Instantly rendering Mitt Romney’s weekly “Ray Conniff Record Party” residency sort of old-fashioned, Barack Obama has become the President of Spotify, expanding his already-considerable online presence to an account with the popular music streaming service. The announcement was made via Obama’s Tumblr—which, like his Instagram, is not a joke—and came complete with the President’s first-ever official playlist, featuring selections from his 2012 campaign staff as well as “a few of Obama’s favorites.”
Of course, the playlist doesn’t say which among the following songs are actually Obama’s jams (except for “Let’s Stay Together”), which of them are songs chosen specifically for their reelection-evoking titles or to pander to as broad a heartland audience as possible (besides Sugarland, obviously), or who the hell put Ricky Martin on there. So you’ll just have make your own guesses, and then politicize his choices as you see fit. However, what is pretty clear is that someone, possibly Obama himself, really, really loves ex-Hootie And The Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker, who might be able to wrangle himself a Cabinet position if he just keeps on knocking ‘em out of the park, man.
Obama’s Mix-tape For America:
Raphael Saadiq, “Keep Marchin’”
Noah And The Whale, “Tonight’s The Kind Of Night”
Bruce Springsteen, “We Take Care Of Our Own”
Zac Brown Band, “Keep Me In Mind”
Aretha Franklin, “The Weight”
U2, “Even Better Than The Real Thing”
Ricky Martin, “The Best Thing About Me Is You (feat. Joss Stone)”
Dierks Bentley, “Home”
Ray LaMontagne, “You Are The Best Thing”
Earth Wind And Fire, “Got To Get You Into My Life (Live)”
Booker T & The MG’s, “Green Onions”
Wilco, “I Got You”
The Impressions, “Keep On Pushing”
Dreamgirls Soundtrack: Jennifer Hudson, “Love You I Do”
AgesandAges, “No Nostalgia”
Sugarland, “Stand Up”
Al Green, “Let’s Stay Together”
Darius Rucker, “This”
Arcade Fire, “We Used To Wait”
Florence And The Machine, “You’ve Got The Love”
James Taylor, “Your Smiling Face”
REO Speedwagon, “Roll With The Changes”
Sugarland, “Everyday America”
Darius Rucker, “Learn To Live”
Electric Light Orchestra, “Mr. Blue Sky”
Montgomery Gentry, “My Town”
No Doubt, “Different People”
Ledisi, “Raise Up”
Be sure to check it out soon, before Obama cancels his account after getting two-dozen notifications in a row that Joe Biden is listening to Foreigner’s “Urgent.” [via Vulture]