Music is adding to the soundtrack of already noisy presidential election.

Hank Williams, Jr., has appeared at John McCain events. Bruce Springsteen has played acoustic shows on behalf of Barack Obama. The Beastie Boys, joined by Ben Harper, Crosby & Nash and Tenacious D, will visit Milwaukee on Sunday, Nov. 2 as part of a swing through battleground states.

Meanwhile, some rock stars have been bickering that political operatives try to create the appearance of endorsements by playing music at campaign functions.

A classic example occurred when the Heart song "Barracuda" blared out over the GOP convention floor after Gov. Sarah Palin gave her acceptance speech (although I have to pause and wonder why a conservative woman would want to be associated with the term "Barracuda").

The Wilson sisters -- Ann and Nancy -- who wrote the song, ordered their publishing company and their record label send the McCain-Palin camp a cease and desist letter. They personally object to the views of the Republicans, they said. The campaign, however, continues to spin the song.

Other artists have contacted the McCain camp and tried to jump on the don't-play-my-song bandwagon. Foo Fighters have protested the use of "My Hero" at campaign stops, such as the McCain stump last week in La Crosse. Jackson Browne filed a lawsuit to stop the Ohio state GOP from using his "Running on Empty" tune to attack Barack Obama, as did John Mellencamp, who complained about "Pink Houses" being used to mock Obama.

Regardless of which party pays for the podium, Van Halen objects to the use of any of its songs -- particularly "Right Now" -- for political purposes. The Grateful Dead generally avoided politics until Jerry Garcia died.

This whole rock-turned-politics gimmick really took off when Bill Clinton sparked a huge resurgence for the Fleetwood Mac song "Don't Stop" during his 1992 campaign. It might even have led to the group's reunion five years later. Lindsey Buckingham and his bandmates have seen their careers resurrected since then, as well. A stir was caused in 1984 when Bruce Springsteen balked at Ronald Reagan's campaign playing "Born in the USA" and entirely missing the point of the song.

In McCain's La Crosse appearance, the audience was serenaded with Stevie Ray Vaughan's "The House is Rockin'," and we're not quite sure how it relates to GOP values. After all, "When the house is a rockin,' don't bother knockin' " isn't exactly a featured plank in the GOP platform unless there's something the Palin people aren't telling us. McCain entered with the standard "Danger Zone," which is the theme from "Top Gun." A few Top Gun signs waved in the crowd.

The campaigns argue that they have paid the license fees to use the tunes and some of that money trickles down to the artists. The bottom line, however, is if the musicians don't speak up, some fans will equate the campaign playlists with tacit approval for the party platform.

Art Delay: Standing in line to vote can be exceedingly boring and tedious. State Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) wants to keep it that way.

An innovative idea from some Milwaukee artists to offer performance art to entertain voters drew a cold response from Stone.

My Vote Performs is a group of Milwaukee artists and teachers ready to liven up the polling lines. The plan is to perform at 12 different polling locations in the city.

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Posted by wiscoleeds on Oct. 16, 2008 at 8:57 a.m. (report)

Can't wait for Obama to mandate music CD's $4.99 since they usually only have 3-4 decent tracks and concert tickets to be $15 for general admission and $30 for reserved. That'll help middle class people like me be able to afford entertainment. Yep, I see that Madonna tickets are $95-$335 not including ticketmaster charges...yep, that's affordable for your middle class person to enjoy 150 minutes of entertainment.