American politicians are not guilty of transformation ① Cool vibration-resistant Obama, Spotify also won

In 2011, then President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Their cool transformation is a hot topic. AFP

What about life after serving or challenging the presidency? At least for these two characters across the Pacific, it’s a fun time to challenge. This is the story of former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who dreamed of re-entering the White House as president after First Lady, but failed. After becoming a best-selling author with his memoir “A Promised Land,” former President Obama emerged as the divinity of Spotify, a music streaming service. Clinton, too, has a self-proclaimed writing ability as “Living History,” but recently announced his transformation into a novelist. Introducing the cool evolution of those who were the protagonists of the world’s highest powers or dreamed of becoming protagonists.

In January 2017, when Barack Obama began to be called the “ex-President,” he was 55 years old. After his retirement, not long after Ji Chun-myeong (知天命), considerable attention was paid to his steps, and he also showed an energetic movement beyond expectations. He also published memoirs and established the’Obama Foundation’ to cultivate young leaders who focused on diversity. So far, it is not significantly different from any previous US president. However, his actions differentiate him in that he enjoys new collaborations and crosses various platforms. The most obvious recent move is the Spotify podcast. In this podcast, which is also the first video released on the 23rd (local time), Obama appears with the rock music icon Bruce Springsteen. Obama has released his favorite music list every year through Spotify.

Spotify podcast preview posted by former US President Barack Obama on his Facebook account. He starred with Bruce Springsteen, who is called the’boss’ of rock. [페이스북 캡처]

In the trailer Obama unveiled on his Facebook account, he jokes, “Unlike him, who is super cool as a rock icon, I’m not cool, but we’re good old friends.” Springsteen is 72 years old this year. Former President Obama awarded Springsteen the’Freedom Medal’ in 2016.

He is a long-time supporter of Obama, whose nickname is “the Boss,” because he has a strong position in the music industry, and has been supporting him since he first challenged the presidential election in 2008. Rockers CEO Jeong Seung-hwan, a rock professional DJ and writer, explained Springsteen to this magazine as “the big brother of the rock music world, who can be said to be the successor of the Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan.” ‘Born in the USA’, one of Springsteen’s signature songs, is a staple track in the US presidential campaign.

Then President Obama awarded Springsteen the’Freedom Medal’ in 2016. AFP=Yonhap News

Rock’s eldest brother and political veterans gather to talk, but they go beyond their respective fields. According to Spotify’s official description, it discusses “race issues, marriage, masculinity, fatherhood, and the future of America.” The title was’Renegades’, and the subtitle was’Born in the USA’, a representative song of Springsteen and a staple song of the US presidential campaign. Regarding the title, Obama said, “We tried to understand this country of America in each other’s ways,” and “This podcast is a journey to seek the truth of America and the meaning of the community.”

Their comments about their father are also honest. Springsteen said, “My father is less talkative and blunt, so I grew up thinking,’I think my father is ashamed of my family’. I have built an image of masculinity by seeing my father.” In response, Obama confesses, “My father left my family when I was two years old, and when I was 10 years old, he came for a while to spend a month with me, and that father was just someone else,” and “I didn’t know what to do.”

Bruce Springsteen and former President Barack Obama. At the podcast site, the two open their hearts. AP=Yonhap News

The reverberation is hot. CNN, who has a clear pro-Obama tendency, of course welcomed, “Obama and Springsteen joined together as a team”, and CNBC, a relatively objective economic medium, also evaluated “a striking move in the recent efforts to diversify Spotify”.

In addition to this, Obama is engaged in various activities, such as holding an untact video conference with 24 high school students dreaming of becoming writers in 12 countries around the world based on the publication of his memoirs. Even in the era of novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), various communication attempts are being made using new technologies.

Reporter Jeon Sujin [email protected]