Obama: You know what we need? More political music

“I’d like to see a more explicit discussion of the issues that are out there right now, because music’s such a powerful mechanism,” he said, noting that there’s not “as much directly political music” as there used to be.

“Everything moves so fast today that you can set the world on fire in a positive way just in a message that goes through the internet,” he said, noting that he used to have to “buy an album or a cartridge.” The president detailed his position on music at some length, saying that he remembers listening to Bob Marley in college and “not agreeing with his whole philosophy necessarily but raising my awareness about how people outside of our country were thinking about the struggles for jobs and dignity and freedom.”