Inappropriate music in skating

[Mathman]

I'd like to know what other people think about skaters using religious music? I know Ave Maria is popular. I also heard the Magnificat and Amazing Grace this year. It seems to me that these choices are just as bad, just in the opposite direction. ...

This makes me a little queasy, too, especially if there are lyrics. For some reason the Schubert Ave Maria seems more appropriate than the Gounod -- I don't know exactly why.

Plus, taking a spill in the middle really looks bad.

It breaks the spell, that's for sure. "... That saves ... a wretch ... like meeeee." Splat!

 

[ancientpeas]

I'm not sure about the personal lives of singers making there music an inappropriate choice because of Michael Jackson, R Kelly and even Frank Sinatra. Gary Glitter was convicted of a crime against children in Cambodia. He is legal barred from that country. He also has a legal problems in the Vietnam. He is currently in jail in England for crimes against young people. I think most choreographers would have the good sense to stay away from his music.

So much music is about sex and drugs. I don't like the idea of censoring people's right to use music because that feels like suppression to me. If people just used common sense none of this would be necessary.

 

[Mathman]

^ A perennial argument. Should we shun the music of Wagner (Richard, not Ashley) because he was a big anti-semite?

As far as music about sex and drugs, we should stick to classical music. (That would eliminate the drugs part.).

 

[Manitou]

He was molesting little kids for many many years! He’s a very yucky individual :roll5:

Then lock the guy, but music is music.
Lewis Caroll was equally controversial. You still read his books in schools.

According to this logic any cultural heritage from before abolishment of slavery should be burnt and banned. Actually, anything before 1965 should be burnt and banned too. Forget Beethoven, Chopin and Chaikovsky. In fact, all art we do today may be also banned and burnt in the future, as social standards might change 100 years from now. Is that what we do?

 

[Mathman]

As far as music about sex and drugs, we should stick to classical music. (That would eliminate the drugs part.).

I spoke too soon about classical music:

Perhaps the most famous hallucination in all of classical music comes courtesy of Hector Berlioz, an opium user whose Symphonie Fantastique was described by Leonard Bernstein in his Young People’s Concerts as “the first psychedelic symphony in history, the first ever musical description of a trip.” It wouldn’t be the last. The Symphony follows the dream of a lovesick young man who unsuccessfully attempts suicide by opium overdose and instead experiences a series of visions, from ecstatic scenes of love to a nightmarish witches' sabbath. In doing so, the composer set the bar for music written under the influence.

Who will be the first skater to take it on?

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

Then lock the guy, but music is music.
Lewis Caroll was equally controversial. You still read his books in schools.

They stopped using his music in most sports venues in the US because he was using the royalties he was getting paid to pay for his legal defense for molesting kids as young as 10. Some people do look at character in addition to content. Cosby show was a great show and all but now...

 

[Manitou]

They stopped using his music in most sports venues in the US because he was using the royalties he was getting paid to pay for his legal defense for molesting kids as young as 10. Some people do look at character in addition to content. Cosby show was a great show and all but now...

I added some comments to my post after you posted yours.

 

[ancientpeas]

They stopped using his music in most sports venues in the US because he was using the royalties he was getting paid to pay for his legal defense for molesting kids as young as 10. Some people do look at character in addition to content. Cosby show was a great show and all but now...

I think on a personal level people can make these type of choices. I, for one, have not seen a Woody Allen movie in more than 20 years (I think. I'm not googling the dates) However, banning Woody Allen movies seems a step too far to me. People should choose not to support entertainers who behave in ways they find unacceptable but they should not be able to make other people choose not to either if they don't want to IMO.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I added some comments to my post after you posted yours.

It’s a little different when the artist has passed...and I’m not gonna jump from Gary abusing children to a geo political debate about cultural revolutions. I do think it’s important to understand our past but for the sole purpose of bettering our future.

 

[Sam-Skwantch]

I think on a personal level people can make these type of choices. I, for one, have not seen a Woody Allen movie in more than 20 years (I think. I'm not googling the dates) However, banning Woody Allen movies seems a step too far to me. People should choose not to support entertainers who behave in ways they find unacceptable but they should not be able to make other people choose not to either if they don't want to IMO.

Oh yeah..I completely agree. People should feel free to skate to anything they feel like.

 

[Manitou]

... However, banning Woody Allen movies seems a step too far to me. People should choose not to support entertainers who behave in ways they find unacceptable but they should not be able to make other people choose not to either if they don't want to IMO.

