Thoughts on a pop music ban for one season?

[Tutto]

Before you get excited or heartbroken, no, it is not the ISU directive for the new season - alas! It is only my dream, wishful thinking, a cry for sanity...
Yesterday I was re- watching some recordings from the last season (thanks to my Sky box) and noticed with annoyance that I have to mute too many performances - not really enjoying the result but better that than to hear once again wailing of Feeling Good and other pop 'masterpieces'. This morning I read that Isabelle Ollson chose 'I put a spell on you' for her short and that was the last straw where I was concerned. Even pop music has millions of pieces why to subject our ears (and the judges') to the same crab season after season.
I also observed that no classical music piece won the World Title in Boston across all four disciplines. Is classical music dead in FS for good or there is still a hope? The skaters have embraced allowed now vocals with gusto but it seems to have pushed classical music even further from the position it once enjoyed in figure skating. I dream of one (just one please!) season free of overused pop music and maybe even a compulsory choice of classical music for either short or long program - I know it sounds a bit too much. To clarify - I do not mind good contemporary music, some movie soundtracks are fantastic for instance. Your thoughts?

 

[karne]

But if you do that, then you ban Joshua's exquisite Give Me Love, or Brendan's elegant Secrets...it can be done well, with a bit of thought and effort.

 

[Tutto]

^ anything can be done well but I find it much easier to listen to overused pieces of classical music repeatedly during the season that to overused pop. That's where the difference lay. The Moonlight Sonata is still easy on the ear even when you hear it for the 20th time. 'Take Me to the Church' is quite enough once. If you notice I don't proposed to ban it forever - just for a trial season as a challenge for skaters & choreographers

 

[dreamsk8]

I think there should be rules of sorts for songs used in general competition. I mean exhibition skating used to be where the skaters could let loose and have fun with the music and programs that were not the traditional figure skating competition style. And that what made exhibitions really fun and exciting and special. And that worked for so long I don't see why it needed to change. :scratch3:

 

[Mathman]

The Shibutanis did well with their Coldplay song.

But overall, yeah, I agree with the OP in spirit. Figure skating used to be unique in that it was about the only place you could hear classical music unless you deliberately sought it out by going to the symphony or the opera. ("No more rice krispies" notwithstanding ) Maybe they could hold special competitions where everyone had to go with Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven. (Has anyone ever skated to Haydn? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biyy2tzMb8M ) After Beethoven, "classical" music started to take the wrong path, IMHO.

The argument in favor of modern popular music usually asserts that this is the way to attract a younger audience to the sport and to increase its overall popularity. I think this is more wishful thinking than statistical fact.

 

[Tutto]

The Shibutanis did well with their Coldplay song.

But overall, yeah, I agree with the OP in spirit. Figure skating used to be unique in that it was about the only place you could hear classical music unless you deliberately sought it out be going to the symphony or the opera. ("No more rice krispies" notwithstanding ) Maybe they could hold special competitions where everyone had to go with Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven. (Has anyone ever skated to Haydn? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biyy2tzMb8M ) After Beethoven, "classical" music started to take the wrong path, IMHO.

The argument in favor of modern popular music usually asserts that this is the way to attract a younger audience to the sport and to increase its overall popularity. I think this is more wishful thinking than statistical fact.

Haydn- don't think so, Bach hardly ever (can't wait to see what Mao will do!) there are millions of pieces not explored. Mozart's piano concertos? They are all masterpieces not only No 23 used by Carolina & P/C, the list can be continued forever...
And you are right figure skating lost its uniqueness and hasn't gained new audiences just the opposite.
I've just stumbled across this article - old but quite on topic if you haven't read it before - worth a glance and some interesting comments too:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/feb/19/figure-skating-sochi-music-worse

 

[Rissa]

No. That's a bad idea.

Personally, I really enjoyed the diversity this season. Incidentally, I watched the 2011 ladies event a few days ago and holy crap I found it extremely boring. Everything sounded the same. No wonder I only became a more than casual fan recently. The fact that all the classical and soundtracks are broken by some pop/rock with vocals makes a world of difference.

Shibs were magnificent (despite that Coldplay is not my cup of tea), Adam Rippon was a blast, I liked Radio's song despite the Leo voiceover, Menshov's medley of Mad World/Radioactive was very creative and well put together, Ashley was amazing, and these are only the ones from the top of my head.

Not all pop choices ere a hit, but frankly, for me there are as many misses in the traditional music choices as in pop ones. Not to mention the much larger repetitiveness of traditional music. All in all, I'm very much in favor of pop/rock music and vocals staying for good and I wouldn't like it all to go back to just strings and drums (*deliberate exaggeration for the sake of argument*) even for one season.

 

[moriel]

Bad idea.
There are many amazing pop music programs, and there are many terrible classical music programs, for example.

I think that if you don´t like some music styles to a point you have to mute performances, that may be your personal issue, not a FS issue, and other people may be actually enjoying what you muted, and muting stuff you liked. There is no such thing as "all bad" genre / style or "all good" genre / style.

Finally, I´m actually happy to see pop music in FS programs, as its more interesting to many new / young fans. For instance, many of the teenagers I know who could follow FS, find many classical music programs hard to relate to.

Now, warhorses are a whole different issue You complain about 'I put a spell on you', other people may complain about 'Carmen'. Same issue

 

[NaVi]

I also observed that no classical music piece won the World Title in Boston across all four disciplines

Medvedeva's music was orchestra arrangements from movie soundtracks...

I don't see a big problem... pop music/music with vocals are only used about 20-25% of the time. Figure skating was starting to hit a stale aesthetic and needed to change. I do agree that hearing the same pop song over and over is more tiring than hearing the same classical piece.

