Would it kill our crowd to sing the national anthem on correct time?

The US anthem sucks, and everyone who sings it infront of a mic is trying to be a god-damned Whitney Houston or Marvine Gaye. We're better off getting rid of the thing and choosing a new national anthem.

I for one, nominate the "I Feel Like Chicken Tonight" commerical jingle. At least everyone can sing that on key and on beat.

If we can't get that, then stop putting a mic infront of one talentless hack, and put it infront of a couple hundred talentless hacks wearing red. At least it will sound better.

 

Go ******** yourself.

There is no problem with the anthem, there is a problem with the ability of Americans to sing.

 

Off topic: what's up with the "Are you sure you want to like this post?"?! Yes I'm sure! In the top 10 best posts ever!!

 

It was during a driving rain storm. I could not hear the singer properly through the stadium's speakers.

 

Yup. In most cases this has to do with people not being able to hear the anthem very well. And the fan groups that really belt the anthem with the most gusto, are usually the farthest away from the singer.

And then the singer can decide to sing the anthem like a dirge or a Greek folk song. You never know..............

 

So were those fans you're asking about.

Alcohol impairs anthem-singing-timing.

 

delete delete?

 

how bout just playing the instrumental. There are very few out there who can sing it well.

 

This problem is solved by getting actual singers to sing it. Nobody makes the crowd sing it poorly.

 

It's almost impossible for a group of loudly singing fans to hear an a capella pop singer, let alone keep time with her when they don't know how she's going to sing it. That's why a recorded orchestral version is always better for international matches.

 

Just have Jim Cornelison sing it every game


Then everyone will be able to hear it.

 

If a few thousand are belting it, they will never be able to hear the performer, and more than likely get through it a little quick.

Even if that happens, I say well done to all.

I've sung it at two "Dos a Ceros." Best damn anthem of my life and I have no freaking clue if we finished early or not. When the players TURN AND APPLAUD the supporters, that's all you need to know.

 

If there has to be a performer on the field for The U.S. anthem, then let it be a U.S. military band so that the supporters can have at it. It sounds much better when the fans sing anyway. I can probably count on one hand the times I've gotten chills from a performers rendition. I get chills every time the supporters sing it. It's the heart put into the performance and not necessarily how many 'runs' a performer can shove into it that matters.

To the person who believes our anthem sucks, I just don't have words to express my thoughts here. I do believe you have the right to say such things just as I have the right to believe you should just shut the hell up.

 

Trying to get an entire stadium full of people to sing in unison is virtually impossible, and it gets worse the bigger the stadium gets. Even if you had a perfectly round stadium and had someone singing smack dab in the middle of the center circle, you'd still wind up with problems, because it doesn't matter if you're equidistant from the performer - what matters is your distance to everyone else singing in full voice all over the stadium. You hear the people relatively close to you as being pretty much in unison with you, and the people on the other side of the stadium are all pretty much in unison with each other. But then from your position you hear the people across the stadium later, because the distances are substantial enough in a good sized stadium that the speed that sound travels starts to be a factor. You start hearing people who are not in unison with you, even though they really were when they sang it, but it gets to you later than it does from the people around you.

I guess it depends on the PA system then. If you're somewhere with a loud enough PA that it can always be heard over whatever the fans are doing, and people choose to listen to the PA to keep time with instead of each other, then you'll do all right. Otherwise it's just always going to be a mess.

Signed,
someone in Knoxville, TN, who goes to home games with 100,000 other people and gets annoyed by this pretty regularly

 

The crowd always sings it on time... the performer on the field is the one getting it wrong.

 

It's not the crowd's fault, it's the "artist" singing it.

The crowd is singing the anthem at the regular pace, it's not the crowd's responsibility to keep in pace with however the "artist" is butchering it by holding random notes and such.

The big elephant in the room is why the hell do we need singers? Let the crowd sing it. I know one of the issues is that other than the supporters sections a lot of the crowd will not pick it up, that could be fixed just by simply putting an announcement before like "And now our national anthem, sung by you, the fans" and then start the instrumental or just let the crowd do it acapella. The fact that they continue to insist on having someone sing it is an insult to the fans, especially some of them recently (Scotland one was a disgrace), even if they are pretty good singers they still drown out the crowd. The anthem is a moment for the supporters and players, not a singer trying to make a name of themselves.

The anthem CAN be sung well, and it has on many occasions, even in soccer games (06 World Cup comes to mind).. here are some of my favorite examples

- if we must have a singer, have them stop at that part and let the crowd join in.



And from the 06 game v Italy..

LET THE DAMN CROWD DO IT USSF

 

I went to both matches in Jacksonville and Landover. A struggle to get parking at 7pm with 8pm game time. National anthem started around 8:07 at both venues, people were still arriving. I thought kickoff would occur at 8:00.

Grin, that's what I thought this thread was about.

 

Although it would be nice to have an anthem with a smaller range (so we don't end up with screeching) for those who sing at sporting events, that's not exactly the purpose of having a national anthem.

That being said, I have a feeling US fans have just learned from experience, if you want something done right, you've gotta do it yourself... It really should take about 45 seconds...

 

I have attended 20+ Indy 500's with Stealth Bomber flyovers (as well as any other plane you can think of) and experienced about as much Memorial Day Patriotism as you'll find anywhere in the nation, as well as Five different World Series, the NCAA Final Four, NBA and NFL playoffs, NHL, Cal Ripken's 2,131st game, and more.

Nowhere is a National Anthem more moving to me personally than at a USMNT match. The two "Dos A Cero's" especially. Columbus was just about the only pro-US venue for a Mexico match at the time, and after the few thousand Mexico fans joyfully sang their anthem, we freaking BELTED ours. I tell friends all the time that you have never really sang the Anthem until you've done so at a USMNT match. I'm sure the Olympics would also fall into that category, but I STILL remember singing it at the 8 or 9 matches I've been to.

The clip above of the Italy match is INCREDIBLE. I must have watched it four times just now, and I'm ready to go to the bar immediately (25 hours early) and wait for the Guatemala match because of the emotions stirring right. now.

If you have the means, get some headphones in your ears and crank it. "And the ROCKETS RED
GLARE!!!" is just magnificent and usually the best part. A very strong finish to this one as well. If I'm ever fortunate to see our boys at a World Cup, I don't know if I'll be able to get through the song.

I'd love to try though.

We have a GREAT anthem. Not overly flowery or archaic, not about a monarch that needs saving or a fictional ideal, but rather A simple story about the birth of a nation, and the brave Americans who made it happen.

It kicks ASS, simple as.

 

It won't be Pro-US for much longer. Last time the USA played them there in a WCQ, it was 50/50, so whenever the US plays them in the future at Columbus, it's going to be far more hostile.

 

The bagpipes at Scotland v. USA were awesome. Live music with the crowd singing would be great.

 

I thought so too, but a lot of people on this forum thought it was dumb (I doubt they're Scottish, but still). The singer we had at that game makes me wish we had a song leader to keep us together as we sing, rather than having someone out there pretending it's an American Idol audition...

 

I'd put us at last place in the FIFA national anthem singing rankings.

It seriously makes us look like drunk idiots and I hate it.... well I hate the idiots part. Being drunk is fine with me lol