JD Vance is an Xennial. Seeing as how he's the first Presidential or Vice-Presidential nominee on a major party ticket to sport a beard, it wouldn't be too surprising to learn that he has at least elements of being a hipster somewhere in his history. This is panning out, but also getting him some blowback that is sadly typical of the times.
As soon as JD Vance was announced as the Republican vice-presidential candidate, political operatives dug up his Spotify playlists, which includes Death Cab for Cutie, One Direction and The Black Keys. Say whatever you will about JD Vance’s politics or his personality, but his curation of random songs before his fame as a bestselling author and National Conservative mascot has been the least interesting criticism of him. Death Cab for Cutie’s frontman Chris Walla wrote that the songs “centre on connection, and longing, and the fear or pain of loss”, but was baffled by why Vance “can’t – or wouldn’t – work to pay that empathy forward in policy terms, openly, to every person, as the artists do in song.”
To make a sidenote and partial correction of the linked article, Chris Walla is not the frontman of Death Cab for Cutie. Nor is he currently in the lineup. Ben Gibbard is the lead singer and lyricist, and as far as I know he hasn't weighed in on making Sen. Vance's playlist. Whether that's wisdom, caution, or just not finding his way to that particular mic yet I don't know.
The thing is, if you think that your music can actually help people understand "connection, and longing, and the fear or pain of loss”, why would you limit your fandom to one side of the political spectrum. All politicians are self-serving to some (great) extent, but to the extent that they're actually trying to do good for their constituents and the populace, they're going to have different ideas on what's best. Maybe your music (or movies, books, etc.) can help guide them, but it's stupid to demand capitulation.
2 comments:
Finding anything that might be construed as negative to pin of JD Vance is pretty much par for the course these days. As Gollum said, "We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!"
The reason behind this idiocy may well be the fact about Vance is that being so young he will not only be the proverbial ‘one heartbeat away’ from the most powerful office in America; he also has the potential to be more of a populist, more right-wing and more disciplined and effective than Donald Trump. He does, after all, have the potential for being president for eight years after Trump's departure.
Obviously he is demonised by progressive and neoconservative media for multiple reasons - being a conservative Catholic will definiely enrage the wokesters. But as the writer quoted Michael Jordan having said, “Republicans buy sneakers too” - they also listen to popular music. Who ever heard of anyone listening to only one song by one band?
(I liked that Death Cab for Cutie video where the music notes grew in a forest then floated into the sky)
I read a rumor earlier today that Britney Spears was going to endorse Donald Trump. She'd be a fool to do so and Britney is no fool.
Ever since Donald Trump announced his run for the 2016 election we've been--or at least some of us have been--in a continuous state of hair on fire panic. The reaction to Vance is just an extension of that.
Vance does seem much more self-disciplined than Trump, not really a high bar. He could have a pretty big future if he can expand his appeal and win over more people on the fence. I'm curious to see if he can.
The weird thing is that his autobiography was turned into a movie just a few years ago. Ron Howard directed. So it seems like a lot of the people who have decided that he's The Enemy have only come to that conclusion very recently. Shows a lot of signs of groupthink.
The video you mentioned is for a song called "Soul Meets Body." Which I mention because I only just found out. I knew the song, but hadn't seen the clip. It's got a lot of nice Washington State scenery in it.
I think you mentioned somewhere else that you meant Taylor Swift, and you're right. Whether Britney would be affected by endorsing him is an open question.
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