Last Friday, President Obama tweeted out the links to Spotify playlists for his summer vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Each list — “Day” and “Night” — consists of 20 songs from a wide variety of genres from folk to hip-hop to jazz.
Quickly, the playlists led to internet posts about which intern was in charge of compiling the 40 tracks, if the “night” playlist was the President’s “summer sex playlist,” and his snubbing of One Direction.
The 40 tracks offer a good mix of fun music for the summer (Howlin Wolf – “Wang Dang Doodle” and Sly & the Family Stone – “Hot Fun in the Summertime”), folksy love songs (Leonard Cohen – “Suzanne” and Joni Mitchell – “Help Me”), indie faves (Okkervill River – “Down Down the Deep River” and The Lumineers – “Stubborn Love”), R&B powerhouses (Beyonce – “Superpower”, Mary J. Blige – “I Found My Everything,” and Lauryn Hill – “Nothing Even Matters”), and Coldplay. Yes, Coldplay.
Due to popular request, here are my vacation playlists: http://t.co/uer5sIl4Vk http://t.co/zHEekHvQBr What’s your favorite summer song?
— President Obama (@POTUS) August 14, 2015
A quick look at the playlists, and one could easily dismiss them as Obama having a fun time putting some of his favorite songs together for Spotify. But a closer look reveals that at least some thought went into these selections. What President Obama did was create a mixtape to America with these playlists.
He loves this country, and sometimes it doesn’t love him back, but dammit, he’s going to try to make things better for the future. He’s that lovestruck boy in love who can’t, or doesn’t know how to, convey his message of love, so he’ll get some help from Billie Holliday, Otis Redding, and Frank Sinatra to win his love over.
Aside from the unrequited love, though, there may be an even deeper meaning for the inclusion of these five tracks from the playlists:
Bob Marley – “So Much Trouble in the World”
The first song from Marley’s 1979 album, Survival, doesn’t feel like a hopeful tune: “So you think you found the solution/It’s just an illusion.” When Americans turn on the news all they currently see is trouble — ISIS, Syria, our own domestic issues — and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight, only escalation, and quite possibly that escalation is inevitable.
Mala Rodriguez – Tengo Un Trato
It might be easy to dismiss this track as Obama trying to win over the Latin community, and that may be true, but Spanish hip-hop star Rodriguez has a career built on songs about social issues. For some, “Tengo Un Trato” may be checking off a requirement for the playlists, but it wasn’t a safe pick for Obama.
https://youtu.be/phxNVx3Jyq0
Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote “Gimme Shelter” in 1969 while Vietnam War protests and race riots tore apart the United States and created wounds we’re still working to heal. With the recent rise in protest from the Occupy movement to Black Lives Matter, this track from the classic album, Let It Bleed, with its bridge featuring Merry Clayton belting out “Rape, murder!/It’s just a shot away” seems apropos.
https://youtu.be/J7boL1EkW7M
Mos Def – Umi Says
Back in 2008, then-Senator Obama gave a Father’s Day speech to a church in Chicago about the responsibility of fatherhood, and he has touched on the subject several times since during his presidency. On Mos Def’s “Umi Says,” the Brooklyn born rapper — now known as Yasiin Bey — struggles with being a father and husband in this short time we have on earth: “I feel like a man, going insane, losing my brain/Trying to maintain, doing my thang.”
https://youtu.be/OfJRX-8SXOs
Nina Simone – Feeling Good
While this song has been covered by numerous artists since Simone recorded it for her 1965 album, I Put A Spell On You, the song originally appeared a year earlier in the musical, The Roar of Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd. This triumphant song of victory was sung by a character named The Negro after he defeated the musical’s main characters, Cocky and Sir, at their own made-up game with constantly changing rules.
Outside of these five songs, there are other tracks that could have different interpretations outside of a regular summer playlist including Bob Dylan’s “Tombstone Blues,” Al Green’s “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” and John Coltrane’s version of “My Favorite Things.”
These two playlists are just the latest example that a president can no longer only stand at podiums and make speeches, and President Obama continues to create the blueprint for how future presidents should handle the ever-changing world of media, and how information is disseminated to the public. With the 2016 election only 14 months away, we could see new media-savvy candidates take this blueprint and use it on their way to Washington and capitol buildings across the country.
