Does anyone truly care about what music politicians listen to? POLITICO thinks so.

Yeah, this is dumb and fluffy and asks people to “psychoanalyze” politicians by scrutinizing their playlists. And it’s definitely getting POLITICO some cheap clicks because people are curious. But let’s be serious – does anyone truly care what Chris Christie or Asa Hutchison is listening to? But that is what we got, and when you look at the playlists that were submitted to POLITICO by the campaigns, you can definitely tell that some of them were overthinking this silly exercise.

Also of note – POLITICO says they emailed all the candidates, but not all responded. Funny enough, none of the candidates polling above ten percent participated. So there are no playlists for Joe Biden, Donald Trump, or Ron DeSantis.

The parameters for these politicians was pretty simple: 20 songs, but an artist can only be featured once. Naturally, not everyone followed the rules.

So we sent an email to all the 2024 candidates asking them for their top 20 songs. Not all of them responded, of course, and a few responded with fewer than 20, making us wonder if they’re really in it for the long haul. But there’s plenty to love, disagree with and wonder about in the lists of those who did. If you think someone’s picks can really tell us something about their soul, it’s worth wondering what made Chris Christie choose “Thunder Road” out of all of his beloved Bruce Springsteen’s songs — a track about getting older and “one last chance to make it real.”

We even made their playlists available on Spotify, so you can download the one you like best. (Not all candidates stuck to the rule about not repeating artists, but we forgave the oversight.) We’ll be keeping an eye on whose playlist gets the most downloads, so you can vote on the candidates’ music tastes, even if you don’t plan on voting for the candidate.

Politicians that don’t follow simple rules? Color me shocked. The other rule that wasn’t followed? Some candidates submitted less than 20 songs.

Guess who included not one but two Imagine Dragons songs. https://t.co/EVQ84k8TBj

— Dylon Jones (@tdylon_jones) September 6, 2023

Anyway, POLITICO published what they did get. You can examine the lists for yourselves if you are so inclined, but I will point out a couple of things about each candidate’s playlist, and note what the “newest” song on each list is, because I do think that has something to do with each candidate’s age or appeal.

Chris Christie is trying to be a walking New Jersey sterotype with his Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi selections. The newest song on his list is Ed Sheeran’s “Castle on the Hill,” which was released in 2017.

Nikki Haley’s list is the most ecletic, and not very believable, honestly. Her list looks like her late millennial/early Gen Z adult children got to her playlist, and she just picked things that she heard them play on college breaks. Which, if she had owned it as “mom picks,” would be a fair choice, but about half her list looks like she asked her kids, “what was that one song you liked in the summer of 2019?” and added it to the to the playlist to send to POLITICO. The newest song on her list appears to be “Fast Car” by Luke Combs, which was released just this summer, but is a cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 song. Nikki, just own the mom vibe, please.

Vivek Ramaswamy is trying too hard to please everyone – which seems to be a recurring theme with him. He only provided eight songs, including “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, which he infamously rapped onstage in Iowa, which Eminem later complained about.

This playlist is clearly trying to push the “I am everything to everyone” vibe, with selections by Mozart (oooh, classical as a nod to the intellectuals), Eminem, Imagine Dragons (twice), Woody Guthrie (shoutout for the communists, I guess), Aerosmith, Fall Out Boy, and Dolly Parton. Is there any group he missed on this list? The Imagine Dragons songs Ramaswamy chose are both from the same album, released in 2017. Which means that his honest pick is the single Imagine Dragons album, and everything else just feels like pandering. Imagine how much more pandering he would have done if he’d provided 20 songs. Yikes.

Let’s be honest – no one cares about Will Hurd, or Asa Hutchison’s playlists. Hurd’s list looks like a late Gen X attempt to stay up on current music by choosing Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift. And Hurd doesn’t even have kids that he can blame for that. Asa Hutchison’s list of only eight songs looks like it was a stretch, with the “newest” release being “Stack O Lee” by John Oates, which was released in 2018, but is actually a cover of a folk song that was apparently originally recorded in 1923. Why is Hutchison’s list a stretch? “Get the Party Started” by Pink is on the list, and I don’t believe that Asa Hutchison could pick a Pink song out of a lineup.

