Unlike most of their peers, old school funk-pop group Earth, Wind & Fire are experiencing a career resurgence, allowing them to pack Madison Square Garden and other arenas. They may have one person to thank: Barack Obama.

It seems that since the band performed in February at the White House for the Governors' Ball, they've seen an uptick in ticket and album sales. Obama has been big-upping the band since the campaign trail, when he listed them as one of his favorite bands.

President Obama, says band leader Verdine White, "has given credibility to great music, you know really good music, from jazz to pop to like Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, Wynton Marsalis. He actually told people, 'Look, check this kind of music out. These are my guys. This is what I grew up with." White believes part of the reason the music resonated—with Obama and with the public—is that the vision that motivated his older brother, Maurice White, to form the band, is similar to Obama's own: "All that work that Maurice did in putting together a band that would appeal to all types of people really is the same type of appeal that [Obama] is talking about. It's a sixties message that, at some times, people thought was kind of hokey. But through the lyric, giving people a sense of hope, the country caught up to us in a funny kind of way."

It just goes to show that if the president talks about bands, things happen. Now only if that worked in regards to health care, the housing crisis, predatory banking, hurricanes, Iraq and Afghanistan. [Newsweek]