Keepin’ It Real (Respectable) in 2008: Barack Obama's Music Strategy and the Formation of Presidential Identity

Gorzelany-Mostak, Dana

doi:10.1017/s1752196316000043

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(1 reference statement)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…On the 2008 campaign trail, Obama presented himself as “keeping it real” to connect with the black community and “keeping it proper” to connect with mainstream and white voters (Young 2011). Obama’s speeches (Gooding 2016) and his campaign’s framing (Gorzelany-Mostak 2016) presented him as a reserved, responsible, and respectable man—disaffiliating from stereotypes of Black men as untrustworthy, uncontrollable, and uncouth (see e.g., Collins 2004). Trump’s wealth, celebrity, and whiteness arguably constituted a “status shield” (Hochschild 1983, 163), enabling him to forgo civility and present a notably crass masculine self.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Valorizing Trump’s Masculine Self: Constructing Political Allegiance during the 2016 Presidential Election

Dignam

Schrock

Erichsen

et al. 2019

Men and Masculinities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Presidential candidates’ gendered self-presentations may help secure political support, but a ‘gendered self’ is a construct grounded in an audience’s interpretation as much as it is in a politician’s performance. The 2016 U.S. presidential election provides a unique opportunity to investigate how voters construct politicians as gendered. Based on pre-election interviews, we analyze how Trump supporters accounted for their allegiance by constructing and valorizing Trump’s masculine self—a cultural construct centered on exerting or resisting control. Interviewees (A) praised his politically incorrect spirit, (B) glorified his entrepreneurial spirit, and (C) celebrated his fighting spirit. We argue that understanding how people construct others’ gendered selves is important for scholars of both politics and manhood.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Valorizing Trump’s Masculine Self: Constructing Political Allegiance during the 2016 Presidential Election

Dignam

Schrock

Erichsen

et al. 2019

Men and Masculinities

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are even studies that have taken Spotify playlists as a reference point to fulfil objectives as ambitious as trying to categorise social groups according to what the platform's users listen to on a daily basis (Anderson et al, 2021). However, until recent times, this proliferation of mature scholarship has not fully reached the vast area of political communication, apart from the existence of works such as that of Blankenship and Renard (2017), Gorzelany-Mostak (2016), and other proposals that open the way and can be consulted in the references section of this article. The reason for the relative emptiness is that, despite the prominence of music in the preparation and conduct of any electoral campaign, the superficial approach often employed to address this subject may raise the suspicions of those who "have been arduously engaged in the endeavour of discovering the essence and being of the political" from their "wise doctrine" (Mantecón, 1950, p. 125).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music as Soft Power: The Electoral Use of Spotify

Redondo

Rebolledo

Sierra

2023

MaC

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The changes brought by new technologies and the ensuing rapid development of the communication field have resulted in an increasing number of studies on politicians’ use of the internet and social media. However, while election campaigns have been the predominant research area in political communication scholarship, music has not yet been taken as an object of study alongside spectacularisation and politainment. Aside from some preliminary studies, systematic research on music in politics is scarce. The literature holds that music is a universal language. Music in politics can therefore be deemed to be an identification tool that can help politicians connect with voters and bring together positions between the different actors of international relations. This is an exploratory study about the use of music in political campaigning. It is focused on the role played by the Spotify playlists created by the main political parties in recent election campaigns in Spain. The initial hypothesis is that some of the candidates strategically selected songs to be shared with their followers. A quantitative content analysis (<em>N</em> = 400) of some Spotify playlists showed that there were significant differences in the selection of songs among the different political parties. This research contributes to the understanding of how Spotify has been used for electoral campaigning, as well as shedding some light on the current communication literature on music and politics.

show abstract

A Love Song for All of Us?: Macklemore's “Same Love” and the Myth of Black Homophobia

Kehrer¹

2018

J Soc American Mus

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

According to the New York Times, white rapper Macklemore and his DJ partner Ryan Lewis's “Same Love” was “the first song to explicitly embrace and promote gay marriage that has made it into the Top 40.”1 In 2013, as the Supreme Court of the United States prepared to rule on challenges to the Federal Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage, the track quickly climbed the charts and became a nationally recognized anthem for marriage equality. Despite this generally positive reception, however, the song does not reflect all queer-identified listeners. Macklemore raps, “If I were gay, I would think hip hop hates me,” an assertion that positions black communities as a significant threat to (white) LGBTQ rights. Much like the backlash against black voters following the 2008 passing of Proposition 8, this claim relies on an invented black pathology that locates homophobia in black American culture specifically rather than American culture at large. This article offers a close reading and contextualization of “Same Love” and demonstrates that, rather than combating homophobia in hip hop, Macklemore's lyrical claims actually bolster his strategic performance as a socially and politically aware white rapper, while erasing queer and trans hip hop artists of color from the discourse.

show abstract

Keepin’ It Real (Respectable) in 2008: Barack Obama's Music Strategy and the Formation of Presidential Identity

Abstract: both "real" and "respectable."

Cited by 8 publications

References 24 publications

Valorizing Trump’s Masculine Self: Constructing Political Allegiance during the 2016 Presidential Election

Valorizing Trump’s Masculine Self: Constructing Political Allegiance during the 2016 Presidential Election

Music as Soft Power: The Electoral Use of Spotify

A Love Song for All of Us?: Macklemore's “Same Love” and the Myth of Black Homophobia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About