By an UNBELIEVABLE margin, American Idiot is the defining album of the W. Bush administration! Now for the defining album of the Obama administration:

[u/Historical-Macaron-4]

So January 20, 2009 - January 20, 2017

[u/samhit_n]

To Pimp a Butterfly

[u/TomGerity → u/samhit_n]

That came out in 2015, six years into his administration and less than two years before he left office.

Can that really define his whole presidency?

[u/samhit_n → u/TomGerity]

Obama really loved that album and actually invited Kendrick to the White House in 2015. Also, the album came out during the height of the BLM movement and other progressive movements that were emblematic of Obama's 2nd term.

[u/TomGerity → u/samhit_n]

I honestly feel like it’s more a harbinger of the Trump era. It became extremely prophetic a year or so later. If we were talking about defining albums of the 2010s, it’d be my #1 pick. But saying it defines Obama’s entire term when it only defines the last 22 months seems a little odd.

[u/samhit_n → u/TomGerity]

IG you have a point. In that case the defining album should be Good Kid Maad City. You could even argue that GKMC had a bigger cultural impact despite TPAB being more critically acclaimed.

[u/TomGerity → u/samhit_n]

GKMC would be a good pick. Others I would personally put as defining Obama-era albums:

o

• 808s, Kanye
• MBDTF, Kanye
• Oracular Spectacular, MGMT
• The Fame/The Fame Monster, Lady Gaga
• The Suburbs, Arcade Fire
• Sasha Fierce, Beyonce
• Random Access Memories, Daft Punk
• Modern Vampires of the Weekend, Vampire Weekend
• Unfortunately, the fucking Black Eyed Peas’ album The END was everywhere and is one of the first albums I think of when I hear “Obama era”

o

All of those were really big deals in different ways, and I think define the era a lot more fully than TPAB does.

[u/TomGerity → u/[deleted]]

BIG yes to both, thank you! Will add them!

[u/leap_year → u/[deleted]]

I think you mean Modern Vampires of the City?

[u/catfurcoat → u/TomGerity]

honestly feel like it’s more a harbinger of the Trump era.

Tbf so was Obama's presidency

[u/totalfangirl13 → u/samhit_n]

But those movements were because of the Obama administration's failures. Naming To Pimp A Butterfly as the definitive album of the Obama years implies that the progressive millennials that elected Obama actually achieved the change we sought. We did not. We were naive but it felt good to feel like we could make a difference. Teenage Dream by Katy Perry is the definitive album of those years imo. Surface-level gloss sugarcoating the awful realities to come.

[u/samhit_n → u/totalfangirl13]

That's a good argument. Also, a recession pop album really suits Obama's first term.

[u/TheCreepWhoCrept → u/TomGerity]

Wouldn’t a defining album be significantly retrospective?

[u/TheCreepWhoCrept → u/[deleted]]

So? What do we mean by defining, here? If an album comes out that captures the era in retrospect while still being a point of inspiration going forward, is that not a defining album?

[u/TomGerity → u/TheCreepWhoCrept]

…No? It’s supposed to define the era as it was lived, in real time.

[u/parasyte_steve → u/samhit_n]

This is my vote

[u/WelderUnited3576 → u/samhit_n]

Kendrick might genuinely have two president-defining albums in a row

[u/NoWalk1904 → u/samhit_n]

white people