Super Bowl/Christina Agulaira

[Malarky]

It would be much more acceptable to miss a couple of lines because she was just nervous. Of course, I think she messed it up because she was busy on her own "interpretation."
JMHO

[TD2K]

Speaking of Whitney Houston, she has a version out there which is fabulous I thought.

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2011 21:13:28 GMT -5 TD2K said:

Speaking of Whitney Houston, she has a version out there which is fabulous I thought.

That was before she met Bobby!

[sesfw]

Anyone who sings the National Anthem should be required to know the words.

Disgraceful.

[TD2K]

LOL, one more for you

[Deleted]

Feb 6, 2011 21:22:05 GMT -5 sesfw said:

Anyone who sings the National Anthem should be required to know the words.

Disgraceful.

BINGO! She has had MONTHS! Any US citizen who doesn't know the words should be shot! How many people died when FSK wrote it!

[Malarky]

That's game.
Green Bay Packers.
The rest is just post game show.

[Apple]

BINGO! She has had MONTHS!

Just months? I'm sure she's had years! We were taught the song in kindergarten. They sing it at every game--baseball, basketball, football, hockey, etc, etc.

I didn't watch it though.

[chiver78]

Feb 6, 2011 23:26:06 GMT -5 Apple said:

BINGO! She has had MONTHS!

Just months? I'm sure she's had years! We were taught the song in kindergarten. They sing it at every game--baseball, basketball, football, hockey, etc, etc.

I didn't watch it though.

but apparently we should be sued for speaking about our public education.

[zibazinski]

If she bleaches that hair any blonder it's going to fall out. It must feel like straw.

[whiskmav]

I want someone to sing the entire anthem. All 4 stanzas.

[michelyn8]

I can attribute her missing a line to nerves, maybe.

But I'm with the camp that hates all these singers doing fancy interpretations of the Anthem. Its basically a simple song and should be sung that way. Instead we get these performers, who actually have beautiful voices when they "just sing", singing it in a fashion that only shows off their vocal range and detracts from the song.

If I wanted to hear dogs howling, I'd go to the hunt club and put fresh deer hides out of sight of the dog pens.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

It's bad enough that they butcher the Anthem, but many of these artists then kill it completely by creating their own renditions, turning it into a rock song.

[thyme4change]

Has anyone ever heard Frances Scott Key sing it?

If only there was some way to write down music so we would know how the composer meant to sing it.

(Although FSK didn't compose it.)

I'm somewhat okay with the interpretations. I like when musicians can put an interesting spin on things. My problem is that they haven't. No one has done anything "new" with their interpretation - they are just warbling out the same tired old interpretation that the last pop star did - all the way back to Jimmy, who started this. But what Christina did last night (aside from missing the lines) wasn't that different from what he did at Woodstock. If someone actually did something new, that would be interesting.

I agree that they have to wiggle all over the notes because pop stars can't hit and hold an actual note. So, people like Beyonce and Christina just dance all around it and make it sound like they are doing something interesting - but what they are really doing is saying to musicians "I'm not in key, and my tone is crap - but no one can tell because they can't catch me." It is very transparent.

[hoops902]

Feb 6, 2011 19:05:45 GMT -5 The J said:

Feb 6, 2011 18:50:44 GMT -5 @thecropchick said:

Is it me, or did she miss 2 lines of the National Athem?

Vegas must be pissed. They had an over/under betting line on the length of the Anthem

Why would they be mad, I would imagine most people bet the over.

She went over the line of 6 seconds on the word "Brave" at the end.

[hoops902]

Feb 6, 2011 21:22:05 GMT -5 sesfw said:

Anyone who sings the National Anthem should be required to know the words.

Disgraceful.

I'm pretty sure she knows the words, she's sung the song at major sporting events before. Not knowing the words is not the same as missing a line when performing on the biggest stage of your life. I know the words, that doesn't mean I'd necessarily sing it correctly when singing for 100 million people.

The thing that's really disgraceful is people who have never been in that situation before somehow looking down on someone for something as simple as nerves.

[hoops902]

"I agree that they have to wiggle all over the notes because pop stars can't hit and hold an actual note. So, people like Beyonce and Christina just dance all around it and make it sound like they are doing something interesting - but what they are really doing is saying to musicians "I'm not in key, and my tone is crap - but no one can tell because they can't catch me." It is very transparent. "

What do you want them to do though? Even if you could hit and hold a note, doesn't mean you could hit and hold THAT note. The 2 singers you mention aren't in that range to hit the higher notes, so their options are to move around a lot vocally, try to hit the note and sound horrible, or drop down an octave and hear "she sounded like a guy" the next day. It's kind of a no-win when someone wants you to sing a song that's been pre-composed and not for your vocals. The only other option is to opt out of singing it completely, but is that realistic given the payday and exposure?

I think there's also at least a bit of "well i sing it all the time at ballgames" syndrome going on where the average person doesn't truly realize how horrible they sound singing it themselves but has some idea that they're covering the range of notes so singers should...even when they aren't actually hitting the proper notes at all.

[swamp]

Feb 6, 2011 23:28:44 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

Feb 6, 2011 23:26:06 GMT -5 Apple said:

Just months? I'm sure she's had years! We were taught the song in kindergarten. They sing it at every game--baseball, basketball, football, hockey, etc, etc.

I didn't watch it though.

but apparently we should be sued for speaking about our public education.

