From the earliest elections with popular participation to the present day, American presidential candidates have harnessed music's connotative potential and affective properties in a variety of campaign contexts. But in a corporatized electoral landscape where the fields of politics and popular culture are inextricably intertwined, and every aspect of the candidate's public and private life is subjected to intense scrutiny enabled by the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies, nontraditional texts (such as music) play an increasingly significant role in candidate identity formation. Adding to recent work that explores the aesthetic and social dimensions of newly composed campaign music and its cultural currency, this essay turns a critical lens toward preexisting music and its impact on campaign discourses during Barack Obama's 2008 presidential primary campaign. I investigate three components of Obama's soundscape: 1) his engagement with hip hop—its artists, audiences, and values; 2) the intersections between his professed musical tastes and his complex biography; and 3) the playlists he used at campaign rallies, and the factors that allowed this soundtrack to solidify his own identity as candidate as well as forge alliances with women voters and black voters. Ultimately, cultural and musical analyses reveal how Obama's music strategy allowed him to project a black identity that was both “real” and “respectable.”

中文翻译：

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2008 年保持真实（可敬）：巴拉克奥巴马的音乐战略和总统身份的形成

从最早的全民参与选举到现在，美国总统候选人在各种竞选背景下都利用了音乐的内涵潜力和情感属性。但在一个公司化的选举环境中，政治和流行文化领域密不可分，候选人公共和私人生活的方方面面都受到 Web 2.0 技术的出现所促成的严格审查，非传统文本（如音乐）播放在候选人身份形成中发挥越来越重要的作用。除了最近探索新创作的竞选音乐的审美和社会维度及其文化货币的工作之外，这篇文章将批判性镜头转向了先前存在的音乐及其对巴拉克奥巴马竞选话语的影响 s 2008 年总统初选。我研究了奥巴马音景的三个组成部分：1）他与嘻哈的接触——它的艺术家、观众和价值观；2）他自称的音乐品味和他复杂的传记之间的交集；3) 他在竞选集会上使用的播放列表，以及让这首配乐巩固他自己作为候选人的身份以及与女性选民和黑人选民结成联盟的因素。最终，文化和音乐分析揭示了奥巴马的音乐策略如何让他展现出既“真实”又“受人尊敬”的黑人身份。3) 他在竞选集会上使用的播放列表，以及让这首配乐巩固他自己作为候选人的身份以及与女性选民和黑人选民结成联盟的因素。最终，文化和音乐分析揭示了奥巴马的音乐策略如何让他展现出既“真实”又“受人尊敬”的黑人身份。3) 他在竞选集会上使用的播放列表，以及让这首配乐巩固他自己作为候选人的身份以及与女性选民和黑人选民结成联盟的因素。最终，文化和音乐分析揭示了奥巴马的音乐策略如何让他展现出既“真实”又“受人尊敬”的黑人身份。