A lesson in coolness

Here we go again, another politician using popular culture as part of her PR effort. Condoleezza Rice, the United States' Secretary of State in a recent visit to England, revealed that she was a fan of the Beatles. But her timing begs more explanation than just her taste in music.

She may indeed be a Fab Four fan, as it is hard not to like a band that produced great music, but her revelation isactually an attempt to use popular culture as part of her political armory.

During questioning by a reporter, she could not understand a well-known Beatles reference, and appeared to only know the title of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. Her attempt to connect to a significant number of British people flopped.

Her reference to the Beatles, a British pop culture icon, is understandable. The US-led war in Iraq is growing more and more unpopular everyday, and she was facing loud antiwar protests at every turn, while being labeled a terrorist and killer. The Beatles could possibly assuage that anger. Or so she hoped.

Unfortunately, Rice failed miserably in her first attempt to blend politics with popular culture. She did not connect with the British people as well as she would hope. And the Beatles did not help in minimizing the angry protests. Rice is actually not a zero when it comes to music. Other than engaging in diplomacy for the world's hegemon, she is also a classical pianist. But apparently, the Beatles is not her thing.

Rice's attempt failed due to many reasons. It was clear that she was using the Beatles to present a friendlier face of herself and the administration she was representing. Her role as a close aid to a war president easily overshadowed the Beatles' antiwar stance (it was reported that protesters were planning to distribute t-shirts that read "Fab Four, Not War.") And one of the Beatle, John Lennon, went on to write Imagine, a song seen by many as a global peace anthem after he left the popular British band. Rice and the Beatles clearly stood a world apart.

The use of the hugely popular the Beatles is a no-brainer in this case. British politicians have been employing this tactic for a long time. Harold Wilson, Edward Heath and John Major have all attempted to use the Beatles for an image makeover, much like political parties here in Malaysia flock to Mawi and Siti Nurhaliza to reach out and connect to potential voters.

Perhaps Rice would do better to learn from a more genuine fan of the Beatles, and the prime minister of the country she was visiting: British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Until today, no politician has succeeded in mixing politics with popular culture quite like the New Labor prime minister. It is no exaggeration to name him the coolest British prime minister of all time.

The first single Blair bought was the Beatles' I Want to Hold Your Hand. He is a fan of rock groups such as Dire Straits, Supergrass, and The Darkness. He once jammed with a group of British school kids, had a rock band called Ugly Rumors when in college, invited Oasis's front man Noel Gallagher for a drink, and even appears in the popular animation The Simpsons. And the list inevitably seems to grow. Even among politicians that regularly cozy up to rock stars, Blair looks like the real thing. He knows the game well.

Once, to the surprise of many, Blair used a song by punk band Sham 69, If the Kids Are United as his walk-on music in a Labor cenference. One may think that he only used it for the title, much like conservative politicians in the US - including ex-president Ronald Reagan - mistakenly thought Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA to be a patriotic anthem. But not Blair. He chooses his pop culture item carefully.

The composer of the angst-ridden If the Kids Are United, Jimmy Pursey, who was himself caught by surprise had this to say: "Usually you see him with Geldof and Bono, the jet-set political messiahs. I see my band as more of an SAS unit. We're outlaws." We may never know if the use of that song managed to gain him new voters, but it could easily raise his visibility in the pop culture community.

But the tactic of employing popular culture as a political campaign tool is not without its critiques. Many have pointed out that it may deflect attention from the issues that matter most, which is to a large extent, very true. The mixing of politics with pop culture could reduce important issues to a few punchlines and slogans. Not that this tactic is absent in political campaign, but pop culture tend to focus more on the "star qualities" than anything else. Some have expressed politicians' reference of pop culture figures as pretentious.

A British Conservative politician, John Redwood once wrote: "I don't sing Oasis hits in the bath, nor do you catch me humming Supergrass behind the Speaker's chair. ... Let me declare firmly my lack of credentials. I do not admire middle-aged trendies who pretend to a second teenage by strenuously enjoying modern stars."

And pretentiousness and lack of street cred really showed in Rice's attempt. It looks like although the US is the world's biggest pop culture exporter and the bastion of cool, it still has to a thing or two to learn from a British prime minister.