Barack Obama’s list of favorite music this year includes Mitski, Parquet Courts, and Courtney Barnett
Lil Nas X, Bad Bunny, and Little Simz also made the cut for the former POTUS' annual roundup
Aux News Barack Obama
There are so many of life’s mysteries we’ll likely never get an answer to: Is there a God? Will the pandemic ever end? And is Barack Obama actually writing his own year-end lists? Each December, the former POTUS shares his favorite pieces of pop culture released throughout the year. It’s when he gets to pull a “How do you do, fellow kids?” and try to convince people he definitely knows who Adrianne Lenker is. (He also makes summer playlists.)
Much like lists in previous years, the 2021 list of Obama’s favorite music is a bit of a head-scratcher. Is the former president is not only aware of Parquet Courts’ existence, but has also listened to their new song “Walking At A Downtown Pace?” He left out the band’s (arguably) most accessible and biggest single “Wide Awake!” back in 2018, but who knows, maybe he secretly reads Pitchfork.
He also seems to have missed out on the Puberty 2 and Be The Cowboy craze, because this is the first time Mitski’s been listed on Obama’s music list. He added her recent single “The Only Heartbreaker.”
Other additions to his list are: Lil Nas X, Bad Bunny, Little Simz, and The War On Drugs, Wye Oak, Brandi Carlile, and Courtney Barnett.
Surprisingly, there’s no mention of any songs from Japanese Breakfast’s Grammy-nominated 2021 LP Jubilee, though he lists Michelle Zauner’s debut book Crying In H Mart as one of his favorites of the year. But maybe he’s more of a Soft Sounds guy.
So, do we think Obama writes his own lists? Who knows! Either way, his team must be fielding hundreds of emails from publicists, asking for their indie pop act to be considered. And regardless or not of whether Obama writes his year-end lists on his own—or has his daughters Sasha and Malia help out—at least it’s a pretty solid playlist this year.
59 Comments
You know his 2021 Wrapped is all Springsteen and Hamilton.
And is Barack Obama actually writing his own year-end lists? Each December, the former POTUS shares his favorite pieces of pop culture released throughout the year. It’s when he gets to pull a “How do you do, fellow kids?” and try to convince people he definitely knows who Adrianne Lenker is.So cynical. It hilarious how every young generation has shitheads who think they get to dictate what’s cool and what’s not, completely oblivious to the fact one day a younger shithead will come around and try to tell you how lame and out of touch you are.Signed, a grumpy older millennial who still wears skinny jeans and listens to new music every week.
Ironically, these days you’re more likely to discover a new band from Obama’s lists than by reading The AV Club. They’ve long-since given up on music coverage.
I don’t even know why I keep coming here sometimes.
Be thankful — they would have nothing to offer but a list of music you should like for identity politic reasons.
I truly miss the Year in band Names.
Y’all remember when we thought this dude was going to be the next MLK Jr.?
No.
King wasn’t a politician, so… no.
Based on your comment, I’m pretty sure you were a member of the Nobel Prize committee.
can’t wait for jimmy carter’s list of favorite movies
Jimmy’s a Saló, or The 120 Days of Sodom kind of guy.
Irreversible is a close second.
I mean, I don’t find it hard to believe that an old bigshot like him would dig himself some Adrienne Lenker. It’s very soft and melodious and wouldn’t have sounded out of place when he was younger.And I enjoy her music quite a bit, don’t get it twisted! But she just so happens to exist in that space quite comfortably.
“And is Barack Obama actually writing his own year-end lists?”The answer is clearly “Fuck, No!”EDITED TO ADD: He may actually choose these songs, but he has people who supply him with play lists and such. Certainly, during the time he was president I doubt he was spending time finding new music.
I find it entirely plausible that the people around him send him “cool” shared playlists for his workouts or whatever and he cuts out what he doesn’t like, resulting in these lists.But, yeah, he’s probably not flipping through bins for vinyl.
We all know that if Obama was actually writing these lists himself, there would be a lot more Manowar on it.
Oh *man* imagine having your own personal consultant. You just give ‘em the lowdown on what you do and don’t like and they just send you bangers.Like Spotify recommendations or whatever except, you know, it would actually work and not just spam you with crap for no apparent reason.
You have the same take on this as James Corden. You must be so proud!!
I’m not an Obama hater or whatever, but who exactly is this list intended for? Who is waiting with baited breath to hear what his pop culture views are?
considering it has been reported on by several major sites, a lot of people. Don’t be a dope.
The things that pop culture websites hope people will care about are not always necessarily the things that people actually care about.
Who is waiting with baited breath to hear what his pop culture views are? Too-hungry fishermen, I guess?
Bernouts are tedious, bitter creatures.
