Music in the 2024 Presidential Election Campaign as a Promotional Medium

Abstract

This study examines the use of music in the 2024 Indonesian Presidential Election campaign as a form of artistic practice involving social participation (socially engaged art), by analyzing the tension between its potential as a tool for collective mobilization and its risk of becoming a depoliticizing spectacle. Using a comparative case study of three major campaign strategies, namely the participatory-creative approach of Anies–Muhaimin, the populist mass mobilization of Ganjar–Mahfud, and the co-optation of fan communities by Prabowo–Gibran, this article argues that campaign music performances operate within an ambiguous space. Through the theoretical framework of Aleksandr Bogdanov, Claire Bishop, and François Matarasso, the analysis demonstrates how music effectively organizes affective collectivities (Bogdanov) and strengthens social bonds (Matarasso). However, the participation produced is often trapped in what Bishop terms an “artificial hell,” where intense aesthetic experiences replace critical political deliberation and participation is reduced to passive consumption. This study concludes that although campaign music succeeds in forming partisan social bonds, its instrumental impact has the potential to deepen political polarization. Thus, this practice functions as a central arena in which the boundary between authentic cultural participation and managed political mobilization is negotiated, carrying significant implications for democratic health in the digital era.