Just sing it the way it's meant to be sung...

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So in light of Christina Aguilera's flub of the National Anthem, I raise this point: why do singers (especially popular ones) always fuck with the pitch and timing of the national anthem?

Nothing is more annoying than holding a note where it's not supposed to be held, or exaggerating lyrics that aren't supposed to be emphasized.

This is how it's supposed to be sung:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ETrr-XHBjE[/video]
 

GasBandit

Staff member
"Diva renditions." Gotta hate them. Some entertainers try to "stunt" to impress others by seeming to yodel the lyrics instead of singing them. I blame Whitney Houston for getting the ball rolling on this nonsense.
 
M

makare

It is such a difficult song anyway I don't know why they want to complicate it further.
 
What would be the point of having different people sing it each time if they were all going to do it the same way?

There are a lot of cover songs that are more popular and catchy than the originals - are you insisting that the covers should not exist?

All art is open to interpretation, especially performance art - both by the actor/singer and the audience.

Yeah, I think her particular rendition sucked. However, there are those for whom it was great, who thought the ones I liked were boring.

Oh, and GET OFFA MAH LAWN YA CRAZY HOODLUMS!!!
 
M

makare

I don't see it as art. It is just supposed to be a singing of the anthem as kind of an honor thing.
 
Why even sing the national anthem? Quite frankly, who gives a shit, it's a American football game.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Why even sing the national anthem? Quite frankly, who gives a shit, it's a American football game.

Added at: 17:12
What would be the point of having different people sing it each time if they were all going to do it the same way?

There are a lot of cover songs that are more popular and catchy than the originals - are you insisting that the covers should not exist?

All art is open to interpretation, especially performance art - both by the actor/singer and the audience.

Yeah, I think her particular rendition sucked. However, there are those for whom it was great, who thought the ones I liked were boring.

Oh, and GET OFFA MAH LAWN YA CRAZY HOODLUMS!!!
There's a difference between singing it a little different and "OH HO HOohowoah-whoahohohoOAOAAAHOwowowoowownow saay... oh sayayayheeeeeeyayayayiieeeeeeIEEEEEEEyayay can... caaaaaaaaan you seeeeEEEEEEEEEEEyeyeyEEEEEEEEYEYEYEEEEEEe..."

If your artistic rendition turns a 5 second part of a song into 30 seconds of diva yodeling, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG.
 
Meh, call me a troll I care not, I just find the concept of signing the national anthem in anything short of the World or Euro Cup to be completely pointless.

The reason why they hire someone to sing it (heck, even Rosanne did it) and they tend to fuck it up is basically because it's an incredibly boring thing to do.
 
You know what I'm sick of on this forum? Every time someone says something that is remotely controversial, they're automatically a troll. He's not trolling. He brings up a valid point... Jesus.
Added at: 19:49
I don't see it as art. It is just supposed to be a singing of the anthem as kind of an honor thing.

It's not art. It's a national anthem. It should just be seen as an honor to sing it. That's it.
 
Sometimes I go to a minor league basketball team's games to pass out coupons for my work. Last time I was there it dawned on me just how silly it seemed to HAVE to sing the national anthem before the start of what was just going to be yet another low scoring, uninteresting basketball game. My only guess was that it was for the same reason we had to say the pleadge of alliegence every day in school after 9/11.


But yes, if you do sing it, sing it right or at least take the time to rehearse how you're going to interpret it. I'd imagine that's what happened to Christina agulera
 
My friend won 40 bucks on prop bets that night for guessing Xtina would make the anthem longer than 1:53 and holding the last "brave" for over 11 seconds.
 
M

makare

You know what I'm sick of on this forum? Every time someone says something that is remotely controversial, they're automatically a troll. He's not trolling. He brings up a valid point... Jesus.
Added at: 19:49



It's not art. It's a national anthem. It should just be seen as an honor to sing it. That's it.
I'm confused are you arguing with me or what?
 
You know what I'm sick of on this forum? Every time someone says something that is remotely controversial, they're automatically a troll. He's not trolling. He brings up a valid point... Jesus.
He told us to call him a troll. And we always listen.

Also, someone can be bringing up a valid point, but be doing so for the sake of trolling.
 
"Diva renditions." Gotta hate them. Some entertainers try to "stunt" to impress others by seeming to yodel the lyrics instead of singing them. I blame Whitney Houston for getting the ball rolling on this nonsense.
You're about 22 years too late...
 
I timed it, it was 1:52.
Actually - I think I read that the sportsbooks in Vegas had a problem. The over/under was like 1:54. She came in at 1:52, but left out a line. So some books called it a push, while others flat paid the under. Even more still paid the over because had she sung the line she left out, it would have come in longer.

