The New Yorker: When Politicians Make Playlists (OBAMA GROUP)
....no politician has been able to spin personal taste into political zeal quite like President Barack Obama. Last week, the White House announced that Obama had joined Spotify, posting two of his personal playlists, one for summer days and the other for nighttime.
Perhaps, as Bernie Sanders harrumphed when asked about his hair, idle focus on the leisure-time enthusiasms of politicians is just a ruse to distract us from what actually matters. But the playlists were a reminder of Obama’s influence on American culture and of the way he has become a sort of lifestyle brand thanks to his Administration’s indefatigable efforts to put him wherever young people might see him, from the late-night establishment and ESPN to the comparatively niche audiences of Vice News, “Between Two Ferns,” and “WTF.” Once, Bill Clinton pantomimed cool by playing the sax on the Arsenio Hall Show; now, we have a President who seems intent on proving that he’s not too cool for the occasional Coldplay song....
My favorite detail from the Obama backstory involves his first date with the future First Lady, when they went to see Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” (A close second: his circa-college affection for the Flying Lizards.) But perhaps that was a different projection of persona for a different political moment. The past is well represented on Obama’s playlists, albeit in a “Big Chill” kind of way. It’s not that I expected to see “Fight the Power” on here. But this is a version of the past that largely sidesteps the anti-establishment edge of post-punk or hip-hop, though Obama has expressed his fondness for these genres. Instead, there are defiant artists captured in their cheeriest, most uplifting poses: Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good,” Mos Def’s “UMI Says.” There’s the Spanish hip-hop of Mala Rodriguez, a salsa workout by Sonora Carruseles. There’s no hat-tip to country music, which almost, in this context, reads as a gesture of micro-defiance.
At a time when so many of our everyday choices get gussied up in the language of “curation,” playlists and d.j.s (particularly celebrity d.j.s) have taken on an elevated role. The playlist has become a kind of biographical shorthand, a way of communicating something essential about ourselves through the performance of taste. Of course, taste and relatability mean something different when they involve someone with drones at his disposal. These are playlists meant to convey a set of values: knowledge of the past, an open ear, an interest in the future. There are the safe, modern-day crowd-pleasers like the Lumineers and Florence and the Machine alongside relative obscurities like Low Cut Connie and Aoife O’Donovan. There is no Linkin Park. And of course there is Beyoncé’s “Superpower,” because even the most powerful leader in the world wouldn’t dare snub the most beloved human on the planet.
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/when-politicians-make-playlists via @newyorker
