On his first trip as secretary of state in March, as his Air Force jet was rumbling down the runway and headed to Tokyo, Mr. Blinken welcomed his entourage with a few blasts from “Rockin’ All Over the World” by Status Quo. (“All aboard and we’re hittin’ the road/Here we go,” the lyrics say.)
“The thread that runs throughout my life is probably music,” Mr. Blinken said in an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year.
The new travel playlist, which will be updated throughout his future trips abroad, provide a glimpse of Mr. Blinken’s personality beyond the business suit. It ranges from the Wombats, an indie rock band from Liverpool, to a sugary groove by the Indonesian pop artist Chrisye, to reflective piano solos by the late Bruce Gaston, an American who lived in Thailand.
There are also a few of Mr. Blinken’s own tracks on Spotify, although not on the road trip selection. Uploaded over the last three years, between gigs at the State Department, where he had served as deputy secretary during the Obama administration, they feature Mr. Blinken not just on the guitar but also on the mic — an unabashedly and personal exhibition for someone in a profession that is usually so buttoned up.
In the Rolling Stone interview, Mr. Blinken waxed about his reverence for Eric Clapton, whose music influenced him to get serious about playing the guitar. The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was the first album that Mr. Blinken owned, he said in the interview, and it was expected that he stop in at some of the Fab Four’s old haunts while in Liverpool this weekend.