My new Spot-on column is up: A Revolutionary Soundtrack. It examines the relationship between politics and pop music and looks at an example from a few weeks ago when Barack Obama channeled Jay-Z.
A lot of pop music ignores politics altogether. Some pop music is very earnest about pop music. You don’t often see artists operate in Bono’s manner, very knowledgeable and very pragmatic. In contrast, politics almost always ignores pop music, unless there’s a point to be scored.
One issue I didn’t really address is that candidates don’t just stay away from pop music because it can be hazardous, they also don’t often sound very comfortable when they do try to talk about it. It’s one thing to wax about Springsteen’s lyrics, because he captures the concerns of the working man. Let’s hear you rave about much you loved Judas Priest in high school. Watch this video interview of Obama on the topic of hip-hop. He sounds like a hip-hop head to me, loving the form and yet being aware of its faults, limitations and possibilities. That’s a fan.
To help you appreciate the material, here’s some background music: two remixes of Jay-Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder.” The first mixes Hov’s vocals with RJD2′s remix of El-P’s song “Lazerfaces.” The second version does so by mixing in Weezer’s “Surf Wax America.”
Dirt Off Your Shoulder [El-P "Lazerfaces Remix"] – Bazooka Joe
Surf Wax Off Your Shoulder – Jay-Zeezer