(NewsNation) — DJ Cassidy, the musical maestro behind the Democratic National Convention’s unconventional roll call, tells “The Hill on NewsNation” about the process of curating a 57-song playlist to represent America’s states and territories.
“I knew right away that I wanted this process to be collaborative. I did not want to curate the soundtrack to this roll call in a vacuum. I very much wanted to collaborate not only with the convention producers and the Democratic National Committee, but with the states themselves,” Cassidy said.
That included working with the representatives and delegates for each of the states, ultimately deciding on what would impact the viewer most rather than sticking to songs only made within that territory.
“At the end of the day, the soundtrack was based in emotion. Every song had to exude the emotion of the convention. So of course, we wanted the artist, perhaps, to be from the state, or the lyrics to mention the state,” Cassidy explained.
“But when all was said and done, the key to the soundtrack was striking an emotional chord, not only with the people in the arena, but, of course, with people around the country and, in this case, around the world,” he added.
