The two icons joined a podcast that dealt with everything American • The good parts were of the music, but the majority felt like a worn-out cliché or an election speech
The podcast news came to the mainstream a little late.
In some scenes and for true fans of different subcultures (from unsolved crime cases through horror movies to professional wrestling) this has been a popular content consumption format for quite some time.
The writer of these lines himself has been consistently listening for three years to about five or six every week, but last year the rest of the world seemed to have discovered this easy-to-produce platform (assuming you have a good microphone).
And now it seems that no media outlet, artist or public figure, is complete without their own podcast division, or at least one or two good ones.
Even News 12 recently discovered a thirst for conspiracies, and created (albeit belatedly) some of their own.
This year the trend has intensified, and we are already predicting what can only be described as podcast inflation.
Any half-cooked idea, half-reasoned opinion or conversation between friends is burned forever on the web.
While this is not an exact calculation, at the moment it feels like every half hour a new podcast comes into the world.
Some of them are original, worthy, present new voices and prove that with a little knowledge of editing, verbal abilities and something interesting to say - anyone can become a popular content consumer.
Others, well, do not really justify listening or reference.
But when two icons like Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama join a podcast on Spotify - that can't really be ignored.
"Renegades" ("renegades" or "rebels") is the name of this oh-so-American show, plus the phrase "Born in the USA" - a reference of course to Springsteen's iconic song, and perhaps Obama's response to the president who replaced him, Donald Trump, who accused him for years of being born outside the United States.
Either way, there are those for whom the bombastic name and presence of a pair of cultural and political icons is enough to show interest.
It makes sense: Springsteen, along with being a giant in his field, is considered one of the political artists the United States has known.
A class musician, who told the story of his country at crossroads like the Vietnam War, the twin disasters or the racial wars over 50 years of unquestionable creation.
He is identified with the liberal side of the American political map, has expressed support for Democratic presidential candidates and has appeared before left-wing presidents more than once.
His affiliation with the American presidential institution was clearer than ever during the Obama administration, and Springsteen appeared before the free world leader and his people more than once between 2008 and 2016.
The president and boss have an early acquaintance, a common language and natural chemistry, all of which are evident in the new podcast, which has so far hit the popular streaming platform five episodes.
But musically gifted or great rhetoricians as they may be - that still doesn’t make “Rangaides” an interesting podcast.
Every episode, for almost an hour, these two distinct symbols of Americana deal with the complex history of, yes, you guessed it - America.
There is certainly something to talk about there, and non-Americanophiles must have found interest more than once in the social and political changes that "the land of the free and the home of the brave knew".
The so-called - there is quite a bit of meat to bite into around the bone.
It's just a shame that the vast majority of the dialogue between the two contains mostly worn-out clichés, nim dropping and big-time bombastic statements about freedom, class gaps, music and kindness.
Both are eloquent, likable, pulling out a nice anecdote here and there, but for the most part the feeling is of narration to a promo full of pathos or an advertisement for a series on the History Channel.
The more audible passages in the slightly digging dialogue between the two are those devoted to music (and this is provided, as requested, by Springsteen - a bad word about which you will not say in this text).
Other beautiful moments are those that are revealed a little behind the scenes of friendships between the two, or when the former president reveals a trivia detail from his personal life (like his grandmother's reaction when she heard him sing the sensual lyrics of "Let's get It on" by Marvin Gaye, as a 10-year-old) .
The moments of magic that the musician provides, beyond the pieces of poetry, are the ones in which he speaks candidly about the small town of ten thousand inhabitants where he grew up, his father's mental illness and beautiful friendships with Clarence Clemons, the late legendary saxophone player and member of Springsteen Island.
The two discuss issues of music, economics, social leadership and the myth about the endless roads of Great America, and also focus quite a bit on the issue of race wars in the United States.
They both sometimes have interesting thoughts on the subject, but most of the time the ideas presented are pretty general, like campaign slogans, election speeches or well-written mythology.
It's hard to find a conversation that is too fascinating, certainly not one that renews.
This is not to say that Springsteen is not entirely worthy of his long-standing status and branding as a working-class hero, nor does it take away from the good intentions and personal charm of Barack Obama, a high-expression president and model of very "correct" ideals.
In terms of production, this is an invested product that includes background layers of music that correspond with the topics of the conversation, speech segments and other audio additions that deepen the listening experience.
It might interest light-hearted fans or fans of the two, but as a content-consuming experience, "Rangaides" just isn't interesting enough.
