Why Justin Trudeau’s Spotify playlist matters

The large collection contained mainly classical music — that of Mozart, Bach and Beethoven to name a few. Very little local material made an appearance.

The late Patrick Manning’s musical tastes were also something of a discussion point for those who knew him, particularly the fact that he loved listening to the Indian film song Suhani Raat. And if the National Academy for the Performing Arts is any indication of his sensibilities, then we can draw from it, a sense of the types of music he too loved.

In 2015 President Barack Obama released on Spotify — the digital music, podcast and video streaming service — his summer playlist. Since then he has continued to offer music lists to the site so much so that when he joked that he was hoping for a job at Spotify when he leaves the White House, the streaming site posted on its careers page a vacancy for “President of Playlists.” (BBC News).

This week Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released his summer playlist on the music platform.

These events are food for the writer for these musical insights tell us a lot about these personalities, their backgrounds, their cultural persuasions (we wonder why Hannibal Lecter listens to classical music or why Hitler was such a fan of Beethoven and Richard Wagner for instance).

While the lives of public figures have always been of interest to us common folk, the fact that we are now being offered music, albeit by only two world leaders, is a fascinating trend.

In a sense, there now seems to be a deeper connection between “us” and “them” because this is a public platform and the media is ensuring that we know about it. Music has always been an artistic form that connects people, whether it’s the bottle and spoon rhythm, table drumming or sophisticated concert halls. We each connect to the music that represents for us our experience of the world or life, as we know it.

And we form bonds with people of common tastes.

Our musical preferences are therefore conditioned by the personal, cultural, emotional, and in many cases, status. But most of all, music is a social space.

The classical concert for instance was and still is, an event that people attend to be a part of the musical experience, which consists of the conversations, the wine perhaps, and the status-driven reason for being there.

Of course there are those who will attend because they genuinely love that genre of music.

However, in the past, it was an upper class pursuit to attend a classical concert even if you understood nothing and were perhaps dozing off halfway through the performances. But that’s what you did because appearances were to be kept and you attended the bothersome thing if you wanted to interact with the who’s who in the society.

A forum like Spotify is now another social space that offers the opportunity to meet the who’s who, not in the least, the Prime Minister of Canada.

It has democratised music, for everyone now has access to the lists of others.

And who wouldn’t want to hear what a world leader likes? (Trudeau does cut a dashing figure in that photograph that The Trinidad and Tobago Newsday printed last Sunday — a sort of rock star personality who just happens to be the PM). There’s a human side to him and that’s what intrigues us. He listens to popular music (a large selection of which is Canadian), which of course prompts the question of whether the list is really his or is it just a random selection of music that is politically correct.

One commentator believed the latter. But we leave the negatives out of it today. The list is important because it says something about the way we now listen to music.

Social platforms now allow us a sort of private pleasure to be a part of someone else’s world.

Art after all does that. We look at films or read books partially for that reason.

If you were to partner with a friend to read a common book or look at a film, the pleasure of reading or looking is enhanced.

So whether his summer playlist is politically motivated or personal, there are those who are grateful for a glimpse into the world of Justin Trudeau as we imagine him kicking back on a summer’s evening with his music in the background, while we too indulge in the pleasure of his company.

And of course, this is all entertaining, playful news and we all need a bit of playfulness from time to time.