If J.D. Vance’s Spotify Account Is Real, Well, It’s On-Brand

On Monday, J.D. Vance, the 39-year-old memoirist turned US senator from Ohio, became the first Millennial to appear on a major party ticket as a vice presidential nominee. Still, Vance’s views on an array of issues—from the desirability of no-fault divorce laws to his belief that “universities are the enemy”—place him firmly outside the mainstream of his generation. But there is one way that Vance can relate to his age cohort, and that is his use of the sort of public-facing internet applications that keep our most embarrassing moments alive forever.

Sleuths at the Daily Dot have uncovered what appears to be his Spotify account, featuring a seemingly recent picture of the senator as its profile picture. If the account is authentic, it seems like Vance is a fan of some pretty stereotypical bands for someone born in 1984, like The Strokes, Passion Pit, and The Killers. It also shows a penchant for the musical acts he might have inherited from Baby Boomer parents, including Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, Bonnie Raitt, and Joni Mitchell. The roundup also includes some artists who probably wouldn’t be too excited to hear that Vance is a fan, like famous left-wing singer-songwriter Billy Bragg, or U2, led by the globalist favorite Bono. (A request for comment to a campaign spokesperson was not immediately returned.)

The account has five public playlists apparently curated by Vance himself. Some have descriptive titles that would have been nice blog names at the peak of the Tumblr era, such as “Morning Has Broken” and “Gold on the Ceiling,” but others have fairly straightforward titles. “Running #1” features a selection of mid-tempo songs that might be appropriate for a leisurely run, like “Chicken Fried” by the Zac Brown Band or “Little Sister” by Queens of the Stone Age. The playlist kicks off with the 1997 song “One Headlight” by The Wallflowers, and in 2023, Vance told Vanity Fair that he actually does listen to that one “every time” he runs.

“Making Dinner” features 11 tracks, including “One Time” by Justin Bieber, “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys, and a few others from the Black Keys, Of Monsters and Men, and actor Jason Schwartzman’s solo project Coconut Records. All but one of the songs on the playlist were added on December 15, 2012, during Vance’s final year at Yale Law School, so it’s possible that this was the actual soundtrack to a real dinner, however bizarre.

The discovery of the Spotify account is not the only indication that infosec isn’t high on the list of Vance’s concerns. On Thursday, Wired published a story featuring their analysis of what appears to be Vance’s public Venmo account, which features a friend list including Amalia Halikias, the Heritage Foundation’s government relations director, alongside Bari Weiss, Tucker Carlson, and Arizona senator Jeff Flake.

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