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What I don't like about voiceovers is that I can never make out the words. While straining to understand what is being said, I take my attention off the skating.
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Inappropriate music in skating
- Thread starter lyverbird1
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What I don't like about voiceovers is that I can never make out the words. While straining to understand what is being said, I take my attention off the skating.
You didn't understand "Jack, Jack...". I understood it, and it still took my attention off the skating!
I didn't say it was offensive. I questioned the appropriateness of selecting religious music for a competitive sporting event.
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1. Why not?
2. What is the practical difference between "offensive" and "inappropriate"?
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The one time I felt religious music was inappropriate was Team USA's ex at WTT2015. They had chosen "Ave Maria" which as far as I know is a Christian song, in the full knowledge they had at least two Jewish skaters on the team.
(In 2013 they did "New York New York" which was much more fun and appropriate.)
(In 2013 they did "New York New York" which was much more fun and appropriate.)
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In my humble opinion, anything that takes our attention off the actual skating is ... well, maybe not "inappropriate," but I wish they wouldn't do it. If someone skated to the Muslim Call to Prayer chant, a lot of audiences would be like, huh? I would feel uncomfortable if someone skated to any part of The Book of Mormon soundtrack that makes fun of the Mormon religion.
If we want to pray to Allah or to mock Mormons, OK, pray and mock it is. but figure skating should not be burdened by such distractions.
That's what I think, anyway.
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Well, I think invoking religious or political references color a program in a way that's out of balance to what is being presented on the ice. I feel the same way about Medvedeva's 9/11 music. It doesn't "offend" me, it makes me me wonder what that person was thinking. That's all.
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As I said: whatever happens there is always someone offended.... lol
As a Christian I don't mind Jewish music at all, as a matter of fact... As long as it's good. Music is music.
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Hey ancientpeas, I'm just checking in to say, "Aren't you proud of me for steering clear of this topic?"
Because you know that I could do some riffs on what's inappropriate in skating...
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It's fair.
Ave Maria became a classical piece by now, however. Same as Amazing Grace and many others. It's just good music. Period. Very good music. And very skatable.
But agree you better skate well to it, because a poor performance to a powerful music makes the performance even worse.
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This is why no one, not even Michelle Kwan, ever skated to Haydn. :yes:
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If we are talking about the Schubert Ave Maria, it had an interesting history. It was originally composed, not as a setting for the Catholic Latin prayer, but to accompany a verse in the long poem "The Lady of the Lake" by Walter Scott. In the poem the Lady of the Lake, tired of hiding out in the cave of a friendly Scottish goblin, sallies forth to fight against King James.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_(Schubert)
The Gounod Ave Maria is Bach's Prelude #1 in C major from the Well-tempered Clavier. It wasn't until a century and a half later that the music was adapted for a religious text.
This one carries more religious and moral baggage. It was composed by the captain of a slaving ship, who later in life came to regard his former occupation with horror. This is a flat-out hymn praising the Christian God for extending His mercy even to inveterate sinners and lost souls such as he.
To me, this is pretty heavy on the theology for an athletic contest.
Although ... the most I ever teared up at a skating performance was one time Yuka Sato did Amazing Grace at a local club show.
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I wish I saw it....
Amazing Grace, although being Christian, does not have specific Christian references. It's just religious.
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The performance was especially heart-wrenching because it was a benefit show for the family of a local skater, a young child, who was deathly ill with a rare disease. I was so choked with emotion that when I saw Yuka's husband in the lobby immediately afterward, all I could do was blubber out, "Your wife is so beautiful!"
He didn't know whether to say "thank you" or to hit me.
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Wait, seriously LOL!!!
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I wouldn't say that. The whole motif is repenting your sins and being "born again" through the grace of God. This is the central theme of Protestantism. I think a Sikh or a Zoroastrian would find it a strange way to approach a Diety.
Plus, if it is just about the music, the tune is the old Methodist hymn, Must Jesus bear the cross alone?
Best to give it a pass in an international sports competition, IMHO.
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I think that Jewish conductor Daniel Barenboim has said that Wagner's music is too good to leave it to Nazis.
In general I think it's better to differentiate between the art and the artist, even if it' surely easier when the artist is dead.
Caravaggio, for instance, killed a man, but his paintings are rightfully admired.
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Been gone for a few days so haven't read this whole thread BUT I think, for me, the most inappropriate piece of music was Medvedeva's lP last year - the 9/11 piece. As someone who lost friends and acquaintances in that horrible event, seeing it referred to in a figure skating program was hard to stomach.
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Not in the realm of age-inappropriate or offensive, but it seems like dicing with fate to skate to a song that has 'falling' in the lyrics...I was catching up on the Euro Ladies SPs the other day and some poor girl kept falling as the singer was going "Falling, falling, falling."
If I was a skater I'd probably stick to something like You Raise Me Up! Although...is falling during a song like that worse?
If I was a skater I'd probably stick to something like You Raise Me Up! Although...is falling during a song like that worse?
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Too true.
The thing is...if not for the vocals that would have been a perfectly good program, maybe even great. I have no idea what was going through her coaching teams head, I'm pretty sure at least one of them understand English. Could they not find a recording without the voice overs? Evgenia herself said the program wasn't supposed to be about 9/11, so I have no idea what happened there.
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