Wow you must be a zillionaire!
No, but I picked the Obama, Hillary and Biden “poisons,” because it sure as hell beats the alternative
Love how we’re not allowed to tell the truth about how Democrats have failed us ‘because Trump’.
Christ, you are like an internet charicature of a Bernie supporter.
Kindly go away.
I’ll take that as a compliment, although Bernie is not quite as Left as I would like.
How old are you? Not asking in an insulting way, I’m curious from a generational divide standpoint. That is not to say I don’t know millennials and Generation Z people who are pro Biden/Hillary/Obama (even Trump… shudder… young Republicans) but they are few and far between.
Lesser of two evils and all.Lets be honest—given that relatively slim margin (in the electoral college, bleh) that Biden actually won the election in several states, Bernie being the candidate would likely mean we’d be well into Trump 2.0 right now.
I don’t agree. Biden was a terrible establishment candidate and he only won because Trump handled Covid like a sociopath. Biden’s poll numbers are shocking, nevermind Harris. A couple of scarecrows would have beat Trump. Bernie, on the other hand, is beloved for a reason, and when people are polled about his policies, they support them wholeheartedly. But corporate media knows who butters their bread, so they break out the red scare language when Obama and the rest of the establishment tells them to. I’m no fan of Katie Couric, but she explained the incestuous relationship between the media and Washington pretty clearly in her memoir.The Dems will lose the midterms and then the next presidential election, all because they refuse to get anything done when they actually have some power.
“Biden’s poll numbers are shocking, nevermind Harris. A couple of scarecrows would have beat Trump.”Yeah, NOW they are. But remember, he was well above 50% earlier this year.It means nothing what he’s polling right now—-just what people thought in November of 2020.BTW, half the reason why he’s polling so low is because he can’t get the “near-GOP” senators like Manchin to fall in line and get some real helpful things passed. Can you imagine the stonewalling Bernie would have gotten in office with his even farther left policies? From BOTH sides of the aisle in Congress?Biden before entering office was a solid choice for those who were looking for anything to replace Trump, and moderates who didn’t want anything too radical, but didn’t want to vote for Trump again.Bernie appeals to the former, but not the latter. With such a narrow margin of victory overall, he almost certainly would have lost to Trump, COVID or not.If the close victory in the EC and overall popular vote tells us anything, its that the 2nd most overall voters in HISTORY didn’t care about Trump’s horrifically bungled 2020 at all.
It’s just incredibly sad how liberals have been been brainwashed into buying all of the excuses why Democrats can’t get anything done. I sincerely hope you will remember how Obama had power, did nothing, then lost the house and complained how he couldn’t get anything done because his hands were tied. It’s happening again. It’s what they do. It’s how they keep getting elected. Stop buying their BS.
“It’s happening again. It’s what they do.”Unlike Obama, Biden has been in a flurry of activity trying to get things passed immediately. Manchin and Sinema have been stonewalling everything major.When you have a majority by only the slimmest of margins, and the GOP is fully united in not letting you get anything significant done for fear of angering Trump and his considerable GOP base, things don’t work out when you have a senator like Manchin, who is indebted to a state that only elected him because he’s practically GOP.In reality, the Dems don’t control the Senate.You want to say Obama twiddled his thumbs for too long before he lost control of Congress? Fine. I won’t argue that. But the Dems don’t really have a majority in the Senate at the moment which is why one asshole like Manchin can put an end to just about anything he feels like.
But Manchin and Sinema won’t let us!There it is. The excuses.You think Republicans would let a couple of knuckleheads from their own party screw up their agenda? No. Dems like losing. It’s their brand.
“You think Republicans would let a couple of knuckleheads from their own party screw up their agenda? No. Dems like losing. It’s their brand.”They literally have no power to do otherwise. Manchin, if he has any hope whatsoever of being re-elected, HAS to stick to his generally right-wing stances on everything. Plus, I’m sure his baser instincts love the idea that he, not Chuck Schumer, has the real power in the Senate, being that the Dem “majority” consists of a single person.What, exactly, would you propose that ANYBODY do?BTW, the exact same situation would be occurring right now if Bernie had somehow gotten elected POTUS, so I’m not even sure what you are trying to say here.
I suppose the most direct solution would be to murder all the Republican Senators from states with Democratic governors. Instant majority but maybe not filibuster proof, I’m not sure of the current count. And while that’s happening might as well create a few vacancies in the SCOTUS. Might come in handy afterwards.Of course recent events have shown that if you’re going to use violence to subvert democracy you should plan carefully and not involve internet morons.
