UP Elections 2022 - How music campaigns dominated communication...

As the D-day for UP Elections 2022 draws closer, we take a look at how various political parties are leveraging music for their campaigns – tapping into the roots of local culture with regional artists and dialects.

In the last few years, digital has become an integral part of the media mix for political campaigns. According to a TAM AdEx report on UP Elections, 31% of the political ads were executed on the digital medium during December 2021. This year, with a ban on physical rallies and gatherings in the poll-bound states, political parties are leveraging digital mediums with a focus on music as a content format. This ranges from jingles to full-fledged anthems. As a result, UP Elections 2022 has seen an uptick in music campaigns.

Local parties that have not been very active on digital media too found their way on social media platforms, in light of the ban on on-ground rallies. A number of musical campaigns were released across WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. The benefit of musical campaigns lies in the fact that they're easy to consume and have high dark media value - ranging from WhatsApp forwards to the audience being able to create their own versions of songs.

With the musical campaigns, political parties are going all out to engage the millennials and young India, wooing the maximum number of voters to exercise their right to vote.

We take a look at some of the common themes that stand out, as more and more musical campaigns enter the content pool.

Thematic Approach

In a bid to establish a distinct place amidst various political parties battling it out in UP elections 2022, many political parties are adopting a thematic approach while launching the music jingles for campaigns. 

On one hand, where Congress releases its jingle focused on women's power with ‘Ladki Hun Ladd Sakti Hu’, the newly formed Azad Samaj Party highlights the struggles of Kanshi Ram and the idea of Bahujan through a song by Nisha Bouddh.

Musical Debates

Apart from highlighting their USPs, and aiming to make a difference through several initiatives, the parties are leveraging the music jingles to call out the ruling party with direct lyrics in a combat mode.

While Samajwadi Party released ‘Khadedha Huibe’ with local artists, Congress lashed out at the ruling party with ‘Behan Priyanka Aaayengi, BJP Toh Jayegi’, in the voice of Sumit Yadav Lala, as part of the UP elections 2022.

Keeping a similar tonality, BJP also launched its musical " target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">campaign with ‘Chaahe Jitna Zor Laga Lo, Aayenge Fir Yogi Hi’ in the voice of Dinesh Lal Yadav.

Celebrity Connect & Digital Wars

Another large part of these campaigns is utilizing prominent celebrities and influencers with regional connect for reach and engagement through raps and music. In one of the instances, Neha Kumar Rathore is seen questioning the ruling party while highlighting some key issues with ‘UP Mein Ka Ba’. 

As the song by the independent artist ensues a digital war of words, actor and singer, Ravi Kishan shared another song video as a response with ‘UP Mein Sab Ba’, promoting the tenure and initiatives of the incumbent political party.

Connect Through Dialect

The songs questioning and responding to the initiatives deployed in the past few years in the State have been specifically kept in the Bhojpuri dialect. From a strategic point, the local dialects for election songs help the political parties to connect with rural masses of the targeted regions. Here, both the parties seem to have targeted the entire Uttar Pradesh with a focus on regions like Purvanchal.

Further, other than Bhojpuri, some parties have adopted other local dialects spoken in UP like Awadhi and Khadi Boli.

Also read: Jacinda Ardern & Political Communication via Instagram

Capitalizing Popular Songs

At UP elections 2022, some political parties launched song campaigns on popular tunes like ‘Manike Mage Hithe’, amongst others. The idea is to leverage tunes that are already famous and connect with the audience associated with them.

Songs Around Problem Solving

One of the prominent trends around musical campaigns was tackling the challenges faced by the citizens of the city and how the leaders would fix the problems if they rise to power. Samajwadi Party launched multiple songs highlighting how things would resolve if they won the UP elections 2022 with songs like ‘Janata Pukarti Hai’. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on the other hand, highlighted the state’s security with a series of songs that intended to establish the return of Behanji as the apt leader for one and all.

New Entrants...

Political parties contesting for the first time are utilizing the song campaigns to make their entry and highlight how things will be different and better if they win the election.

Aam Aadmi Party or AAP contesting in the state for the first time has launched its theme song on these lines with a message of transformation. The song is titled, ‘Rajniti Ko Badalne AAP Aaya Hai, Pehli Baar Jhadu Chaap Aaya Hai’ by Lokesh.

From local artists to local dialects, political parties have tapped into the roots of the UP culture. The music elements help parties create communication that is snackable and shareable, strengthening the trend of musical content for political communication.