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Quantifying the diva-ness of national anthem performances
- pimlottc 3y agoIf you don't see the faces when you get to the part that says "Click on the faces", try making your browser window wider. It doesn't adapt well to narrow windows, sadly.
- AlbertCory 3y ago"gratuitous melisma" Courtesy of Mariah Carey, especially.
- dctoedt 3y agoRelevant Reddit thread: "Why can't singers perform the national anthem without changing the melody? It's not just what happened on Sunday night football, it's literally every time someone performs the (American) national anthem. They go off and add their own notes and change the anthem to make it their own personal showcase. Just sing the damn song the way we all learned it." https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/11427z/why_cant_singers_perform_the_national_anthem/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/11427z/why_cant_...
- charcircuit 3y agoI've noticed this happens with covers of other songs too and it angers me to no extent when they deviate from the original beyond changing the octave and such.
- munchler 3y agoGotta disagree with you there. The whole point of a good cover is to put your own spin on the song. If it's just a note-for-note redo of the original, why bother? The best covers end up "owning" the song, and the original is sometimes forgotten. Do you think Johnny Cashs's version of "Hurt" would've been better if he tried to sound like Nine Inch Nails?
- anigbrowl 3y agoYou can make a song your own without trying to rewrite the whole melody. A particularly dramatic example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Cp55MvX54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Cp55MvX54
- charcircuit 3y agoThe point of a cover for me is to see someone else sing the same song. >If it's just a note-for-note redo of the original, why bother? People's individual voices are different. It's not like a synthesizer where every note sounds the exact same. >Do you think Johnny Cashs's version of "Hurt" would've been better if he tried to sound like Nine Inch Nails? From a quick look it seems like the main difference is that John doesn't mumble as much. I think it's fine to clearly enunciate the words of a song. I don't think that changes the song.
- andy99 3y agoAs a sort of counterpoint, Jimmy Hendrix's version of the national anthem was incredibly popular and influential. The issue is it's easy to try to do some over-the-top thing with the anthem, it's just very hard to do it well so most efforts flop.
- bongodongobob 3y agoYeah that was at a counter culture music festival though. Completely different situation than a football game. It was almost ironic.
- dralley 3y agoWhitney Houston did a good job with it too.
- dctoedt 3y agoEdit to my comment above: I have no quarrel with creative covers and often love them. Example: I like Counting Crows' version of "Big Yellow Taxi" better than Joni Mitchell's original. Taylor Swift's "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" at Carole King's RRHOF induction was wonderful. But: Call me a chauvinist — the National Anthem is different.
- vunderba 3y agoI mean... really? For the same reason that instrumentalists and vocalists have been constantly fiddling with the original printed note since the dawn of music by adding vibrato, playing in octaves, etc. Because they want to show off. I'm neither condoning nor condemning the practice of embellishment, but it should be obvious why people do it.
- Kim_Bruning 3y agoI'm ok with people trying new UI paradigms from time to time, I suppose. In this case though, I was presented with 2 buttons with no clear way to progress at first (blank page, turns out you have to click on 'continue muted' before even a scrollbar appears, albeit almost unnoticeably thin), and the rest of the content was only available piecemeal. If you unconventional-scroll through this piecemeal content to the very end (including an entire full screen autoplaying video, even if your screen is UHD), you actually find a little red button marked "skip to more data". And if you click on that you actually find a wealth of data. And no other path to reach it that I can see.
- Waterluvian 3y agoThe diva-ness of website design.
- vdaea 3y ago[flagged]
- lpa22 3y agoWhat country are you from?
- nostromo 3y agoI'm glad Fergie is still being mercilessly mocked [1] -- because since that went viral I think people have toned the diva-ness way down. It's a good thing because a lot of people sing along in the stands if given the opportunity -- which is largely impossible with most of these big ego diva renditions. 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DkDrZa0F4c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DkDrZa0F4c
- steve_adams_86 3y agoWow, that was weird. Totally weird. Far better than I could do, without a doubt.
- mynameishere 3y agoI found the website a little inscrutable but I think "Bleeding Gums" has it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny2azUt5d3Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny2azUt5d3Y ...apparently the session singer nailed it in one take.
- rl3 3y agoVoiced by Daryl L. Coley if anyone's curious.[0] Bleeding Gums Murphy was ultimately portrayed by three voice actors across the character's arc. [0] https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Daryl_L._Coley https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Daryl_L._Coley
- LAC-Tech 3y agoIt's one of those bits that wouldn't be nearly as funny if the vocalist wasn't really talented.
- LAC-Tech 3y agoLOL I remember this. Can youuuu - I'M ASKING - can you seeee?
- mys_721tx 3y agoI hope they also analyze Enrico Pallazo's performance during the Queen's visit.
- Detrytus 3y agoThe weird thing is that they even hire all those singers to perform. The way it's done in my country is that there's an orchestra that plays the melody, and the people in the audience are expected to sing, which they always do :) But maybe that's because our national anthem is much better suited to be sung by a crowd than the American one?
- cafard 3y agoThe Star Spangled Banner is a strain for most of the population.