I can only guess that your weak response on this is from observing a lifetime of pathetic ineffective Democrats, and assuming that’s the only way. “What, exactly, would you propose that ANYBODY do?”You fuck Manchin up. You (meaning Biden, since Manchin is tanking the platform he ran on) go to WV and talk to his voters about what they won’t be getting. You send his minions on all the political shows to bash him. You leak stories about his corrupt daughter and the millions he makes from the coal industry he protects. You tell him in no uncertain terms that you will primary the shit out of him. And Sinema.The problem here is Biden. He ran on this platform and he’s letting Manchin and Sinema kill it. And with that broken promise goes the midterms and 2024. And NO this would not have happened with Bernie because it was Bernie who warned you if you separated the BBB from the Infrastructure Bill, you’d lose your leverage.
“And NO this would not have happened with Bernie because it was Bernie who warned you if you separated the BBB from the Infrastructure Bill, you’d lose your leverage.”And what you and Bernie failed to grasp is that if you didn’t separate it, you would have gotten NEITHER.I find it absolutely comical that you think that Biden and (most of) the Dems had any ‘leverage’ over shaky votes like Manchin. He has all of the power in this situation.“You fuck Manchin up. You (meaning Biden, since Manchin is tanking the platform he ran on) go to WV and talk to his voters about what they won’t be getting. You send his minions on all the political shows to bash him. You leak stories about his corrupt daughter and the millions he makes from the coal industry he protects. You tell him in no uncertain terms that you will primary the shit out of him. And Sinema.”Congrats. With that brilliant strategy, you would no longer even have a SOFT majority in the Senate. The only reason a Dem was elected Senator in WV in the first place is that he drifts to the right.Secondly, he has absolutely nothing to worry about until 2024, which means keeping Manchin at least partially on board remains a priority. You go piss him off by trashing him openly in the news, and he’s never going to side with you on anything ever again. Sure, the Dems could *possibly* pick up a couple of seats in the mid-terms making him far less important, but he’s still going nowhere for another 2 years after that.I don’t think you have any real grasp on how politics works in the actual world. You have these wild fantasies (almost Trumpian) about how to bring everybody to heel with attacks, and if you didn’t watch what happened the last 5 years, that doesn’t work.
It really sounds like you want the Dems to act like the GOP during the Trump era and beyond—-which is ridiculous, because then they become everything we hate the GOP for, so what would be the point?
You know that the Infrastructure bill votes weren’t along party lines, right? That was the point of marrying it to the BBB.I can’t prove that what I suggest will work, but it’s very clear that your polite and weak methods have been a losing strategy against the GOP for the last 50 years. They will resort to any means necessary, legal and illegal, to justify their ends. You simply don’t care about beating them. That’s fine. Enjoy your “real world” losing strategies. Tah!
“You know that the Infrastructure bill votes weren’t along party lines, right? That was the point of marrying it to the BBB.”But it most certainly WOULD have been if you married it to the BBB.
It’s not only possible, but reasonable, to vote for the person who “beats the alternative” while still being critical of their performance in the job and expecting quality governance rather than merely not-the-worst governance.I voted for Hillary and Biden because both are better than Trump. I still expect more from Biden than “being better than Trump.” That’s the minimum bar to clear, not the aspirational endpoint.
You are such a stupid asshole. Fuck you. Kill yourself retard.
Great job defending capitalist imperialism bud, do you even realize that you’re a right winger?
God forbid we acknowledge the blue team has a share of responsibility in the current dumpster fire that is the USA.
Im not even American, weirdo. Anyway whats so tedious and bitter about saying the guy in charge of the imperial superpower has… a nice personality?
Donald Trump also just released his favorite music of the year list and it’s a bunch of half-remembered Frank Sinatra songs he heard in the background when dining at crappy steakhouses.
Don’t drag Frank into this.
I still remember during his inauguration, when he was forced to pretend 3 Doors Down was a good band, after others turned him down.
“I still remember during his inauguration, when he was forced to pretend 3 Doors Down was a good band, after others turned him down.”Well, they did offer to play their hit “Loser” last January.
his favorite song band is Corinthians!
His favorite bands are person, woman, man, camera, tv.
I mean, it’s more relatable than the list of Funkiest Christian Basslines that Mike Huckabee puts out, or the list of best “Human Music” (whatever that means) that Ted Cruz releases.
his end-of film list also had tons of movies that he undoubtedly got to screen in a private theater because they are either not released or did you see him at that AMC? Access has its privileges. I mean, did he REALLY like Drive My Car as much as everybody has told me I am now obligated to like it when I finally see it some time in April? Probably, but who knows.
Did he get this list from Citibank too?
This whole comment section is hilarious. “Does Obama come up with his own list!!??”No, you absolute fucking clowns.Personsally, I wish this Nobel Peace Prize winner and war criminal would just go away.
obama favorite genre is drone