Music Stars line up to endorse Barack Obama for USA President

Here's a small list of some of Barack's supporters from the music industry:

Bruce Springsteen
Toby Keith
Nelly
Moby
Bono
Kanye West
Chris Daughtrey
Death Cab For Cutie
Rage Against The Machine


Here's a New York Times article on musicians performing at the Democratic National Convention in Denver:

August 23, 2008
Pop Stars to Descend on Democratic Convention to Party and Politic
By BEN SISARIO

The first big circled date on the national concert calendar this year was in March, for the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Tex. Then came Coachella in April, Bonnaroo in June and Lollapalooza in early August, each drawing tens of thousands to varied, overflowing lineups.

And the next festival highlight is ... the Democratic National Convention?

A certain amount of celebrity glow has long been a part of both political parties’ gatherings. But thanks in part to the youthful charisma of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee, the Democratic convention, which begins on Monday in Denver, is shaping up as an unlikely hot spot for the music world, with multiplatinum rappers, indie-rock scenesters, D.J.’s and Jennifer Lopez arriving by the van- and private planeload to perform, rally or schmooze with the political elite.

“It’s the Sundance Film Festival for politicos,” said Laura Dawn, the cultural director of MoveOn.org, who also happens to sing with Moby. “It’s a really intense festival atmosphere with a lot of parties.”

Kanye West will be there on Wednesday for a party sponsored by the Recording Industry Association of America and One, the antipoverty campaign founded by Bono. That night the Black Eyed Peas will perform for the Creative Coalition. Fall Out Boy will play for Rock the Vote on Monday, and the reunited Rage Against the Machine will do a free show at the Denver Coliseum on Wednesday.

Those are just the big shows. Members of the band Death Cab for Cutie are booked for acoustic performances, Moby will be spinning records at late-night parties, and various outdoor shows will align rock and hip-hop acts with on-the-ground activists.

“People feel comfortable expressing themselves in an artistic way at this convention more than they ever have,” said Kimball Stroud, a founder of the Impact Film Festival, which will screen documentaries at both conventions. “I don’t recall another convention where hip-hop artists were embraced like they are.”

For all but the most connected fans, however, getting into the shows will be a challenge. Many are at private parties given by lobbyists and charities; even at the events that do not explicitly bar the general public, any spots not occupied by political insiders will probably be scooped up by the 15,000 expected members of the news media.

The music industry also knows how to take advantage of a big moment for promotional purposes. In an e-mail message to music journalists, a publicist for the rapper Murs noted his client’s coming album and convention schedule, adding, “If you will be at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and would like to do something with Warner Brothers Recording artist Murs, please e-mail me back.”

Chris Daughtry, the “American Idol” rock singer, is playing both conventions with his band and taking a strictly nonpartisan stance. “We’re not trying to tell someone who to vote for,” he said, “as much as we are saying, ‘Hey, just get out there and have your voice heard.’ ”

Just who will hear Mr. Daughtry’s message is hard to say. On Tuesday at the Democratic convention, he is playing a private fund-raising event for the Grammy Foundation. (His performance at the Republican convention, on Sept. 3, is presented by the Recording Industry Association and One. It is also private.)

Plenty about the music and entertainment at the conventions remains unclear to performers and local businesspeople, from attendance numbers to the events’ political efficacy.

One of the biggest musical events in Denver will be the Rage Against the Machine concert, part of an antiwar rally by Iraq Veterans Against the War and Tent State, a group of student protesters. Eight thousand tickets will be given away by lottery, and a spokeswoman for the concert said that she was planning for as many as 40,000 to apply.

But not everyone in Denver is expecting large numbers of young people to come through town for the festivities. “I don’t think a lot of kids are going to come in for the music,” said Chuck Morris, a veteran concert promoter and the president of the local branch of the national music company AEG Live.

Nathan Willett, lead singer of Cold War Kids, an indie-rock band from Long Beach, Calif., that is playing a public outdoor show on Wednesday for MoveOn, said he supported Senator Obama and was particularly interested in his education policy. But he also said he questioned the influence rock bands can have on voters.

“I wonder how many people who were going to vote for McCain are now going to vote for Obama because they know that Death Cab likes him,” Mr. Willett said. “A lot of these bands are preaching to the choir.”

Politics aside, the musical and other artistic attractions at the convention are likely to make it simply an important pop-culture pit stop.

Greg Lucas, who works with ArcheDream, an experimental dance group from Philadelphia, said that his group was shuttling between the convention and Burning Man, the freewheeling arts festival in the Nevada desert. Before appearing there, ArcheDream will perform in Denver on Tuesday at a party for the Impact Film Festival, as part of a lineup that screams strange bedfellows: it also features Nelly, the St. Louis rapper who has won three Grammy Awards and sold 20 million albums.

“Nothing will surprise me coming directly from Burning Man,” Mr. Lucas said. “But I think that this will be just as surreal and psychedelic.”


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