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Here's Hillary's Campaign Kick-off Playlist

by Chris Tognotti

If you're a Hillary Clinton fan, you've probably already heard about the big scene that went down on Saturday — Clinton addressed a crowd of supporters at Roosevelt Island in New York City, marking the first major public event of her 2016 candidacy. She gave about a 45-minute speech, and although you'd expect nothing less from a crowd of sympathetic ears, it was very well received. But before she took the stage, her supporters were doing a lot of standing, but they were treated to some tunes. Are you curious what Hillary Clinton's pre-speech campaign kickoff playlist sounded like?

Music is always a component of political campaigns, especially when you get to that post-nomination rarified air. Clinton's husband Bill famously went with Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" as his 1992 campaign anthem, and it's stuck with him ever since — it was used as his motif for appearances at the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Democratic National Conventions, and if he appears at the 2016 DNC, it seems a safe bet we'll hear it again.

For Hillary, however, it's still early on, so we'll have to wait and see if any of these tracks end up sticking as a main theme. Here's her full kickoff playlist, at least starting from where C-SPAN's video of the big event begins.

Well, there you have it! It's worth noting that there was a pair of live musical performances as well, but you can't very well load those onto your iPod. Also, obviously, Katy Perry's "Roar" was played twice in the lead-up to Clinton's speech, so maybe that gives us a hint which track she prefers best?

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For what it's worth, Clinton's campaign used a quartet of familiar tracks back in 2008 — Bachman-Turner Overdrive's "Takin' Care Of Business," Dolly Parton's "9 to 5," Tom Petty's "American Girl," and Celine Dion's "You and I." And while a pre-speech playlist doesn't necessarily indicate what her recurring campaign tracks will be, it's noticeable that those 2008 songs are by and large much older than what Team Hillary rolled out on Saturday — Dion's "You and I" was the freshest release at just four years old, while the others were all pre-1994.

By contrast, Jennifer Lopez' "Let's Get Loud" was the oldest track on offer Saturday, with all the others being released no earlier than 2009. Could a fresher sound be a priority in 2016?

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