This year's presidential election has been obsessed about and analyzed by every media outlet in the world. Not wanting to be left out, I've decided to use this week's column to analyze each candidate's top 10 songs, as publicized by Blender magazine this July.
Obama's list shows a wide variety of genres and styles. Any list that includes the Fugees, Kanye West, Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, the Rolling Stones and U2 is pretty balanced and complex.
However, McCain counters with a broad musical range of his own with a list that reaches from ABBA to Merle Haggard, Louis Armstrong to Roy Orbison.
Obama's list centers primarily on music with political messages, though he includes songs about sleeping with another man's girlfriend (I'm On Fire"") and idealizing the future of your relationship (""You'd Be So Easy to Love""). McCain's list, meanwhile, has no discernible theme, though he does manage to choose a Beach Boys song that isn't about burning gasoline. However, McCain loses points for repeating a band. The universally accepted rules of list-making clearly stipulates that, in lists shorter than 15, repeating a band is unacceptable. Of course, to make matters worse, the repeating band is ABBA. The rest of his list, however, is quite strong, including Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, the Platters and Neil Diamond.
But the tipping point is trying to imagine either candidate listening to their top 10 after a grueling day of kissing babies and posing in front of flags. I can easily imagine Barack and Michelle gliding smoothly across the kitchen floor with ""You'd Be So Easy To Love"" softly coming from the speakers. By this standard, the only dent in Obama's list is ""Yes We Can"" by Will.i.am, a song that uses a recording of an Obama speech as the lyrics. I can't help but picture Obama enjoying this song in front of an enchanted mirror and asking questions like, ""Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the most inspirational of them all?""
McCain's list, on the other hand, is far more difficult to connect to the man. I can see him singing ""Sweet Caroline"" under his breath and snapping his fingers to the beat, and it's easy to see him looking off into the distance in some presidential pose while ""What a Wonderful World"" plays in the background. But, again, ABBA ruins the whole list for me. I cannot help but see McCain dressed in hot pants and a sweatshirt hanging off of one shoulder, wildly gyrating to ""Dancing Queen"" on top of the Straight Talk Express.
All things considered, the lists reflect the rest of the campaign. Both lists are quality lists, as are both candidates. The lists come from very different backgrounds, come from different time periods and have different goals, as do the candidates. Both lists have questionable songs, and I doubt many voters completely agree with either candidate. Which list will prevail? That is up to you, nation.
What tunes would a presidential playlist need to swing your vote? Send them to Dale at dpmundt@wisc.edu.
