Paul Ryan releases Spotify playlist, makes piñata of own tastes

By Dan Brooks in Contemporary Media 0 Comment
Paul Ryan in the photo series that will forever haunt his career

Paul Ryan in the photo series that will forever haunt his career

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan released a Spotify playlist yesterday, as part of a promotion between the streaming music service and members of Congress whose details we do not understand. Was it a paid endorsement? Or are American lawmakers promoting a foreign company for free? It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that we analyze Ryan’s musical tastes right now, before he has a chance to change them. Here’s his tweet:

People always ask, “What music are you listening to?” Find out → Check out my Spotify playlist: https://t.co/r2bOym97Gk

— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) April 11, 2016

You can follow that link for the Spotify playlist, or go right to it here. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t contain any Rage Against the Machine, which Ryan claimed to love in 2012 and then walked back from in 2014. He’s gotten into new stuff since then, like “Enter Sandman.”

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Paul Ryan: Rage Against the Machine was never my favorite band

By Dan Brooks in lying 3 Comments
A possibly Photoshopped image of Rep. Paul Ryan

A possibly Photoshopped image of Rep. Paul Ryan

We all remember the highlight of the 2012 presidential election, when then-Republican nominee for vice president Paul Ryan told the New York Times that Rage Against the Machine was one of his favorite bands. It wasn’t quite irony, exactly. It was more like the twist in Terminator Salvation: with a rush of existential horror, we realized this guy thought he was a real person. But don’t you worry—he’s corrected that misapprehension in a new interview with the Times. Quote:

They were never my favorite band. I hate the lyrics, but I like the sound. Led Zeppelin has always been my favorite band. Again, these urban legends get going.

By “urban legends,” Ryan means things he told the most respected and carefully fact-checked newspaper in America. But he was never directly quoted, so he has some wiggle room. Uncomfortable writhing after the jump.

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Against which machine, exactly?

By Dan Brooks in Republican Candidates 3 Comments

Rage Against the Machine and guitarist Tom Morello’s extremely bad t-shirt idea

Charming Charlie sent me this nuanced—and equally ranty, so buckle up—assessment of what it means that Paul Ryan likes Rage Against the Machine. I know that tidbit came out a few weeks ago, but you know it was the most important reveal of the 2012 election. Either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will be our next president; such details pale in comparison to the knowledge that the man who wants to end Medicare rocks out to “Killing in the Name.” The Last Psychologist, if that is his real name, believes that the whole thing is a setup—the question that brought this information to light, the co-opting of little- and big-r Rage by MTV, the faux media outrage, everything. I think he is exactly half right.

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