Stuck in A Groove

Typically, songs are chosen for their sound (anthemic, up-tempo, catchy good, dirgelike bad); last night, for instance, the instrumental intro to U2's "City of Blinding Lights" played as Obama took the stage. They're chosen for their popularity, as well, although Hillary Clinton used "Blue Sky," a somewhat obscure 2005 song by the Colorado rock band Big Head Todd and the Monsters, on the trail and again Tuesday.

Often, songs are also picked based on titles, the old "Born in the U.S.A." trap that tripped up Ronald Reagan. (The Springsteen song, about a disenfranchised, destitute Vietnam War veteran, was also played last night at Invesco Field, while the crowd awaited Obama's speech.) Consider Ted Kennedy's appearance at the convention, where he was trotted out to the soft-rock stylings of "Still the One," an Orleans song about a woman who is "still the one I want to talk to in bed/Still the one that turns my head." (Not that those lyrics kept President Bush from using the song during his 2004 reelection campaign, until John Hall of Orleans -- now a Democratic congressman -- asked him to cut it out.)

That song, by the way, was released in 1976, which illustrates another problem with the Democrats' convention soundtrack: It's been stale and predictable, a curious thing for a party whose presidential candidate is campaigning with a message of change.

Not that one expects convention programmers and pols to be on the cutting edge of culture, but the 2008 playlist might as well have been written when Jimmy Carter was up for reelection.

Indeed, watch enough of the coverage this year, and you'll see people doing that goofy delegate dance to "Celebration" (1980), "Respect" (1965) and "We Are Family" (1979), and you'll see them linking arms during "Chain of Fools" (1967), with only a few more modern songs mixed in, as with the Alicia Keys track "No One."

When Howard Dean concluded his speech last night, there was even more vintage Aretha: "You better think/About what you're trying to do to me."

Bill Clinton went old-school, too, entering to Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop," his campaign theme -- the one with the declaration that "yesterday's gone." Only, in this case, the song was played precisely to remind everybody of all those yesterdays, during the Clinton administration. Vote for change that will take you back to the future!

His speech was followed by U2's "Beautiful Day," an overplayed song about losing everything and finding joy in what you still have.