Honoring the Music That Made Us – Rolling Stone Canada

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Honoring the Music That Made Us

Again and again, even through our darkest chapters, the power of song has shown the country the way forward

Credit: VICTOR JUHASZ

By Barack Obama, May 19, 2026

During my first presidential campaign, I became a bit particular — maybe even a little superstitious — about my debate-day rituals. I had to get in a quick workout, and always ordered the same dinner. And then, in the half hour or so before the main event, I’d set aside whatever notes and talking points my staff had given me, put on some earbuds, and just listen to some music.

Initially, I listened to a handful of jazz classics — Miles Davis’ “Freddie Freeloader,” John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things.”

But over time, I discovered that rap was the thing that got my head in the right place. A couple of songs about defying the odds and putting it all on the line — Jay-Z’s “My 1st Song” and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” — were always in the rotation, maybe because they felt suited to my early underdog status.

Sitting alone in the back of the Secret Service SUV on my way to the venue, nodding to the beat, I would feel the pomp and circumstance and artifice of my immediate surroundings melt away. I’d find my mind returning to those things that were most essential to me — the friends and family that had shaped me; the values and ideals that drove me; and all the forgotten voices of people across the country that I hoped to someday represent.

Music has always had the ability to speak to us, and for us, in a way nothing else can. Which is why, if you want to understand the past 250 years of American life, one of the best ways to do it is to listen to the music that defined this great nation of ours.

When enslaved people were first brought to our shores hundreds of years ago, the music in their hearts gave them the strength and courage for what lay ahead. Spirituals weren’t mere entertainment. They were, as W.E.B. Du Bois would later describe, “the articulate message of the slave to the world” — a way of insisting on the humanity that others tried to deny them.

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