Hillary Clinton, Presidential candidate and purveyor of millennial-targeted merchandise, is fully ready to take this election thing by storm. And as everyone knows, to run for President, you have to have signature jams to back you up. Hillary just don’t stop thinkin’ about tomorrow.
While Clinton hasn’t yet chosen an official theme song—and, let’s face it, it’s gonna be tough to top Obama’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” in 2008—her 14-song playlist on Spotify presents some potential options. Relatively diverse genre-wise (though not as much as Obama’s 2012 picks), the playlist is meant to pose to us another facet of her message and her personality, a Lloyd Dobler mixtape for voters. So, what does this say about her? And would you vote for her based on the picture conveyed by her songs?
It’s key to look at the choruses—American Authors’ skyward-facing, adult-contemporary rock jam “Believer” opens the playlist, and says it all: “I’m just a believer/ That things will get better/ Some can take it or leave it/ But I don’t wanna let it go.” And yet, there are Easter eggs to be found in the cut. Gym Class Heroes’ “Fighter,” features Travie McCoy’s “Half the population’s just waitin to see me fail/ Yeah right, you’re better off trying to freeze hell/ Some of us do it for the females,” which seems like a pretty accurate summation of the Hillary steez.
Katy Perry’s “Roar,” Ariana Grande/Zedd’s “Break Free,” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” all seem pretty on the nose—powerful women singing about getting theirs and staying strong under pressure—and they’re followed up by another uplifting American Authors jam about never giving up, et cetera. This gives me fear that American Authors are going to be her official campaign band. Is it because they have “American” in their name? I hope not, although having listened to “Best Day of My Life” three times to avoid getting to the next track, Pharrell’s “Happy,” American Authors seem like a comparatively minor threat. Yes, Hillary Clinton put “Happy” on her playlist. Constitutional obligation, at this point.