Jump on the bandwagon and climb on the bandwagon mean support a popular, fashionable or successful idea or person. The idiom jump on the bandwagon is derived from a circus marketing ploy of the 1800s. When a circus came to town, the various acts and performers would parade down Main Street in order to call attention to their impending show. One of the participants in the circus parade was the bandwagon, a wagon which carried the circus band as it played music. By the late 1800s, politicians began to use bandwagons in order to drum up interest in their campaigns. Various supporters would ride on the bandwagons with the politician, and the term jump on the bandwagon came to mean someone who supported a certain politician. Today the term may apply to any popular person, idea or fashion that people flock to support.
Examples
We have previously called for regulations of drones, so we were all ready to jump on the bandwagon and back the legislative effort headed by state Sen. Richard Gudex, R-Fond du Lac, to stop this potential airborne crime wave. (The Sacramento Bee)
Even though only the S6 and S6 Edge have started receiving the update, it is just a matter of days before the Galaxy S6 Edge+ and the Galaxy Note 5 jump on the bandwagon in South Korea, according to Sam Mobile. (The International Business Times)
Maybe when people resist change, it’s not because they are stubborn or old-fashioned, but because there is something going on in the workplace that makes it difficult for them to jump on the bandwagon. (The Globe and Mail)
He built a reputation for finding guys in Los Angeles nobody had heard of before and offering them scholarships, only to see Pac-12 schools catch wind, jump on the bandwagon and do their best to steal them away. (The Arizona Daily Star)