election campaign, saying ‘It was a song of rebellion […] That experience is not the same as the one you’re talking about.’

The co-opting of countercultural anthems reared its head again following the 2016 election, when Trump played the Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want at rallies (ignoring the group’s request not to use the song) in what was widely considered a dig at Hillary Clinton and her supporters following her unsuccessful presidential campaign.

Music again is sure to be a backdrop to the 2020 US election, and so Dr Stuart Wilks-Heeg has put together a playlist of songs that reference each state. Listen below.

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Study Politics at the University of Liverpool.

Visit the Department of Politics US Election hub.