It’s time for the American people to focus. Forget trivial matters such as crashing banks, foreclosed homes and foreign wars — there are important matters at hand. What designer will Michelle Obama wear to the inauguration? What TV shows will Sasha and Malia be watching upstairs at the White House? What tunes will their daddy be playing on his iPod? While you’re painfully weaning yourself from that CNN addiction, get a little relief over here, where we guide you through pop culture in the Age of Obama. He’s not the hippest guy in the room, but at least you’re unlikely to hear Lee Greenwood singing at the inauguration.

It’s time for the American people to focus. Forget trivial matters such as crashing banks, foreclosed homes and foreign wars — there are important matters at hand.

What designer will Michelle Obama wear to the inauguration? What TV shows will Sasha and Malia be watching upstairs at the White House? What tunes will their daddy be playing on his iPod?

While you’re painfully weaning yourself from that CNN addiction, get a little relief over here, where we guide you through pop culture in the Age of Obama. He’s not the hippest guy in the room, but at least you’re unlikely to hear Lee Greenwood singing at the inauguration.

First Family faves

If she expresses herself, rather than falling into First Lady Stepfordism, we’re betting that Michelle turns out to be the hipper Obama (at least until Malia hits high school). In the meantime, they’re parents of youngsters who dictate much of the family entertainment.

Here’s what we’ve gleaned of their cultural tastes, via comments they’ve made in interviews and on their own Web sites. We’d also like to offer a few suggestions to broaden their pop horizons — after all, it’s not like they’re busy or anything.

MUSIC BARACK LIKES

*Miles Davis

*John Coltrane

*Stevie Wonder (Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours was Obama’s campaign anthem)

*Bob Dylan (because, you know, the guy sang about change)

*Johann Sebastian Bach (does he have a Myspace page?)

*The Fugees (OK, we’re up to the ‘90s now!)

*Jay-Z (The rapper performed two get-out-the-vote shows in Detroit and Miami, but according to Newsweek, Obama’s campaign asked him to tone it down so as not to scare the undecideds)

*Sheryl Crow (Really? Methinks you pulled that name out of a lady-popsinger hat.)

*Howlin’ Wolf

*Yo-Yo Ma

*Kanye West

MICHELLE LIKES:

Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Anthony David and Mariah Carey

WE RECOMMEND

*John Legend: Because he’s smooth like you

*Amy Winehouse: You don’t have to endorse her behavior to love her sound.

*Billy Bragg: So when people call you a socialist, you’ll have earned it.

MOVIES BARACK LIKES

*The Godfather I and II

*Casablanca

*Lawrence of Arabia

*One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

It may have been too much to ask for a Pulp Fiction or Brokeback Mountain, but the youngest movie on this list is 34 years old. You couldn’t even list Do the Right Thing, the movie you saw on your first date with Michelle?

WE RECOMMEND

*Bamboozled: If you’re going to name a Spike Lee, might as well step up to the precipice.

Saving Private Ryan: Gives you that wartime cred

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle: The story of two earlier breakers of racial categories

BOOKS BARACK LIKES

*Moby Dick: The American people can believe a lot of things, Mr. President-elect, but I don’t know if they can buy this.

*Song of Solomon: Author Toni Morrison endorsed him last January

*Shakespeare’s tragedies

*Parting the Waters: Taylor Branch’s biography of Martin Luther King, whose oratory style Obama sometimes borrows

*Gilead: A novel! From 2004! Obama’s going contemporary!

*Self-Reliance: Reading Ralph Waldo Emerson? So much for socialism.

*The Bible: Are you allowed to run for president if you don’t list this?

*The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln: Now that’s old school.

*Super-man, Conan the Barbarian comics

WE RECOMMEND

*The Grapes of Wrath: So you’re reminded how high the stakes are.

*The Savage Detectives: A globe-trotting novel that will stretch your international muscles

TELEVISION BARACK LIKES

*SportsCenter: The ESPN imperative

*M*A*S*H

*The Dick Van Dyke Show

*The Wire

MICHELLE LIKES

*HGTV, American Idol

THE GIRLS LIKE

*American Idol, Hannah Montana, SpongeBob Squarepants

WE RECOMMEND

*The Office: When Americans tell you they’re fighting for their careers, this show will remind you how little they want.

*30 Rock: Because you owe Tina Fey.

*Saturday Night Live: In the hopes that with Michelle in the White House, they’ll finally have to hire a black woman.

IN AND OUT

We don’t all have to change our tastes, but popular culture does tend to reflect and counter the government in power. Who’s coming, and who’s going:

IN

*Reggie Love (Obama’s personal aide and hoops buddy, a former Duke player)

*Fox News

*Bill O’Reilly

*R&B

*Dixie Chicks

*Thakoon

*Cocktails

*Arugula

*Ugly Betty

*Basketball

*Smart Car

*Target

*Hawaiian beaches

*Shepard Fairey (designer of the iconic Obama poster)

*High fives

OUT

*Karl Rove

*The Daily Show

*Keith Olberman

*BB guns

*Hank Williams Jr.

*Escada

*Beer

*Iceberg

*24

*Baseball

*Hummer

*Wal-Mart

*Texas ranches

*Leroy Neiman (painter beloved by sports fans)

*Cheek pecks

Fashion

For decades, Escada and St. John have been the go-to designers for First Ladies, both pricey and a little dull. Michelle Obama’s drawing a lot of Jackie Kennedy references and she does have a sense of fashion adventure — see her experiments with Thakoon and the controversial Narciso Rodriguez acceptance-speech dress (our vote: Lose the cardigan and it’s a winner) — but there’s also a streak of practicality.

A campaign that spent months talking about the middle class now has a First Lady that middle class women can dress like, too. White House/Black Market is a favorite of hers. This fall, she made an impact in a J. Crew ensemble that retails for about $340. Even more relatable: She wore its $90 yellow cardigan on multiple occasions. She knows what most women do: When you go in your closet, you look for what’s worked before.

Her husband, fashionably speaking, is the running mate. He wears a suit great, but he’s physically suited to suits (on the basketball court, he hides his skinny in sweatpants). He’s been better at inspiring others, with his face on one dress and his name on another at this fall’s Paris fashion week. Artist Van even put his face on a pair of Nike Air Force Ones. Keds did the same on a pair of slip-ons.

Obama made an actual statement when interviewed by MTV about baggy jeans: “Brothers should pull up their pants,” he told Sway.

It’s a good point, but we’d like to say to you: Mom jeans are not the answer.

The biggest fashion statement you’re likely to see on the President-elect is a White Sox cap, which could make about half of Chicago reconsider its vote.

The girls are making their own style waves, with the Nordstrom-purchased dresses they wore in Grant Park on Election Night. Malia’s red silk taffeta dress, by Biscotti Inc., sold for $110. Sasha’s black Gerson & Gerson babydoll dress was $72 and will come back in the spring, now named after her.

Back to Top