 

[Interspectator]

I can put up with a lot of Junk pop in exchange for one great pop program: Joshua Faris' Give me Love.

 

[loopy]

I like the variety too. Yes some is terrible, but for some it works well - just like for some classical music works well and for others it doesn't.

 

[lyndichee]

I think we are confused with music genres. This is almost like the discussion about the inclusion of hip hop in ice dance; it does not mean vulgar rap music that sexualizes females.

"Feeling Good" and "I Put a Spell on You" is jazz and rhythm and blues.
"Give Me Love" doesn't even contain pop in the genres in the iTunes store. It is acoustic, rock and/or contemporary.
"Fix You" and "The Scientist" are alternative rock pieces.
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is psychedelic rock.
"Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey is the closest probably at pop/rock

Pop music is more like Gracie Gold skating to "Shake It Off" which isn't even a competitive piece.

I think if you just want to impose a season of classical music only, then ISU would be closing off the potential of attracting new audiences. Figure skating popularity has really dived in the last decade; SOI in North America has been cutting down on stops. Both times I've attended the Toronto show I have seen tons of empty seats. I think in order to grow the audience to ensure that the sport continues and skaters can earn money, they will have to tap into younger audiences. This would likely mean skating to popular music outside of classical pieces.

The challenge with most pop music these days is that they are made to be catchy and repetitive; most music on the charts are not suitable for figure skating as it only provides about a minute of unique music to skate to. However, there are some good releases in the last two decades that I believe can offer enough variety to be used for skating programs. Coldplay, One Republic, Kodaline, some Indie pop etc. I wish choreographers had more creativity in terms of incorporating rock. If skaters/federations had larger budgets, I'm sure they could get some DJs, musicians and/or producers to create and piece together some songs. It's a shame that most skaters can't.

I think ISU should take most responsibility to give skaters feedback at the beginning of the season. If they are skating to "Feeling Good" or "I Put a Spell on You", skaters should be told use at your own discretion but human bias will likely hold back on giving PCS and audiences will be less receptive. They should advise against it and ask them to choose something less common.

 

[ice coverage]

Re what is good for the sport:

What will make figure skating attractive to the talent pool of athletes -- the future Medvedevas or Cizerons, etc., etc. -- is an important consideration, I would think.

Many skaters have selected non-classical music.
And I believe that many skaters have given up other sports (in which they had early success as well) to devote themselves exclusively to figure skating.

IMO, forcing classical music down the throats of skaters -- even for one season -- would send the wrong message to budding athletes who have not yet felt certain about making figure skating their one and only sport.
A message that non-classical music is not encouraged could make it easier for a future Javier Fernandez (for example) to decide to turn away from figure skating and toward another sport. Is that what we really want?

 

[Tutto]

I think if you just want to impose a season of classical music only, then ISU would be closing off the potential of attracting new audiences. Figure skating popularity has really dived in the last decade; SOI in North America has been cutting down on stops. Both times I've attended the Toronto show I have seen tons of empty seats. I think in order to grow the audience to ensure that the sport continues and skaters can earn money, they will have to tap into younger audiences. This would likely mean skating to popular music outside of classical pieces.

I think ISU should take most responsibility to give skaters feedback at the beginning of the season. If they are skating to "Feeling Good" or "I Put a Spell on You", skaters should be told use at your own discretion but human bias will likely hold back on giving PCS and audiences will be less receptive. They should advise against it and ask them to choose something less common.

I see a contradiction here and I agree with Mathman:

'The argument in favor of modern popular music usually asserts that this is the way to attract a younger audience to the sport and to increase its overall popularity. I think this is more wishful thinking than statistical fact.'

How do you explain the empty seats if classical music has been used less and less for years now?

ISU control is a sound idea with which the judges would probably be delighted, after all they have no option of watching muted.
How about some music bank for the season and once a piece was selected another skater/pair can't chose same?

 

[Tutto]

Music bank, seriously?

Yeah, great way to put stop to creativity and ensure that figure skating will truly and well become stale and obsolete.

Yeah lets support creativity after all one needs plenty while skating to the same music with another 5 or more skaters in the same season

 

[Crossover]

Is classical music dead in FS for good or there is still a hope?

If that can be true, how come we have been complaining about same old warhorse pieces of music like Carmen or Swan Lake in figure skating?

 

[silverfoxes]

As much as I understand & can relate to getting sick to death of "Feeling Good" or "I Put A Spell On You," for me the multiple POTO and Tango de Roxanne programs were/are much, much worse. I suppose if there were a workable solution to cutting down on warhorses, it would have been found by now...perhaps there needs to be something in PCS scoring to encourage unique and/or creative musical choices. Of course it would be subjective like everything else left up to the judges, but maybe it would push choreographers to be a bit less lazy.

 

[Rissa]

ISU control is a sound idea with which the judges would probably be delighted, after all they have no option of watching muted.
How about some music bank for the season and once a piece was selected another skater/pair can't chose same?

Music bank, seriously?

Yeah, great way to put a stp to creativity and ensure that figure skating truly becomes stale and obsolete?

And why do you assume judges share your music tastes and hate what they hear?

 

[Tutto]

If that can be true, how come we have been complaining about same old warhorse pieces of music like Carmen or Swan Lake in figure skating?

I wouldn't mind Swan Lake this season actually

 

[Tutto]

Music bank, seriously?

Yeah, great way to put a stp to creativity and ensure that figure skating truly becomes stale and obsolete?

And why do you assume judges share your music tastes and hate what they hear?

My point has been that they surely must hate hearing the same piece more than once unless they are obsessed with Feeling Good for instance