Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic Congressman and current New Jersey gubernatorial candidate, loves Bruce Springsteen, and he wants you to know it. Like, really wants you to know it. He wants you to know it so badly that he was apparently willing to Photoshop his Spotify Wrapped to display exclusively Springsteen hits, in what might be the most unnecessary political scandal in…well, in not that long, because there are tons of them. But this one is spectacularly silly.
Here’s the situation: As everyone was sharing their Spotify Wrapped this year (and cringing at the company’s decision to present it as a podcast hosted by two AI hosts who couldn’t pronounce artist names correctly), Gottheimer decided to drop his top songs and try to curry favor among New Jerseyans by showing off his fanboy credentials for Bruce Springsteen, the state’s golden child.
No surprises here…
Fun fact: My first ever concert was at Meadowlands to see The Boss! pic.twitter.com/xuAcNn8si8
— Josh Gottheimer (@Josh4Jersey) December 6, 2024
“No surprises here,” Gottheimer said in a tweet showing that his top five tracks of the year were all Springfield joints: “Thunder Road,” “Because the Night,” “Glory Days,” “Badlands” and “The Rising.” Hey, you like what you like. If the most recent song on your most played came out more than two decades ago, so be it.
Except those weren’t really his top songs. People pretty quickly picked up on the fact that something was wrong with his Wrapped. Sure, it’s extremely pixelated but that’s very on-brand for a Gen Xer online, no harm there. As first pointed out by New Jersey Monitor’s Terrence McDonald, the giveaway was the text itself: the “g” in the phrase “Your top songs” was pretty obviously in a different typeface than the rest of the text, and the numbers and spacing were off, too.
🤔Lol. h/t @terrencemcd pic.twitter.com/pRh61vRvsO
— Matt Arco (@MatthewArco) December 9, 2024
It’s pretty clear Gottheimer manipulated his Spotify Wrapped. Why? NJ.com’s Jeremy Schneider got the gubernatorial candidate on the horn to ask and he decided to throw his kids under the bus. “This would be my Spotify Wrapped if I didn’t share my account with my 12 and 15-year-old kids,” Gottheimer said. “While it’s Springsteen all day for me — don’t get me wrong, I still love listening to Taylor Swift!”
The Congressman has defended his decision to go full Stop The Steal on Spotify’s data by invoking the “It was a joke!” defense. He tweeted Wednesday, “To paraphrase the Boss: I wasn’t here for business baby, I was only here for fun. So just relax. This was a fun holiday tweet. It’s a joke to question my Springsteen creds, just ask my dog named Rosalita!”
To paraphrase the Boss: I wasn’t here for business baby, I was only here for fun. So just relax. This was a fun holiday tweet. It’s a joke to question my Springsteen creds, just ask my dog named Rosalita! pic.twitter.com/M8zShqjZ7N
— Josh Gottheimer (@Josh4Jersey) December 11, 2024
Alright, man, you love Bruce Springsteen. We get it.
But here’s a question: Who is this for, exactly? Obviously, The Boss is beloved in New Jersey. Last year, sitting Governor Phil Murphy declared September 23 to be “Bruce Springsteen Day” in the state. But do you really need to hammer on the Bruce Tramps demographic this hard? Will New Jerseyans simply refuse to forgive you if you don’t have the E Street Band serving as the backtracking to every moment of your life?
Residents of New Jersey listen to other stuff! According to iHeartRadio, the state’s favorite artist in 2023 was SZA. Bruce isn’t even the highest-streamed New Jersey-born artist—as of 2022, that honor belonged to Halsey. You can like Bruce Springsteen, you can listen to him exclusively if that is your thing. But doctoring your fandom credentials in order to prove that you refuse to expand your horizons is not really the flex that you might think it is, Josh.
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