The Politics Of Mixtapes

[Image source Peter And The Hare]

In the midst of this morning’s wailing and gnashing of teeth over the Glasgow bye-election result the Observer gives us a little glimpse of the fundamental difference between Gordon Brown and David Cameron:

Yesterday Brown was trying to show it was business as usual, joining his family in Suffolk for his summer break and telling reporters: ‘I think everybody’s ready for a holiday.’ Hours before, he had hosted the US presidential candidate Barack Obama in Downing Street. Obama met Brown’s children and his brother-in-law during a relaxed visit, during which the Browns presented Obama with books on Churchill and silver photo frames for his daughters.

The Tories had their own meeting between Obama and David Cameron, at which the senator was overheard congratulating Cameron on ‘all your success’. The two spent 20 minutes chatting about juggling fatherhood and politics and discussing Afghanistan and the economy. Cameron gave him a box of CDs including albums by the Smiths, Radiohead and Lily Allen.

As if Obama has never read about Churchill. The first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review’s as well if not better educated than Brown himself. How condescending.

In any case Churchill died over 40 years ago; what possible new insights could yet another Churchill doorstop give Obama into the lives and aspirations of the British now? Dizzy Rascal says more about today’s Britain than any tired rehash of we shall fight them on the bloody beaches could – because what a prospective US president needs to know is what we are today, not what we were in 1945.

Cameron has been very shrewd in his gift. There’s nothing gives such illumination into the character of a nation than the music it produces. By contrast Brown’s gift of a history book looks leaden, clunky and old fashioned. Did anyone at No 10 stop to consider that someone campaigning as busily as Obama would never have the time to read books? On the other hand, we know he has an iPod.

But then there’s the other aspect of mixtapes – traditionally, they’re what you give someone you fancy or you want to impress. Those of us who were teenagers in the seventies will well remember the agonies of choice that went into making them. Too slushy? Too twee? Not obscure or cool enough? A bad segue or miscued track intro could ruin your lovelife for ever! The modern equivalent of a box of carefully chosen CDs is a gift that has resonance for Generation X and Cameron knows this.

He knows too that he must impress the potential US president if he wants some of that Obama stardust to rub off.

I expect he was impressed too – Cameron may be politically shallow but he’s a lot more tuned in to the zeitgeist than anyone New Labour or the Lib Dems can produce. Politically astute as well to give CDs rather than MP3’s, neatly avoiding any potential accusations of RIAA infringement by either party.

All of those CDs will have been chosen specifically to convey a message about Cameron, about the Tories and about the country. Like Obama, I grew up in the era of the mixtape, when choosing music to compile for someone was a minor exposure of the soul, unlike these days when people spew endless lists of their unedifying likes and dislikes all over the interwebs. By giving Obama music he likes Cameron is saying, here’s me, here’s us, this is what we British are about. I can relate to that and so I expect can Obama.

I’d really like to know the full list of albums in that box. There’s a meme to set running – which 10 albums would you give to Obama or McCain to express what they need to know about today’s Britain?