The 2008 presidential campaign may have fused politics and entertainment once and for all.
In fact, McCain desperately tried to make Obama look bad for being in synch with popular culture but it ended up biting him in the butt. A brilliant move by Obama after a bruising debate with Hillary Clinton: he brushed the shoulder of his suit jacket, quoting a music video by rapper Jay-Z, “Dirt Off Your Shoulder.” He instantly distanced himself from Clinton on the cultural level, and was embraced by American youth, who remixed the Obama moment, and unleashed it on the Web. This moment crystallized how politics can start to think about popular culture in a productive way. The official definition of pop culture is this: contemporary lifestyle and items that are well known and generally accepted, cultural patterns that are widespread within a population. Ellen DeGeneres hosts the extremely popular daytime television show “Ellen” and she is known for her eccentric dancing. When Barack Obama came on the show, he easily jumped in with her dancing even though the amount of rhythm he has is slim to none. There was the ever popular “Obama Girl” who was apparently in love with Obama. She used her sex appeal for that music video and skyrocketed to fame. I definitely didn’t see any “McCain Girl”, which may have been why he was a little bitter.
President Barack Obama was more in tune with pop culture than any other presidential nominee before him. Yes, Bill Clinton may have gone on the Arsenio Hall show to play his saxophone, but Obama completely and 100% embodied the pop culture icon and used to his advantage. One of the most popular campaigns out there for young people is “Rock the Vote”, and when you have a nominee like Barack Obama, it will encourage young voters to register and “get their voice heard” as it was promoted. Like I mentioned before, McCain tried to use Obama’s celebrity against him, but it definitely backfired against him. Obama wanted to relate to everybody, and it just so happened that he was so relatable that it pushed him into the pop culture limelight. Obama crossed the pop culture/politics divide by praising Lil' Wayne's rhyming ability at a campaign event in Powder Springs, Georgia. Before dismissing this development as trivia, consider that Lil' Wayne was both the most acclaimed rapper of 2008 and is one of the biggest pop culture figures in the nation. I also remember reading an article during the election when he discussed what was on his iPod. That goes back to earlier in the semester when we were talking about ability to relate to candidates, homophily. The iconic photo of Obama can’t be left out of this discussion either. These pictures are some of the most famous from the campaign, they could be put in the same category as Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe or Campbell Soup Cans pictures are. A popular feature in magazines such as Us Weekly or People is photos that display that celebrities really are “just like us!” Obama was featured regularly in them, like when he was on vacation in Hawaii and he was photographed running on the beach with his shirt off. Many celebrities are photographed on the beach frolicking about, but not many presidential nominees are, so when that happened it was a huge deal. People were talking about how the president had a “hot bod” or things among that nature.
Another thing to take into consideration is what I talked about earlier, how he wants to relate to everybody and he does a damn good job at doing it. He was named one of Ebony's "25 Coolest Brothers of All Time." Yet he did not mind spending a little of that coolness capital during an interview on MTV, of all places, when he announced: "Brothers should pull up their pants. A lot of people may not want to see your underwear. I'm one of them.” Parents around the country rejoiced. Clothes were a big thing for Obama, one popular retail chain, Urban Outfitters, had an abundance of t-shirts representing Obama. They ranged from saying “Barack Star” to “Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote Republican”.
Fast forward to January 2009. The inagural filled the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with 1.8 million people, played on jumbo screens in Times Square and in multiplexes across the U.S. (exhibitors devoted 27 theaters in 21 cities to a real-time news feed from MSNBC), and aired live around the globe. By Wednesday morning, as many as 2 billion people worldwide had seen footage of Obama putting his hand on a Bible. About a third of all the human beings on Earth. Coming straight from a celebrities mouth, “What a presence. Stunning. Just stunning,'' Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles said, who performed for Obama at a concert at the Lincoln Memorial. ''People who have such charisma have a higher message, a higher vision. That's the difference between a celebrity who is popular on some level and someone like Obama who can imbue the rock-star spirit with everybody they come in contact with.'' So is that what it takes to be the “biggest celebrity in the world”? Charisma? JFK Jr. had plenty of charisma, and he is probably the only other candidate that could come as close to the pop culture level that Obama has. Obama was able to take pop culture and turn into something none of us even had thought it would go to. It became popular to register to vote, if one of my friends hadn’t registered to vote I thought it was weird. He was able to pull people together, even if they weren’t going to vote for him, and make politics into something completely new, something that everyone wanted to be a part of. Political debates in classes became popular again; everyone had an opinion and wanted to share it. Obama was speaking to voters in a visual language that we understood: the celebrity obsession of 21st-century consumerism.
Alyssa, I enjoyed reading your blog regarding Obama as a celebrity. I found it interesting and brilliant that Obama reached out to several outlets to make himself appear “in-touch” with popular culture. Being that we are a country that is constantly bombarded with pop culture, I feel that future candidates will need to take Obama’s approach in order to remain relevant. You mention that McCain tried to use Obama’s celebrity against him. While there were many people who were skeptical of Obama’s celebrity, I felt that he was very likeable and gained votes with his charismatic personality. Although I do like that he is in-touch with the younger crowd, I feel like people may vote for his personality rather than his politics. It was easy for Obama to look cool when pitted against a much older McCain. I believe it was a smart approach for Obama to attract the younger vote, and it will be interesting to see how future presidential candidates portray themselves in the media.
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