Christina Aguilera was one of the Mouskateers on the Mickey Mouse Show, along with Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, so she was probably home schooled.

I'll bet if she went to public school she would have known the words.

[thyme4change]

The 2 singers you mention aren't in that range to hit the higher notes, so their options are to move around a lot vocally

Those two singers move around a lot on just about every note on every song. The style - especially 5 - 10 years ago when they were both a little fresher - is to not hold any notes. It gave us a whole decade of lazy singers. I think that style is passing somewhat as people are starting to value crisp, clear notes.

Our national anthem is a very difficult song to sing well. It has quite a range in it - but anyone of "Superbowl" quality should know to start very low and tank the beginning so you don't sound like a pubescent boy at the end. They can pick any key they want to sing in. If they don't have the range to do it - they shouldn't be professional singers.

[hoops902]

Feb 7, 2011 12:09:01 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

The 2 singers you mention aren't in that range to hit the higher notes, so their options are to move around a lot vocally

Those two singers move around a lot on just about every note on every song. The style - especially 5 - 10 years ago when they were both a little fresher - is to not hold any notes. It gave us a whole decade of lazy singers. I think that style is passing somewhat as people are starting to value crisp, clear notes.

Our national anthem is a very difficult song to sing well. It has quite a range in it - but anyone of "Superbowl" quality should know to start very low and tank the beginning so you don't sound like a pubescent boy at the end. They can pick any key they want to sing in. If they don't have the range to do it - they shouldn't be professional singers.

I guess my thought is that anyone who hires a pop star to sing the national anthem doesn't really want them to sing it "normally". There are a lot of classically trained singers out there who could do that. I think the issue is pretending that music stars are the same as "professional singers", they're really professional entertainers. I think you blame the people who booked her to sing it more than the singer herself. If you want the simplistic version then you book some no name who is a classically trained and accomplished singer. If you hire a pop star you're going to get the pop star version.

I'm not sure what you mean by "superbowl quality"...the qualifier for singing at an event like the superbowl isn't quality, it's fame. I mean look at the halftime performance (and I love the BEP's), but they weren't selected because of their vocal quality, they were selected because they're famous and popular. If the organizers wanted quality there are tens of thousands of people better qualified to sing the National Anthem.

I guess I don't get the general attitude that she sang it "wrong" in some way. She sang it exactly as everyone probably knew she was going to sing it (at least as far as style). Nobody thought the Pea's were going to come out at halftime and do their performance acapella. When you bring in a music star to perform, you do it assuming they're going to perform in their style.

[thyme4change]

I don't care for the style where they can't hit and hold a note - no matter what the song.

[Sum Dum Gai]

So I've read this whole thread and decided that most of you are just old. Pretty soon you're going to be telling the neighbor kids to keep off your lawn, whining about pretty much every song on the radio, and every other sentence out of your mouth will start with some variation of "when I was a kid."

[thyme4change]

I actually like a lot of the pop music of today. There were a few years where the rap was really angry and there was a lot of killing people and stuff - I wasn't so crazy about it then. Even at the "hippest" of my younger days, I had weird feelings about pop music. I know what a good musician sounds like. I don't really care what genre they are working in. I also know all the tricks to cover up for poor talent. Sometimes I'm okay with those tricks, and sometimes I'm not.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

they are just warbling out the same tired old interpretation that the last pop star did - all the way back to Jimmy, who started this

The difference here is that Hendrix was doing an artistic guitar rendition of the anthem at Woodstock, without the lyrics - and he hit all the right notes.

[sesfw]

'looking down on someone for something as simple as nerves.'

If she had a case of nerves, then she should have sung it the right way. As an ANTHEM, not a bad performance.

[michelyn8]

So I'm old to want the National Anthem to sound like a song and for the singer to actually sing instead of warbling like the seagull in The Little Mermaid? If that's the case, then 42 went from being middle-aged to being old.

BTW: I thought the Peas put on a lousy show and if Usher (another talented person) actually sang anything, I didn't hear it over the background singers. And I gladly admit I was cringing all through Fergie butchering Sweet Child of Mine. Axl Rose may be a mess, but in my mind, that's a G&R song and shouldn't be covered by the likes of Fergie.

[zibazinski]

According the the internet, she is embarrassed about flubbing it.

[thyme4change]

I thought the BEP did the best and nearly relevant half time show that I can ever remember. Of course, that isn't saying much. Nothing like rolling out the corpses of The Who and Paul McCartney to sing songs that were popular before half the viewing audience was born. Even Janet Jackson's famous show was totally out of date. She hadn't done anything worthwhile for more than 5 years when they booked her.

I liked the drums and bugle corps in the hoodies - that at least gave a nod to the fact that it was a football game.

As far as Fergie doing Sweet Child of Mine - I've never been a G&R fan - so I'll just make the joke that her voice was too low - there weren't dogs running all over after hearing that whiny high pitched screech that Axl chokes out.

[chiver78]

Feb 7, 2011 15:29:02 GMT -5 michelyn8 said:

So I'm old to want the National Anthem to sound like a song and for the singer to actually sing instead of warbling like the seagull in The Little Mermaid? If that's the case, then 42 went from being middle-aged to being old.

I'm with ya, and I want all the lyrics correct too. so I guess 32 just became really old too.

[chiver78]

thyme, I'd counter with U2's halftime show in 2002 - the scrolling names of the people who died in the various attacks on 9/11 - was pretty current and relevant.