Three Messages from The US Inauguration Playlist

Is a playlist just a collection of songs - or is there more being said?

As a teenager, I loved making mixtapes. Pulling together the perfect songs to create a mood. I had road trip mixes, party mixes, and sad love song mixes. Back in the olden days of cassette tapes, special care and time was required to create a mixtape (and match the vibe to the tape’s capacity). Now there are no 45 or 60 minute restrictions. You can go for broke.

And that’s what DJ D-Nice and Raedio did when they curated the 46-song playlist in honor of Joe Biden’s Inauguration as the 46th President of the United States. The eclectic playlist clocks in just under 3 hours, and includes essential artists like Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and Beyonce.

It has songs that were popular on the campaign trail – the Kygo/Whitney Houston ‘Higher Love’ remix, Hall & Oates’s ‘You Make My Dreams (Come True),’ and Jackie Wilson’s (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher.’

But what is the list saying?

Is this playlist just a mixture of songs, or is it communicating something else?

Here are three messages I picked up from the playlist:

1. Diversity

This isn’t your grandpa’s mixtape (even if Joe Biden sparks images of Gramps). The list has diversity – of genre, gender, and generation. Bob Marley with SZA, Kendrick Lamar and Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye and Dua Lipa. There’s a lot going on here – and even as a music lover, I was not familiar with all the tracks (or artists).

2. Hope

There is positivity and hope conveyed through this playlist. The second track is ‘Come Together.’ Later on the list we have ‘Optimistic’ and ‘Lovely Day.’ And ‘I’ll Be Good To You.’  [Ed. – Please, Joe, be good to us!]

3. Subtle Digs

There are song titles that seem to be sending a subtle (or not so subtle) dig at Trump and his followers. Songs like ‘Give The People What They Want,’ ‘Let it Happen,’ and ‘Free.’

Perhaps the curators of the list chose Average White Band’s ‘Pick Up The Pieces’ for the beat – though one could argue that Joe and Kamala will be picking up the pieces for the next four years.

But my personal fave in this category is the Doobie Brothers’s 1979 hit, ‘What a Fool Believes.’ The song may be talking about a romance that wasn’t as rosy as one remembered, but the line: ‘What a fool believes, he sees / No wise man has the power to reason away’ seems like it could be directed at other scenarios.

I don’t know what Joe and Kamala think of this list, but I’m going to imagine them getting their jam on together singing Salt N’ Pepa and En Vogue’s hit ‘Whatta Man’ to get pumped for today.

PS - Where is the Prince?!