Democrats are undoubtedly counting on these superstars to cash in on the rain… but there's also a lot to be said for the modest choices that did enrich the convention with smart musical choices, from Jason Isbell to Lil Jon to Pink.

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

Under any other circumstances, if there was a widespread rumor — reportedly confirmed by legitimate news sources — that Beyoncé would perform at an internationally televised event, only to have the evening pass without any mention or trace of her, it would feel disheartening. But that airy sound you heard across the country on Thursday night wasn’t the sound of a whiff … it was a mass sigh of relief. (I’m guessing that feeling would be more universally shared than not, anyway.) The news journalist in me was hoping that she or Taylor Swift would appear at the Democratic National Convention; the political pragmatist who actually cares about this election was praying that the two of them would make it a C-SPAN-and-chill night. Part of the smarts of being a superstar is recognizing those moments when the world says it wants you but really doesn’t, not right now, anyway.

This Democratic National Convention was exceptionally well produced, and that extends to a treatment of star performers that, for lack of a better term, might be called conservative. There were big stars, but not too big — no offense to Pink, who is currently headlining stadiums but who knows as well as any of us that her nicely placed acoustic number is not going to dominate the news cycle. (Though it was fun to speculate that Kamala Harris might make a trapeze-like entrance with the pop star.) The inherent dangers are in the overshadowing, but also in the inevitable backlash against a glut of “Hollywood elites.” Producers Ricky Kershner and Glenn Weiss’s approach to using entertainers in general and musicians in particular seemed to be to sprinkle them lightly, just for flavor . . . and for just enough cachet to gently remind viewers that the vast majority of people in the art world are on your side. In another year, they might have had to stuff themselves. But as everyone in this group, Scott Jennings, would have to admit, in 2024 the DNC had a surplus of rock stars, with the oration genre spearheading Spotify.