Remember that the Whitehouse released President Obama’s 2013 Inauguration playlist?  Did he really listen to this playlist on his iPod?

You know things have really “progressed” when a person’s playlist becomes part of his political personna.  I can see a future Presidential candidate being assigned his “campaign playlist” by his campaign manager.  Does he have to claim that he actually likes every song on the list, or even that he has listened to every one of them?

Imagine some big-city gal who utterly hates Country Music, and she especially detests Tammy Wynette’s music.  If she is the sort of person who throws up in her mouth every time she hears “Stand By Your Man”, but must have it on her playlist in order to placate Southern voters, well, you can imagine all sorts of scenarios for disaster.

People are going to want to play those playlist tunes for the candidate, imagining that she likes hearing it.

President Obama’s Playlist

And here we go:

1. “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” Stevie Wonder
2. “I Was Here” Beyoncé
3. “Mi Gente” Marc Anthony
4. “Carry On” Fun
5. “New Day” Alicia Keys
6. “Mud On The Tires” Brad Paisley
7. “Turn Up The Love” Far East Movement, Cover Drive
8. “Edge of Glory” Glee Cast
9. “Your Smiling Face” James Taylor
10. “Ordinary People” John Legend
11. “Firework” Katy Perry
12. “Breakaway” Kelly Clarkson
13. “My Mic featuring Biz Markie” Nick Cannon
14. “Something Special” Usher
15. “Higher and Higher” Walt Whitman, The Soul Children of Chicago
16. “Get Ready” Smokey Robinson
17. “Future” Mindless Behavior

I found this list on Time’s Entertainment website.

Now, I am familiar with most of the songs on the President’s playlist, and I like many of them.  Does this give me a greater sense of connection to the President?  No, not really, but neither does it make me less connected.

But I especially like #17 on the list.  Well, not that I have ever heard this particular musical item, but I enjoy the juxtaposition of those particular words: a song titled “Future”, by a group called Mindless Behavior.  On the President’s playlist.  Do I need to explain the joke?  I hope not.

And just in case you’re a fan of President Obama, I am sure that even if you get the joke you are not particularly pleased with it.  In that event, please consider what you would have said if that song had been on President Bush’s playlist.  What would you have thought in that case?

Firework

I enjoy Katy Perry’s song Firework, although I am slightly annoyed with the one gay reference in the music video — why ruin a perfectly upbeat message with unnecessary controversy?  But the image of colorful fireworks shooting from the various characters’ hearts as they realize that they have within themselves exciting potentialities was very moving in a lot of ways.  Brings tears to my eyes actually.

I felt especially moved by the scene of the bald little girl in the hospital for cancer treatment inadvertantly watching a mother in the process of giving birth — with the fireworks shooting from the mother’s tummy.  I am a sucker for mommy’s and babies anyway, and this just added to the piquancy.  See it at about 2:00:

I can listen to this song over and over.  If President Obama actually likes this song, then I am pleased.

Future by Mindless Behavior

I finally had a listen to this on YouTube, and it turns out to be a romantic hip-hop ballad.  I was surprised to find it kinda sweet.  Awwww.   Click on the title above for a listen.  You won’t dislike it, I’m pretty sure.

I still stand by the joke above, however.  It’s too good to pass up.