So much goes into planning a national party convention! You have to work out transportation and housing logistics with the host city. Prepare the venue(s). Develop a schedule of speakers and panelists. Field media requests. Beg celebrities to drop by. And coordinate an army of over 10,000 volunteers and DNC staffers, some of whom have been asked to run a Spotify account—because if the Democrats know one thing, it is how to engage the fuck out of millennials on every single social media platform that exists.


Democrats are by default cooler than Republicans, but this is an extremely low bar, and should not give the Democratic National Committee reason to believe that they are remotely positioned to tell anyone what music to listen to. I am not sure who would follow the Spotify playlists of the Democratic National Committee, aside from the people who made those playlists, their close friends and family members, and perhaps an alien who would like to learn more about the cultural habits of young liberal political operatives before she dons a cloak of human skin and infects us with a variety of targeted mind-control viruses.

The Dem Convention Spotify account has three playlists so far. “From Philly,” which has 15 followers, celebrates the convention’s location with “a few of our favorite Philadelphia born musicians.” It includes Boyz II Men, Maze, Patti LaBelle, The Roots, P!nk, and Musiq Soulchild. It’s educational! It’s on-theme! This playlist is completely fine.


The next playlist is called “Countdown to the Democratic Convention,” and it is less fine. It has 1 follower. “Join us as we countdown [sic] to making history in the city of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection,” the description reads. The playlist includes two hours and 43 minutes of songs whose titles reference time, counting down, waiting, and the future, from Ja Rule and Ashanti’s “Always On Time” (great!) to Europe’s “The Final Countdown” (less great) to the Plain White T’s “Our Time Now” (upsetting).

The third and final playlist from Dem Convention is the “Team Communications” playlist, which includes a selection of the DNC communications team’s “favorite songs to work to.” As such, it’s something of a mishmash, with producer KAYTRANADA, Lauryn Hill, and David Bowie smushed up against your typical bland top 40 fare of Imagine Dragons, Mumford & Sons, Hozier, and “Of Monsters and Men.”


What we have here is a mixed bag, and one that nobody really asked for. But at the end of the day, I suppose, what’s the harm? If you, unlike me, would like to party like you’re at the 2016 Democratic Convention, head on over to Spotify!

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