Exactly. The Woody Allen ban is comparable to burning books.

 

[TallAdultSkater]

Jimmy Mas SP to "turn down for what".

Drinking lyrics! "5:00 another round of shots, turn down for what" I just burst out laughing. After party maybe?

 

[CoyoteChris]

I don't know either. Plus, those kids don't even know and don't care about the song's context. They go after musical values, whatever suits their skating.

Interesting discussion. Two different questions, really. Not using content due to the sleezeball effect of the song writer , or not using content due to the lyrics being inappropriate?
Being an old foggy, I will address the later. I always had heartburn when the USFS used, "Save a horse, ride a cowboy" as backround music. Although I dont know if anyone actually ever skated to it.
I dont want rap about cop killing or "hoes" either. Or refering to woman as something that rymes with "witches". But "modern" music is creeping into figure skating for sure, as we all saw during the ladies
event at Euros..just as tatoos are creeping onto skaters.....I am sure that Manitou is correct...many dont know what the words mean and the double entendras....but perhaps the coachs and choreographers
need to step in at times....
I really have no answers, but I like listening to the conversations here.

 

[chuckm]

15-yo Daria Panenkova skated to Ne Me Quitte Pas by Celine Dion. She ended the program by tousling her hair and smearing her lipstick.

 

[QueenOfTheRoad]

15-yo Daria Panenkova skated to Ne Me Quitte Pas by Celine Dion. She ended the program by tousling her hair and smearing her lipstick.

As long as they don't dance on Le moribond or on Les vieux .... (i love Jaques Brel and his lyrics are really not suited for young ages, but i wish who choose to dance on his music to choose to dance on his version not some tired watered down sounding one).

 

[Manitou]

I'd like to know what other people think about skaters using religious music? I know Ave Maria is popular. I also heard the Magnificat and Amazing Grace this year. It seems to me that these choices are just as bad, just in the opposite direction.

Going after this thinking, there is no music at all. Every piece of music, literally every one, has some more or less known background context that potentially might be offensive to somebody. Even kids or classical pieces. I am sure somebody can dig something negative in Rachmaninov's life that could ban his music from skating. I am sure there is a somewhere a valid argument to ban "itsy bitsy spider" as offensive to some. Even the "happy birthday" song.
As to the "religious" comment, very large part of classical music was religion inspired. If that is offensive to some then we have basically no culture at all. We are dead as civilized beings.

 

[VenusHalley]

Going after this thinking, there is no music at all. Every piece of music, literally every one, has some more or less known background context that potentially might be offensive to somebody. Even kids or classical pieces. I am sure somebody can dig something negative in Rachmaninov's life that could ban his music from skating. I am sure there is a somewhere a valid argument to ban "itsy bitsy spider" as offensive to some. Even the "happy birthday" song.
As to the "religious" comment, very large part of classical music was religion inspired. If that is offensive to some then we have basically no culture at all. We are dead as civilized beings.

I think most people see some pieces problematic when it comes to the topic and age of the skater. When a child skates to song full of sex references, it's just not appropriate. If a twenty year old skates to that, it will be sassy and sexy and will be different situation.


I can see why some people consider religious music for skating offensive, especially if used for some cheesy and mistake ridden program. It would feel tacky.

I don't mind modern music in skating per se, I actually enjoy it.... but it has to be appropriate for the age. I mean if Carolina Kostner skated to Teenage Dream by Katy Perry or some high schoolish song, it would be quite as bad.

 

[Mathman]

Exactly. The Woody Allen ban is comparable to burning books.

I think it is a trickier issue than that. No one wants to ban Woody Allen movies. However, an individual has the right to go to the movies and an equal right to stay home, for whatever reason. If a lot of people choose to stay home because they think Woody Allen is a creep, that is just people exercising their rights.

But in the aggregate it amounts to a form of censorship. No producer would work with Allen if he thought the the public would not go to his movie.

 

[anyanka]

I remember Yulia skating to Beyoncé's "Dance for You" in an exhibition gala and it made me feel very uncomfortable.

 

[Manitou]

I can see why some people consider religious music for skating offensive, especially if used for some cheesy and mistake ridden program. It would feel tacky.

But it has nothing to do with religion, but with not giving respect to the music with the skating performance. If a skater decides to skate to Chaikovski's First Piano Concerto then he/she'd better skate well. Otherwise the music will kill the skater. This argument has nothing to do with religion.