US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is not a fan of country music, citing the achy-breaky subject matter of many of its songs as the reason.In an interview alongside his wife Jeanette on The Katie Miller Podcast, Rubio said he disagreed with her twang-filled musical playlist, which includes the likes of country music star Morgan Wallen.“I think it’s just very sad. Most of the songs are about, like, somebody whose wife and dog left them,” he said, before qualifying that “some of the time, certainly. Some of them are good.”As for his personal tastes, the former senator from Florida, who was born and raised to parents of Cuban descent, expressed a fondness for hip-hop, including slain rapper Tupac Shakur.“I thought he was a very talented person, primarily because I think he was a narrator more than anything else of a certain point of view and lifestyle, or upbringing and worldview. So I think, of all time, he’s probably my favourite,” Rubio said.As for other choices, he was less definitive, stating his appreciation for EDM remixes and their reimagining of genres such as country music.Rubio is not the first US secretary of state to reveal a perhaps unexpected musical passion. His predecessors over the past five decades have shown a predilection for genres ranging from rock to classical music, as fans and musicians, and in some cases have taken their cultural diplomacy to the stage with performances at official events.Here are five former secretaries of state and the music that defined them.Antony Blinken: The guitar-playing diplomatAntony Blinken performed at the launch of the Music Diplomacy Initiative at the State Department in Washington in September 2023. AFPShow caption: Antony Blinken performed at the launch of the Music Diplomac…Antony Blinken mixed the blues with US statecraft during his four-year spell as America's chief diplomat, beginning in 2021.In 2023, Blinken performed a cover of Muddy Waters's Hoochie Coochie Man at a State Department event launching a global music diplomacy initiative. The following year, he reportedly received negative feedback after strapping on a guitar at a Kyiv bar to play Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World, during a period when Russian attacks on Ukraine were intensifying.Go to Spotify and you can also find some original tunes. Released in 2018, after he left an earlier role as deputy secretary of state the previous year, songs including Lip Service, Patience and Without Ya appear under the name ABlinken.Condoleezza Rice: The piano womanCondoleezza Rice played the piano at a gala dinner during the 39th Asean ministerial meeting in Kuala Lumpur in July 2006. AFPShow caption: Condoleezza Rice played the piano at a gala dinner during th…Condoleezza Rice, who served under the George W Bush administration from 2005 to 2009, is probably the most qualified musician on this list, having played piano since childhood. At 15, she performed pieces by Mozart with the Denver Symphony Orchestra and continued playing, albeit less formally, during her tenure.Rice shared some of her favourite music in a 2006 interview with The Independent, citing works by Mozart and Brahms alongside more contemporary choices such as Aretha Franklin's Respect, Cream's Sunshine of Your Love and Kool & the Gang's Celebration.John Kerry: The high-school rockerJohn Kerry holding a guitar presented to him by Spain's former foreign minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo in October 2015. Getty ImagesShow caption: John Kerry holding a guitar presented to him by Spain's form…Long before negotiating nuclear agreements or becoming secretary of state, John Kerry wanted to be in a band.As a teenager, he played guitar and bass with The Electras, a high-school SURF rock group that recorded an album in the early 1960s.Henry Kissinger: Beethoven at full volumeItalian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, left, and Henry Kissinger attend the Joe DiMaggio Award Dinner in New York in January 2001. Getty ImagesShow caption: Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti, left, and Henry Kissinger a…Henry Kissinger was arguably the most consequential US secretary of state, yet his realpolitik was also powered by concertos.Kissinger, who died in 2023 and served under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from 1973 to 1977, was said to write while playing classical music at high volume, according to a reflective piece by former colleagues in The Wall Street Journal.In his memoirs, Kissinger also expressed a love for the works of Beethoven.Madeleine Albright: A lover of jazzMadeleine Albright performs at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Drums Competition at the Kennedy Centre in Washington in September 2012. Getty ImagesShow caption: Madeleine Albright performs at the Thelonious Monk Internati…Madeleine Albright had a deep love of jazz. The first woman to serve as US secretary of state, from 1997 to 2001, became a long-time supporter of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and hosted musicians connected to the organisation during her time in office. In 1997, she addressed its international jazz competition in Washington.When the National Museum of American Diplomacy opened an exhibition devoted to Albright's famous collection of diplomatic pins in 2024, jazz singer Rayshun LaMarr and members of the American Pops Orchestra performed in tribute to her love of the genre.