theweekmagazine: President Obama’s Spotify playlist: 7 things it says about his campaign Obama’s trying to hit all key demographicsObama’s “the first candidate to have waged a truly effective social media-based presidential campaign,” says Devon Maloney in Spin. So it’s no surprise he embraced Spotify, or that his eclectic mix “basically represents the president’s entire constituency.” The baby boomers get a little James Taylor, Gen X gets some U2 and REO Speedwagon, and “people with questionable taste everywhere” get ex-Hootie frontman Darius Rucker, says Nitasha Tiku in BetaBeat. The indie rock selections, from the likes of Arcade Fire, are “a blatant pander to twenty-somethings,” adds David A. Graham in The Atlantic. And Wilco? “Dad-rockers are basically Obama’s key demographic: Well-to-do, suburban, educated, and (probably) moderate Democrats politically.”     The country tunes are a sop to white blue-collar votersA whopping 25 percent of the playlist “unsurprisingly — and perhaps a bit panderingly” consists of country tunes, says Brian Braiker in The Guardian. The artists — Darius Rucker, Sugarland, Dierks Bentley, and the Zac Brown Band — are all “inoffensive roots-rockers loudly signaling the point: ‘Obama is a patriot!’” The country picks “tend to be patriotic, small-town-America-celebrating songs,” says The Atlantic’s Graham. Clearly, “the president knows he needs to firm up his support among white working-class voters.” But where are the rap and hip hop?Soul and R&B is the genre most highly represented, from Aretha Franklin and Al Green to newer singers like Raphael Saadiq. Glaringly absent? Hip hop, says L.V. Anderson in Slate. Obama’s said he likes the Fugees, Jay-Z, Nas, and Lil Wayne, but depressingly, I guess “the sting of Fox’s dog-whistle headline from last summer — ‘Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs’ — hasn’t yet worn off.” Whatever the political risk, says The Washington Post’s Richards, surely at least “one rap song in this great nation… would have been suitable for the president’s mix.” And the Latin artists? And the women?

theweekmagazine:

President Obama’s Spotify playlist: 7 things it says about his campaign

  • Obama’s trying to hit all key demographics
    Obama’s “the first candidate to have waged a truly effective social media-based presidential campaign,” says Devon Maloney in Spin. So it’s no surprise he embraced Spotify, or that his eclectic mix “basically represents the president’s entire constituency.” The baby boomers get a little James Taylor, Gen X gets some U2 and REO Speedwagon, and “people with questionable taste everywhere” get ex-Hootie frontman Darius Rucker, says Nitasha Tiku in BetaBeat. The indie rock selections, from the likes of Arcade Fire, are “a blatant pander to twenty-somethings,” adds David A. Graham in The Atlantic. And Wilco? “Dad-rockers are basically Obama’s key demographic: Well-to-do, suburban, educated, and (probably) moderate Democrats politically.”    
  • The country tunes are a sop to white blue-collar voters
    A whopping 25 percent of the playlist “unsurprisingly — and perhaps a bit panderingly” consists of country tunes, says Brian Braiker in The Guardian. The artists — Darius Rucker, Sugarland, Dierks Bentley, and the Zac Brown Band — are all “inoffensive roots-rockers loudly signaling the point: ‘Obama is a patriot!’” The country picks “tend to be patriotic, small-town-America-celebrating songs,” says The Atlantic’s Graham. Clearly, “the president knows he needs to firm up his support among white working-class voters.”
  • But where are the rap and hip hop?
    Soul and R&B is the genre most highly represented, from Aretha Franklin and Al Green to newer singers like Raphael Saadiq. Glaringly absent? Hip hop, says L.V. Anderson in Slate. Obama’s said he likes the Fugees, Jay-Z, Nas, and Lil Wayne, but depressingly, I guess “the sting of Fox’s dog-whistle headline from last summer — ‘Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs’ — hasn’t yet worn off.” Whatever the political risk, says The Washington Post’s Richards, surely at least “one rap song in this great nation… would have been suitable for the president’s mix.”

And the Latin artists? And the women?

theweek.com

25 notes

Show

  1. oxmedia reblogged this from theweekmagazine
  2. untitled-mag reblogged this from theweekmagazine
  3. inthenightwhereilive reblogged this from theweekmagazine
  4. viviano reblogged this from theweekmagazine
  5. vincekg reblogged this from theweekmagazine
  6. ap1pel reblogged this from theweekmagazine
  7. fembutchily reblogged this from theweekmagazine and added:
    spotify playlist. Politics, man.
  8. animinimalism reblogged this from theweekmagazine
  9. knightriderradio reblogged this from theweekmagazine
  10. theweekmagazine posted this

Blog comments powered by Disqus