"Caught up in the moment" = she was too busy gyrating & gesticulating to concentrate on the words. Hell most venues put the words on the scoreboard/jumbotron to help the person to not forget the words.

When I was playing summer-league baseball, we played in Babe Ruth regional & world series tournaments. I had a streak of 6 straight pre-game anthems where the performer fucked up. The one for the world series opening ceremony even got 75% of the way through it, then said "Oops I'm sorry I messed up. Let me start over" & proceeded to try again....
 
"Diva renditions." Gotta hate them. Some entertainers try to "stunt" to impress others by seeming to yodel the lyrics instead of singing them. I blame Whitney Houston for getting the ball rolling on this nonsense.
Patti LaBelle was fucking it up for a good 20 years before that...
Added at: 15:24
Jose Feliciano was the first to do a non-traditional singing of the Star Spangled Banner before a national audience, in '68.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
You know what I'm sick of on this forum? Every time someone says something that is remotely controversial, they're automatically a troll. He's not trolling. He brings up a valid point... Jesus..
Bringing up a valid point would be saying "It's not entirely clear to me that we should continue to embrace the tradition of singing the national anthem at sporting events, and I don't particularly care for football in any case." What he said was "who gives a shit about the national anthem? Who gives a shit about football?" That is trolling. It is specifically phrased in such a way as to cause an emotional reaction. Maybe he does it subconsciously as opposed to intentionally, it doesn't change it. Trust me, I can smell my own.


You're about 22 years too late...
Patti LaBelle was fucking it up for a good 20 years before that...
Added at: 15:24
Jose Feliciano was the first to do a non-traditional singing of the Star Spangled Banner before a national audience, in '68.
Those are excellent examples that predate mine, but their efforts didn't lead to the snowball effect we're currently at the bottom of, where you can almost take it as a given that any given rendition of the national anthem will have 6000% more notes and gasping than originally intended.
 
Bringing up a valid point would be saying "It's not entirely clear to me that we should continue to embrace the tradition of singing the national anthem at sporting events, and I don't particularly care for football in any case." What he said was "who gives a shit about the national anthem? Who gives a shit about football?" That is trolling. It is specifically phrased in such a way as to cause an emotional reaction. Maybe he does it subconsciously as opposed to intentionally, it doesn't change it. Trust me, I can smell my own.
You enjoy politics, I'd rather wipe my white ass with sandpaper than to endure pointless political discussions. Republicans are incompetent and over protective retards and Democrats are dim-witted fools with holier than thou attitudes. Now, this is a troll. PS: I actually feel this way. However, I never take part in any political discussions as they just as inflammatory as religious discussions. These topics are the general "opinion are like assholes, everyone's got one" genre. Moving on....

I clearly stated that singing the national anthem is absolutely pointless. Not singing the American anthem being pointless... but you're Gasbandit and must argue the most pointless of matters and have to find "reasons" to debate the moot dribble that seems to get you through your miserable day. Singing the National Anthem in sports is useless unless it's for representing COUNTRIES, such as the World Cup or the Euro in football (the real one). For example: Italy vs Spain.

Why does it need to be sung during the Super Bowl? Heck, why do they sing it in hockey when over 50% of players come from overseas? Why is it sung in baseball when 80% of those players come from 3rd world countries or Puerto Rico? Singing the anthem is fucken pointless. That's my opinion and not trolling, get it right. Don't go Republican on me. Complaining about how a pop star is incredibly unchallenged by singing a pointless song in their own adaptation is even more pointless.

Heck, why am I even posting here anyways? This is the most absolute of pointless.

"Troll" out.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
You enjoy politics, I'd rather wipe my white ass with sandpaper than to endure pointless political discussions. Republicans are incompetent and over protective retards and Democrats are dim-witted fools with holier than thou attitudes. Now, this is a troll.
Actually, your earlier comment about the national anthem and football was a better troll than that. Ironically, what you just said passes muster for normal debate in the political subforum, not trolling.

I clearly stated that singing the national anthem is absolutely pointless. Not singing the American anthem being pointless...
I never specified "American" either.

but you're Gasbandit and must argue the most pointless of matters and have to find "reasons" to debate the moot dribble that seems to get you through your miserable day.
See, now that's getting a little bit better. You've graduated from blatantly insulting verbiage being used to disparage popular ideas to straight out ad hominem. It's still freshman level trolling, but at least it usually garners ire even if it is just as transparent.