- overstay8930 3y agoIt is not that hard to sing unless you want to sound ridiculous on purpose
- fragmede 3y agoit's got a wide vocal range, and a bunch of high notes. of course setting yourself up for failure and trying to sound rediculous makes it even harder, but as far as songs go, it's on the harder end
- tzs 3y agoHere are some ways to check with other songs if you've got a range that can handle "The Star-Spangled Banner" (SSB). • Starting from the note you would like to start SSB with, start singing "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor" (DS). That repeats the opening note though to the "drun" and then drops a fifth for the "ken". A fifth is also the lowest SSB goes below its starting note, so if you are OK with the first drop in DS you should be fine with the low parts of SSB. Alternatively you can use the "Flintstones" (FS) theme. It drops a fifth from the "flint" to the "stones". To check the high end, "Over The Rainbow" (ORB) works. The jump in the first word, "somewhere", from the "some" up an octave to the "where" is the same as the interval from the start of SSB to the highest note of SSB. That actually fits in nicely with DS. After that drops down a fifth in the middle of singing "drunken" the next word, "sailor" goes back up in a couple thirds to get back to the starting not. So just keep going from there but switching to ORB. • Instead of checking from the note you want to start with, you can check from the lowest note you can comfortably handle. Starting from that low note, start singing "Scarborough Fair" (FAIR). This jump in "are you going" from "you" to "going" is a fifth. Then switch to ORB. So sing "are you going somewhere over the rainbow" starting with FAIR melody and switching to the ORB melody at "somewhere". If you can reach the high note on "where" you've SSBs range covered. Instead of FAIR you can use the opening two notes of the "Star Wars" them or of "Also Sprach Zarathustra".
- dylan604 3y agoTrevor Noah has a bit about how 'muricans are the only ones that sing the national anthem all the damn time. He adds how it's also the only anthem where it is sung differently each time depending on the performer. Personally, I have always felt very strange in the entire concept of having to sing this at various events or in school as well as the pledging of allegiance. It just feels very cultish or something you'd expect a dictatorship to make its citizens do. Like when we are shown videos of the North Koreans lined up praising the dear leader, the videos of US school kids doing their version of it just rubs me the wrong way
- cooper_ganglia 3y agoThe anthem uncoupled from what it stands for may seem strange, which is why it’s so important to remember the lives of the fathers, brothers, and sons sacrificed at Fort McHenry holding up the flag through the night, and all the lives lost since then holding up the foundations of freedom and our way of life. If you’re living in America enjoying the (ever shrinking) bounty of liberties we have, it’s good and healthy for yourself and for the country to reflect on that every now and then, and kids should absolutely have a love of their country (and thus their fellow countrymen) reinforced daily. I think falling away from a national identity hurts everyone.
- dylan604 3y agoyeah, no. not for me. just reading what you've written gives me flashbacks to all of those uncomfortable moments of having to perform some oath and pledge my allegiance to something i did not choose. nobody chooses where they are born. why would someone else expect they'd pledge their fealty to something they didn't choose to be apart of just because of their place of birth? to me, it's just weird that anyone would pledge their blind loyalty to something that doesn't give a damn about them
- kbos87 3y agoI've always thought of the national anthem as more of a collective show of appreciation for the good parts of the US, which is probably why I've always been OK with it. The pledge of allegiance, on the other hand, feels like a forced statement of blind loyalty. Gives me the same ick I get whenever I've been at some sort of rally or protest when they try to hype up a crowd. I've never been to church but I'd imagine it's the same thing.
- UweSchmidt 3y agoDidn't find this one in the list, little divaness imo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3qD1jKNYaU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3qD1jKNYaU (Huey Lewis & the News)
- overstay8930 3y agoMarching bands in high school and college football stadiums perform the national anthem with more dignity than any pop singer ever could.
- pezezin 3y agoIt would be nice if the headline mentioned that the article is about the US national anthem, as there are about 200 other countries in the world, each one with their own anthem.
- dylan604 3y agoand how many of the other ~200 countries is it common for their respective anthem to be sung with diva-ness? i'd suggest the fault is with the reader if you can't figure out something from context clues
- romafirst3 3y agoReally?
- dylan604 3y agoYup. Name one other country where the anthem is a show off for the performer rather than just the same thing every time
- romafirst3 3y agoYou clearly don’t watch a lot of other countries anthems being sung.
- Amehle 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Zelphyr 3y agoThe vocal gymnastics of these people who perform The Star Spangled Banner have, in my opinion, made it intolerable to hear anymore. I really wish for once someone would sing it without adding all the notes in the scale to it.
- kweingar 3y agoEven the plain notes of The Star-Spangled Banner are ostentatious, occupying over an octave and a half. The song lends itself to soloists rather than collective singing. I would go further and ask for changing the national anthem to a song that anyone can sing. God Save the King is a good example of what a country should go for.
- cameronh90 3y agoIf God Save the King is what you’re after, just go for My Country ‘tis of Thee. Same melody but with added freedom, and as a bonus it was used as a national anthem historically.
- jrm4 3y agoMaybe you like the style or not, but this whole entire conversation could be made much more interesting by talking about what this is often really about, which is Blackness. The metaphorical implications of us formerly enslaved folks often making this song our own...like whew, where to begin?
- kaycebasques 3y agoA few from the list that I found quite good: * Beyonce 2013 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGDH18R7GfA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGDH18R7GfA * H.E.R. 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL8sJEv00PU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL8sJEv00PU * Jazmine Sullivan 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XkiuGRo3rk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XkiuGRo3rk * And of course the GOAT, Whitney 1991 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9bxfxE25Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9bxfxE25Y
- Slow_Hand 3y agoFor my money, the best rework of the American National Anthem was when Marvin Gaye performed it at the 1983 NBA All Star Game. So Smooth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2KYZ1BritY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2KYZ1BritY Clearly I'm a fan of people putting their spin on this. I take pride in American's being given free reign to interpret it how they wish. I feel like it embodies the spirit of invention, ambition, freedom, and creativity that I consider to be a (mostly) positive quality of our national character.