In this year's presidential primary race, campaign music, a cornerstone of many candidates' rallies, has been less than "Yankee Doodle" dandy.

Candidates have used songs to rally support for more than a century, J. Michael Hogan, professor of communication arts and sciences, said.

Originally, campaign music was an updated version of an old song, with lyrics changed to promote a candidate. For his 1996 presidential campaign, Bob Dole altered the lyrics of Sam and Dave's "Soul Man" for his campaign anthem, "Dole Man."

Songs utilized by candidates were originally jingles made specifically for the campaign, Hogan said.

Current candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama haven't changed songs to create personal tunes, but they have used music in their campaigns.

Clinton has been using Celine Dion's "You and I;" McCain has tried John Mellencamp hits; and Obama has been playing Ben Harper's "Better Way."

Music is only a small aspect of what many campaigning groups use to advertise their candidate, Michael Stewart, head of the Penn State group Students for Barack Obama, said.

"It's like selling a product," Stewart (sophomore-political science and sociology) said. "Music is just one of those tools that people can associate with."

Nancy Love, associate professor of political science, speech and women's studies, said the "media-saturated society" makes campaign songs more accessible. A good song, she said, can be a powerful tool for swaying emotions.

"Candidates use songs to mobilize voters and reach them at the gut level," she said.

Current candidates who have tried to reach voters "at the gut level" have been criticized for their choices.

Clinton's use of Dion's "You and I," which is about flying and love, was criticized by the Los Angeles Times, which called it a "campaign blunder" because of the fact that Dion is a Canadian songstress, not a fellow American.

McCain was using John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses" and "Our Country" during his campaign. When Mellencamp, a vocal Democrat, found out, he asked McCain to stop.

Jack Vickrey, College Republicans vice president, first said he hadn't heard of McCain's campaign song controversy.

After listening to the songs, he concluded, "John McCain has great taste in music." Vickrey added that he's more interested in candidates' issues, not their playlists. "I don't really care about what people use," he said, "as long as it's not anti-American."

If candidates are going to use someone else's work, the artist should be "compensated in some way or at least asked permission," Paul Barsom, associate professor of music, said.

Candidates are using music inappropriately and are not paying attention to the lyrics or subtleties of what the artist is actually saying, he said.

"I have yet to see a candidate use music in a way that wasn't deprecating," he added.

Though music may not be proven to significantly impact a campaign, it can have a greater negative impact if they choose the wrong music, Samantha Miller, College Democrats spokeswoman, said. Miller said she hadn't heard of Clinton's campaign song.

Controversial campaign music is not just a thing of the present. Ronald Reagan evoked Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." in his 1984 campaign without Springsteen's consent, declaring the song, which wrestled lyrically with the Vietnam War, a message of hope. Barsom called the "Born in the U.S.A." situation a perfect example of candidates misusing music for their campaigns.

If candidates are using campaign music to reign in the younger voting population, it may not be as effective as they hoped, Hogan said.

"Both George McGovern and Howard Dean had the vote among the younger population, but it did not help them out in the end," he said.

The usefulness of campaign music as a tool of persuasion is questionable, Hogan said.

"I'm not convinced that [campaign songs] change people's minds, but they are good at mobilizing," Hogan said.

Regardless of the persuasiveness of their campaign songs, Barsom said candidates should choose them carefully.

"If you are going to use art, you better know something about it," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.