Artists Lend Voices to Obama Campaign

The Democratic nominee inspires acts from Dylan to Lil Wayne

The night Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination for president, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong found himself experiencing an unfamiliar emotion: hope. "After his acceptance speech, I have to admit, it took me an hour to get the lump out of my throat," says Armstrong, whose band's American Idiot was the defining protest album of the Bush years. "Obama inspires people, and this country needs inspiration. People are jaded, pissed off and embarrassed."

who rarely makes direct political statements of any kind, said that Obama is "redefining the nature of politics from the ground up." "What Dylan said was mind-blowing," says Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz. "It's like, I don't really need to talk about Obama anymore if Bob Dylan's talking about him."

Dylan,

But will musicians' advocacy help Obama's candidacy — or hurt it? "The danger for Obama is if one of these musicians says something stupid