Wednesday, January 20th, marked the genesis of a new American administration on a political level, but the inauguration itself—as American inaugurations often do—also operated as a cultural moment. The disciplines of fashion, music, and poetry—operating against a backdrop of bizarre, tense historical conditions—made their presence known. As the ceremony concluded, quickly produced reviews were produced, then quickly shared around on social media. The consensus? If Don McLean sang about the day that music died, January 2021 might be remembered as the day America’s collective artistic sense came back to life.
Musically, the program was clearly designed to signal unity and provide a combination of nostalgic classics delivered by a range of Americans to symbolize, and possibly promote national unity. Lady Gaga sang the National Anthem; Garth Brooks sang the hymn “Amazing Grace;” Jennifer Lopez gave her of “This Land is Your Land;” and young poet Amanda Gorman performed an original poem. All of the performances had their fans, but generally speaking, Amanda Gorman’s poetic performance got the most attention, closely followed by Lady Gaga’s intriguing, perhaps pointed delivery of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Gorman’s poem, especially, is worth dwelling on. Writing, then performing an original poem for an event like this is a tough gig, and only a handful of American presidents have even decided to go with this option, perhaps because the aesthetic and political stakes are high for both the poet and the president. Both Gorman’s poem and her performance of the text were impressive. The poem itself tapped into a long tradition of American poetics: her lines recalled the expansive meters of both Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman--giants of American poets--and carried delicate but distinct performative elements of the spoken word poetry movement as well. She also reminded this listener more than a little of the American poet e.e. cumming’s taste for linguistic, grammatic innovation, and subtle (sometimes not so subtle) pointed political criticism. In a short but stunning performance, the twenty-two-year-old phenom managed to allude, elegantly, to a lot of the American literary tradition: the poem itself points out many of the country’s flaws even as it celebrates the possibilities that the American experiment promises. And as if that weren’t enough, her canary yellow outfit topped by a distinctive hat was credited with a subtle shout-out, or even a , of Jackie Kennedy’s trademark style.
Lady Gaga’s performance is also worth looking at in further detail as well. A lot of critics picked up on Gaga’s decision to go with intriguingly mixed rhythms. Much as in Amanda Gorman’s performance, Gaga’s execution of the national anthem managed to convey both continuities with past traditions, signal the moments of current unease, and gesture toward the exciting possibilities of the day. Hope and fear, in other words, were mixed in potent but equal measures and that intriguing mix was embedded right into the musical performance itself.
Amusingly, it might have been a picture of a different politician that ultimately captured the day and ended up being the potential icon of a new era. Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders—regarded by many as the founder and face of a more progressive movement in the United States—was photographed sitting, with legs and arms crossed, watching the proceedings with a somewhat stoic air. To complete his somewhat generic-looking ski jacket, Bernie wore thick mittens made from repurposed wool and recycled plastic. Bernie’s firm grounding in a common American reality seemed to communicate a ‘let’s get to work’ attitude that captured the mood of the country and perhaps the world. Within a few short days, the image itself was repurposed, recycled, and reimagined millions of times in countless contexts, and this morning it seems on pace to capture the title of ‘most popular meme ever,’ if such an exists.
In their own way, Amanda Gorman, Bernie Sanders, and Lady Gaga—as different as they were—may have presented a similar aesthetic message without even meaning to. There was much to celebrate. There was much to mourn. There remains much work to do.
by Nathan R. Elliott
i. “Jewel Tones and Bernie Sanders Mittens: Inauguration Day Fashion 2021.” The New Yorker.
Jan 21, 2021. 4 mins. Advanced.
ii. “Flashback: Don McLean sings a stirring American Pie in 1972.” Rolling Stone. Feb 3, 2019. 2
mins. Intermediate. (Also includes 9 min embedded video of Don McLean singing iconic
American Song.)
iii. “The Hill We Climb: The Amanda Gorman Poem that stole the inauguration show.” Jan 20,
2021. 3 min. Intermediate: Poetry.
iv. “We asked a professional soprano to appraise Laga Gaga’s national anthem at the Biden
inauguration.” Classic FM. Jan 20, 2021. 3 mins. Intermediate/Advanced: firmly rooted in
professional music vocabulary.
v. “What made Amanda Gorman’s poem so much better than other inaugural verse.”
Washington Post. Jan 22, 2021. 6 mins. Intermediate/Advanced.
v. “Scowling Bernie Sanders happy his mittened meme may raise millions for charity.” The
Globe and Mail. Jan 24, 2021. Intermediate. 3 mins.