The Official Barack Obama Campaign Playlist

I love music. I love Barack Obama. I love making playlists.

So I’ve created a mix that lists songs in chronological order as it applies to the campaign timeline.

1. Come Together- The Beatles-2004 Democratic Convention, Key-Note Address.
This is a pretty obvious pick right? Barack’s speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention was certainly a memorable one as it put him on the map as a rising star of the Democratic Party. In the speech, Barack called on Americans to come together and recognize that while we may have multiple differences we should never forget that we are all still Americans fighting together for common values like peace, justice and equality.

2. The Rising- Bruce Springsteen- Obama’s speech announcing his bid for the Democratic Nomination.
On a cold spring morning in Springfield, Illinois on the steps of the Illinois Capital Building where Abraham Lincoln announced his candidacy for President nearly a century-and-a-half prior, Obama confirmed to a crowd of over 10,000 supporters that he was running for President of the United States.


In Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising, Bruce invites the listener to “Come on up for the rising.” Essentially, in his announcement speech, Barack was calling on Americans to do the same thing.

3. U Black, Maybe- Common- Questions about Barack Obama’s racial identity
Early on in the primary process, before Barack had gained the overwhelming support of the African American community, many people began raising questions about Barack Obama’s racial identity. Many black elitists began questioning whether or not Obama was “black enough,” while other members of the African-American community doubted that he would be able to succeed in national politics because of the color of his skin. In U Black, Maybe Chicago rapper Common discusses the complications of racial identity in American culture.

4. Rebel Yell-Billy Idol- Barack wins the Iowa caucuses
January 3, 2008 was the night forever changed the American political landscape: Barack Obama, a young, black, first-term Senator from Illinois won the Iowa caucuses. In his victory speech that night, Obama predicted that his campaign would go on to clinch the Democratic nomination for president and eventually win against the Republicans in general election. To me, Rebel Yell seems like the perfect song to fit the moment: a revolution had truly begun.


5. Heroes-David Bowie- Super Tuesday
To refresh your memories “Super Tuesday” (which ironically turned out not to be uniquely super) was the day when nearly two-dozen states held primary elections and caucuses. For both campaigns, Super Tuesday was a pivotal moment in the campaign. That evening, while Obama won more states than his rival Hillary Clinton, he fell short in several delegate-rich states like New Jersey, Massachusetts and California. By the end of the night, most political pundits were calling Super Tuesday a “split decision” as neither candidate emerged as a true front-runner.

In Obama’s speech that evening, he said “We are the one’s we’ve been waiting for” in regards to changing America’s political landscape. For me, David Bowie’s Heroes perfectly sums up the mood of Obama’s supporters that evening. In the song, Bowie sings about the desire for glory which was a feeling I vividly remember having that evening.

6. The Glory- Kanye West- Obama’s 11 state winning streak
Remember how I described the Obama campaign’s thirst for glory in the last passage? Well, by the end of February Barack Obama and his supporters were feeling on top of the world after winning the 11 post-Super Tuesday contests in February. There was a sense among many of Barack’s supporters that after going on such an extensive winning streak he had finally delivered a fatal blow to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Thus, there is only one artist who can effectively match the overzealous cockiness that some of Barack’s supporters were displaying at the time: Kanye West

7. Gash- The Flaming Lips- Obama’s March-April Rough Patch
After stunning the political world with a massive winning streak, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign finally began to garner a few significant chinks in the armor. After losing hard-fought contests in Texas and Ohio, controversial sound bites of Barack Obama’s former pastor and so-called “spiritual adviser” Jeremiah Wright emerged on the cable news networks. Within days, these video clips and transcripts had circulated to nearly every major media market. Many who viewed the pastor’s speeches felt that it proved the Barack Obama, who was a member of Wright’s church for nearly two decades, was somehow unpatriotic. Barack’s poll numbers among white, working-class voters took an immediate hit, and as a result, Obama lost in the pivotal battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Personally, I believe the lyrics from Gash seem like an accurate depiction of the struggles Barack Obama’s campaign was facing after the Reverend Wright controversy exploded in the American media.

Is that gash in your leg
Really why you have stopped?
‘Cause I’ve noticed all the others
Though they’re gashed, they’re still going
‘Cause I feel like the real reason
That you’re quitting, that you’re admitting
That you’ve lost all the will to battle on


Will the fight for our sanity
Be the fight of our lives?
Now that we’ve lost all the reasons
That we thought that we had


Still the battle that we’re in
Rages on till the end
With explosions, wounds are open
Sights and smells, eyes and noses
But the thought that went unspoken
Was understanding that you’re broken
Still the last volunteer battles on


Battles on
Battles on


8. Take the Power Back- Rage Against The Machine- Obama Bounces Back
After weathering Hillary Clinton’s self-proclaimed “kitchen sink strategy,” Barack Obama’s campaign finally bounced back and delivered a major victory in North Carolina coupled with an incredibly narrow loss in the predominantly white, working-class Indiana. Essentially, by bouncing back with a strong performance in these two contests, Barack has all but locked up the Democratic nomination. Now, as we move onto the general election it’s time for the real revolution to begin.

As Zach De La Rocha wrote in Rage Against the Machine’s Take the Power Back:

We need a movement with a quickness
You are the witness of change
And to counteract
We gotta take the power back!