Or did he just stop listening to Rage Against the Machine, one of his favorite bands, after guitarist Tom Morello said Ryan was “the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades.” (Ryan tried to throw it back at Morello, saying “I hate the lyrics, but I like the sound.”)
On Sunday, Spotify published playlists from a number of political figures, including Ryan, Orrin Hatch, and Cory Booker. Many of the results are predictable. Hatch’s is what you would expect from an 82-year-old: Sinatra, John Denver, uh, Imagine Dragons. Booker’s is manic and consists of 101 songs and contains work by John Denver and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Darrell Issa’s is mostly dad rock, but also has a song by Shaq on it. Kristen Gillibrand’s has The Jam on it, but the rest of it is bad. Maria Cantwell’s is probably the best, but only because she’s sucking up to her constituents, so it only has music from Washington bands like Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, and Jimi Hendrix. Mike Lee’s playlist contains 231 songs and starts with ten straight Led Zeppelin songs because Mike Lee rules.
But Paul Ryan’s playlist, which contains songs by Queen (ft. David Bowie), Darius Rucker, Joe Walsh, and the studio version of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed,” which is not as good as the live version from Wings Over America, seems like the playlist of someone who hopes to be president someday—just not in 2016. It’s harmless and safe and it also contains zero songs by Rage Against the Machine.