Help me DJ a GOTV party

September 13, 2024 9:19 AM

Help! I need to pump up the jams this weekend but I'm feeling kinda lost. Please shower me with song suggestions for a postcards-to-voters get-together! I need help putting together a playlist that can keep the good vibes going for several hours, setting will be a mellow gathering in a home.

I'm co-hosting a Postcards to Swing States party this weekend. We're expecting perhaps one or two dozen people max, ranging in age from 20s to 60s, from a variety of backgrounds. I'm putting together a playlist but feeling kinda stumped tbh. My headspace is somewhere in the vicinity of "...And We Thought That Nation-States Were a Bad Idea" but I don't think Propaghandi is gonna be a crowd-pleaser in this setting.

Seems like I need some Taylor Swift (and maybe Beyonce?) but I'm not a pop music person at all (as you may have noticed already) and so I'm feeling pretty clueless.

I want to pump up vibes like smashing the patriarchy, progressive ideals, and sticking it to the man, but in the context of a slightly off-beat dinner party. Can you help me nail this?

posted by vortex genie 2 to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

I can't imagine you'd hear any complaints if you played the DNC Roll Call of States playlist.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:26 AM on September 13 [3 favorites]

How partisan do you want to be? There's the Kamala Harris Campaign Playlist - a playlist that exists in context of all that came before it!
posted by cocoagirl at 9:50 AM on September 13 [1 favorite]

At a postcard party recently the hostess was about to put on music and I asked her not to, because I knew I would start writing song lyrics instead of addresses. You're going to have a pretty big party; could one room be the no-background-music room?
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:09 AM on September 13

Me. Postman by the Marvelettes.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 11:11 AM on September 13

Obligatory, as far as I'm concerned:

Heaven 17: "(We don't need this) fascist groove thang"

It's from the eighties, so it features a different set of villains, but the sentiment still applies.

LCD Soundsystem cover version here

Original 1980s version here
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 11:35 AM on September 13 [2 favorites]

Autotune the news comes to mind immediately. I especially like Turtles for maximum ridiculousness.

Madame Gandhi is upbeat/danceable and all about smashing the patriarchy.

But the one sing that I would really want to hear at your party is Do You Hear The People Sing
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 11:38 AM on September 13 [1 favorite]

I'm not a pop music person at all

Two words: Chappell Roan. She's probably the biggest (US) pop star right now. I think the big singles are Hot To Go, Good Luck, Babe, and Pink Pony Club. Femininomenon is pretty great too.

Also, pump up vibes? Check. Smashing the patriarchy? Checkadee. Progressive ideals? Chancellor of the exchecker. Sticking it to the man? Checkia also known as the Check Republic, formerly a part of Checkoslovakia.
posted by mhum at 8:40 PM on September 13