Singing the National Anthem in sports is useless unless it's for representing COUNTRIES, such as the World Cup or the Euro in football (the real one). For example: Italy vs Spain.
See, now if this is what you had said, alone, and without invective, we wouldn't be having this little corrective lesson here, youngling. Unfortunately you've also made the cardinal error of trying to call football what the dominant culture of Earth has already irrevocably and categorically forever branded "soccer." Sorry. That's the way it is.

Why does it need to be sung during the Super Bowl?
It's not really a "need," it's just...
On the night of September 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer and amateur poet, accompanied American Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner to negotiate a prisoner release with several officers of the British Navy. During the negotiations, Key and Skinner learned of the British intention to attack the city of Baltimore, as well as strength and positions of British forces. They were held captive for the duration of the battle and witnessed the bombardment of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry. Inspired by the American victory and the sight of the American flag flying high in the morning, Key wrote a poem titled “The Defence of Fort McHenry.”

Upon his return to Baltimore, Key gave the poem to his brother-in-law, who noted that the words fit melody to the popular drinking song, “The Anacreontic Song.” Key’s brother-in-law took the poem to a printer, who made broadside copies of it. A few days later, the Baltimore Patriot and The American printed the poem with the note “Tune: Anacreon in Heaven.” Later, the Carr Music Store in Baltimore published the words and music together as “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The song gained popularity over the course of the nineteenth century and was often played at public events like parades and Independence Day celebrations (and, on occasion, sporting events). In 1889, the Secretary of the Navy ordered it the official tune to be played during the raising of the flag. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson ordered that it be played at all military ceremonies and other appropriate occasions, making it something of an unofficial national anthem.
After America’s entrance into World War I, Major League Baseball games often featured patriotic rituals, such as players marching in formation during pregame military drills and bands playing patriotic songs. During the seventh-inning stretch of game one of the 1918 World Series, the band erupted into “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Cubs and Red Sox players faced the centerfield flag pole and stood at attention. The crowd, already on their feet, began to sing along and applauded at the end of the song.

Given the positive reaction, the band played the song during the next two games, and when the Series moved to Boston, the Red Sox owner brought in a band and had the song played before the start of each remaining contest. After the war (and after the song was made the national anthem by a congressional resolution in 1931), the song continued to be played, but only on special occasions like opening day, national holidays and World Series games.

During World War II, baseball games again became venues for large-scale displays of patriotism, and technological advances in public address systems allowed songs to be played without a band. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was played before games throughout the course of the war, and by the time the war was over, the pregame singing of the national anthem had become cemented as a baseball ritual, after which it spread to other sports.


Heck, why do they sing it in hockey when over 50% of players come from overseas? Why is it sung in baseball when 80% of those players come from 3rd world countries or Puerto Rico?
Because they came to America.

Singing the anthem is fucken pointless.
*fucking. Or, I suppose, *fuckin'. Note the apostrophe.

That's my opinion and not trolling, get it right.
Don't go Republican on me. Complaining about how a pop star is incredibly unchallenged by singing a pointless song in their own adaptation is even more pointless.
I never said they were unchallenged, I said they were attention whores, though in slightly different wording.

Heck, why am I even posting here anyways? This is the most absolute of pointless.

"Troll" out.
Indeed. It's all pointless. You should just go home and open a vein.

If it's any consolation, Jay, I didn't think it was trolling in the least.
That's because you're an asshole. For you, it's just as natural as respiration. But you come by it honestly.
 
D

Disconnected

My (ancient and personal) understanding of an anthem is that it is a uniting tune that is to be sung by the people not to the people. In order to create a universal harmony and all that happy crap. For example, a country flag looks the same wherever you go, a country's anthem should be the same wherever you go.

The tie between wartime and sports events is so disconnected these days that, from my perspective, that meaning is lost on today's audience rendering the patriotism hollow. People are not spontaneously rising to honor the fallen, they begrudgingly stand and limply hold their hand up while mumbling. Case in point: (sorry phil)

...how silly it seemed to HAVE to sing the national anthem before the start of what was just going to be yet another low scoring, uninteresting basketball game.
I feel y'all is in them thar democracy and that people that attend games should vote on if or who sings it etc.

Personally, I don't think anthem's need to be sung at any, yes ANY sporting event. Why do you say that? you may ask, because I simply find it unnecessary.
Now the olympics are another matter, and thread altogether. (i don't like them at all)
 
ROFL look at Gasbandit go. Human spellchecker? Ad hominem? Whoaaaa Nelly! You really must hate your life.

Once again, my opinion stands, no need to flame several posters in the process in sharing yours.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
ROFL look at Gasbandit go. Human spellchecker? Ad hominem? Whoaaaa Nelly! You really must hate your life.

Once again, my opinion stands, no need to flame several posters in the process in sharing yours.
That's right, bitch, just lie there and take it like a good girl.
 
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