Larry Elder has exactly zero shot at the nomination, but his playlist is probably the most honest. Maybe it’s all those years of hosting radio talk shows that makes his list feel the most authentic. Also, 19 of his 20 songs are from the 20th century, with only “Wake Up Everybody” by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes checking in from 2010.

Hilariously, Cornel West actually submitted four songs to the playlist request, and these are just as authentic picks as Larry Elder’s, though he sort of cheats by selecting “A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane, which was an entire album. West stuck to the 20th century with no exceptions, with “The Caravan of Love” by the Isley Brothers being the newest release on the list, as it was originally released in 1985.

Now, some have had fun by guessing at what Joe Biden, Donald Trump, or Ron DeSantis might have chosen. And there definitely is something to be said for knowing someone’s musical preferences, because we all have them. But that’s the problem with these lists! Most of these have strong “how do you do, fellow kids?” vibes to them, which makes them deeply inauthentic and useless. Why can’t these politicians just be honest about their musical tastes? I mean, my playlist is basically John Williams movie soundtracks, and whatever my youngest requests to listen to in the car (because I am apparently his personal DJ, and he is on a Weird Al kick right now, and he also will belt out “Peaches” from “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” at the drop of a hat as well. My Spotify playlist at the end of the year is always weird). Would it really be a problem if a candidate said “sorry, I really haven’t been up on popular music since high school, but here’s what I loved then”? I think that we would at least respect honesty when it comes to musical preferences, even if we laughed at certain choices. But instead, we are given carefully curated and focus-group tested lists.

And lest you think that only presidential candidates have playlist problems, let’s have a look at Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, who tried to prove to the students of America that he was so, so cool… and ended up having to delete his entire tweet and run for it.

I wonder why the U.S. Secretary of Education just deleted this tweet pic.twitter.com/KXU8zo8TA8

— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) September 5, 2023

First, does anyone believe that Miguel Cardona really loves hip-hop? HAHAHAHAHA. Of course not, this was classic political pandering. But it backfired in a huge way, because, um… those songs are not exactly what we want elementary kids hearing, let alone high schoolers singing.

American children:

“We can’t read!”

Secretary Cardona:

“Out o' town, put it down for the Father of Rap
And if yo' a** get cracked, b*****, shut your trap
Come back, get back, that's the part of success.” (- Dr. Dre) pic.twitter.com/fHkXJ9uv9L

— RachelReneeReeves (@RachelReneeRee1) September 5, 2023

So Cardona deleted it and tried to forget it ever happened.

Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona deleted a tweet Tuesday showing his music playlist for his bus tour after backlash from education advocates, who expressed concerns about the profanity and sexual references in the songs.

Cardona, who is currently on a bus tour visiting schools and students around the country, posted a list of songs by artists like Dr. Dre, Big Pun, Biggie Smalls and Drake that he is listening to while on the road.

The tweet was deleted shortly afterward, however, following criticism from education advocates, who were concerned about the songs’ references to “d*ck,” “motherf**kers,” “hoes” and other sexual references and profanity, according to several tweets.

The cringe comes from both sides of the aisle, everyone. How about the politicians stop with the music playlists, and maybe focus on convincing voters why they are the best person for the job? Yes, this was fluff and it was supposed to be fun. But still, these people are running for president. The bigger dumbass was Miguel Cardona, who actually thought his list was a good idea until someone pointed out the lyrics – which just proved that he was a gigantic liar in the first place. Does he let his kids listen to this stuff? If only Peter Doocy could get a chance to ask him that question.

Featured image via Megan_Rexazin on Pixabay, Pixabay license