Recently there has been a lot of talk about a golden age being in America’s future. President Trump has been promoting a “golden age” as an optimistic vision and narrative for his second term in office. No matter whether or not you support Trump, I think everyone would agree that it is at least admirable for any president to be pitching something as abstract and ambitious as a “golden age.” There is so much that needs to happen in order to get to a golden age. A golden age would need to obviously entail such things as economic prosperity, peace, tranquility and good public policies passed by the government. I think a test for whether or not we have attained a golden age would be whether people have the conscious feeling that they are living in a golden age. This means that a golden age would require something more than the robotic passage of good public policies. In other words, a golden age would need to be a vibe. It would need to be a feeling, a state of mind, and it would need to have heart and soul. What would be better than music to do the job? That’s why I want to propose a soundtrack for a golden age:
“Shimmer” by Fuel;
“Sunburn” by Fuel;
“Just Another Day” by Jon Secada;
and “Angel” by Jon Secada.
I know how bizarre and outlandish this all must sound, but let me explain why I chose these four songs out of the many, many millions that have been recorded. I picked them because they struck me personally as embodying the definition of “exceptional” as much as they struck me as being novel, enthralling, intriguing, tranquilizing and underrated. They also struck me as naturally being majestic and mainstream enough so that they could appeal to a universal audience. These are 90s songs that capture the soul of the 90s music scene. They each were sizable hits when they came out, but yet there is also a sizable consensus from the tens of thousands of listener comments on YouTube that these songs are underrated and have been overlooked. I think this is because these are naturally what may be called niche songs. They each ooze so much heart, so much emotion and so much introspection.
This is where Hamilton College and its student body come into the picture. I was a visiting professor in the Government Department during the 2022-2023 school year, and Hamilton’s campus vibe and student body really inspired me to write this article. I came to think that these songs captured the essence of the Hamilton vibe and could be a soundtrack to Hamilton College. Since Hamilton is a niche college with niche students, I also thought that maybe Hamilton students would be naturally drawn to this playlist and Hamilton’s student body could be a vanguard to grow a larger national social movement. That’s why I specifically wanted to test my playlist to see how well it is received by Hamilton’s students. At the very least, maybe it could foster a sense of shared inspiration and social solidarity on Hamilton’s campus among Hamilton’s student body on top of the great social chemistry the student body already has.
As niche songs, they need to be promoted and showcased in order to be revived and so that they can reach and inspire the widest possible audience they can. What I’m trying to say is that I think I have the intuition that their actual niche is in fact comprising a soundtrack for a golden age. Each of these songs is gripping, riveting and irresistible on its own, but compounded together as a playlist these songs are nothing short of mesmerizing. I think these songs sell themselves. You have to listen to them more than once to really get into them. At least that was my experience. I just happened to be the “middle man” so to speak, in that I just happened to hear them and have the intuition that they could be so much more if they were showcased as a soundtrack for a golden age.
The embracing of a soundtrack for a golden age should be seen as a social movement that takes place outside of traditional politics. We are currently experiencing a lot of political conflict in America where people clash along partisan, ideological, racial, religious, geographic and socioeconomic fault lines. That is precisely why we need something that unites us all! Music that has a universal appeal may be the only thing to unite us all. The soundtrack for a golden age is meant
to diminish and wear down political conflict as a function of being something that unites us all. Political conflict can be defused and de-escalated when we have a sense of shared inspiration that cuts across partisan, ideological, racial, religious, geographic and socioeconomic differences.
My argument is inspired by influential philosophers like Plato and Ralph Waldo Emerson who emphatically prioritized not just discerning what is beautiful using intuition, but then also sharing and making accessible that which is beautiful to other people. Simply put, they felt that beauty has the inherent power to overwhelm and overpower the ugliness of conflict so that we can improve and make progress. For example, in his essay “Art,” Emerson wrote, “thus, historically viewed, it has been the office of art to educate the perception of beauty. We are immersed in beauty, but our eyes have no clear vision. It needs, by the exhibition of single traits, to assist and lead the dormant taste.” In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche emphasized how a “lack of music, speaking metaphorically (but not only metaphorically)” is a major problem for individuals and society. For such a person who lacks music, “in the movements of his soul and body he has no rhythm and dance, indeed not even the desire for rhythm and dance, for ‘music.’” In other words, a people who has no “music” has no rhythm.
As I said before, this playlist sells itself. There are so many people on YouTube who comment on these songs by singing their praises, and they dial their praise all the
way to eleven. For example, as of November 2024, the official music video for “Just Another Day” has amassed 84 million views, with 505,000 people giving it a thumbs up and 18,729 people commenting on it. One person dialed their praise all the way to eleven by commenting on it the following: “Its 2049, I’m 70 years old and STILL! listening to this song. WOW!” As of November 2024, the official music video for “Shimmer” has amassed 25 million views, with 153,000 people giving it a thumbs up, and 7,472 people commenting on it. One commenter asked “Who feels like you will never get bored of listening to this?” An astounding 2,000 people gave a thumbs up just to this one specific comment. On the basis of this evidence from people’s comments, it is safe to say that almost everyone is going to be captivated by at least one of the songs out of the four on this playlist, and that would mean at least music can generate a type of consensus and social solidarity in order to have something that could potentially wither away that which divides us. The whole point of the playlist is to offer something that drowns out political conflict with beauty.
Hamilton students can test this playlist by listening to each of the songs and determining whether in fact they are mesmerizing enough to create a shared inspiration and fervor in the student body. If this playlist naturally generates fervor and stimulates excitement, Hamilton students may have the power to lead a national social movement toward a golden age by disseminating the playlist to friends and family outside of the Hamily.
