Posted on 02/08/2011 4:41:39 AM PST by scottfactor
I had not planned to write about the Super Bowl or its entertainment, but after seeing and hearing it, I’m going to do it; so forgive me a small, but intermediate, critique of the lousy state of modern “music” and culture.
We were getting ready to go to our next-door neighbors’ house to watch the Super Bowl, and we had our radio tuned to the National Football League broadcast of the pre-game. So, here comes the National Anthem, sung by Christina Aguilera. First of all, I have long hated the trend of singers nowadays to do these wild vocal gymnastics that take the notes of a song up and down and all around. It makes me cringe and quickly switch the station. This singer is one who does the vocal gymnastics.
When we heard the anthem begin, we stopped where we were on our front porch, put our hand over our heart and faced the flag. Right off the bat, she starts in with the note-mangling, roller coaster vocalization, and I can’t stand to hear the Star Spangled Banner sung in such an outrageous way. Why can’t these kids nowadays sing a straight, respectful, traditional rendition of our National Anthem?
Then, it got worse. She mangled the lyric. My husband and I quickly glanced, wide-eyed at each other with a “Did you hear that?!” expression. Yes, we did hear that, and so did the rest of America.
The New York Daily News reported,
“ [Christina Aguilera], 30, who has sung the National Anthem at many previous sporting events, including Game 7 of last year's NBA finals, bungled the lyrics, causing confusion amongst the crowd and with viewers at home.
‘What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last reaming,’ she belted about one minute into the song, to the bewilderment of somber Super Bowl fans.
What should have come next: ‘O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming.’”
Ms. Aguilera reportedly explained her lapse as, “I lost my place.” She was, after all, live in front of a giant stadium full of people, with millions more watching on television and listening on radio. It’s understandable that you might be a bit nervous, but this was not some high school kid in his first public performance; this was a professional performer with years of public singing experience.
I don’t know about you, but the Star Spangled Banner has been ingrained in my mind and heart from a very early age. I can sing it and not miss a word. Ms. Aguilera is only 30 years old. Could it be that schools are not teaching the kids the Star Spangled Banner like they used to? That song’s lyic should be second-nature, and the song should be sung in a respectful manner, not with the wailing and contorting of the notes of the song. It’s our National Anthem, after all—not some pop tart’s record!
It got even worse at halftime. I’ve heard of the Black Eyed Peas, but not having a televsion and not listening to the type of radio stations that might play their “music,” I was not familiar with their sound. If that’s what passes for music nowadays, there is no more music. That’s what our kids are feeding on. It sounded like noises from hell—I mean that literally! If the forces of hell were putting on a halftime show, there’s the music.
I realize that every generation of Americans has bemoaned the music of the younger generation, and there is a reason for it. It’s because our society devolves; it doesn’t evolve. As we have moved through time, even though knowledge and technology have increased, there has been a steady process of degeneration in our culture and morality and the minds and hearts of the people.
Part of that is certainly the dumbed-down public school curriculum. Despite being given billions of dollars of taxpayer money year after year, the schools are no longer providing a quality education to students. Instead, the schools churn out kids who can’t even write a legible paragraph and who do not know the correct history of our nation and world. Since God was removed from the public schools in the 1960s, the degeneration has been progressing more each year, and we are now left with the results of a watery “education” with no moral foundation—a nation overrun with people who have never gained even the most basic knowledge of God’s truth and why it matters.
It’s also true that music has devolved. What passes for music, as illustrated by the horrible halftime show, is nothing more than a barbaric beat with the harsh chanting of words that appeal to the basest instincts of those who fill their ears and hearts with that garbage. Hip hop or rap, or whatever you want to call it, is not music; it’s poison for the soul. And, it’s quite disturbing that so many young people are hooked on that poison.
I’ve heard some of this noise in passing here and there, from cars whose owners cynically and rudely blast the evil racket, forcing all nearby to hear. While scanning the radio dial, I’ve heard the foul and wicked lyrics, full of mindless sex and violence. Can anyone understand the influence and power of those sounds on the minds and hearts of our younger generations? Is anyone paying attention to the increasingly violent and horribly promiscuous behavior of kids nowadays? Is anyone associating the two?
Yes, people have always “acted up,” and done bad things, but it would only be an oblivious person who would not be able to see the steady degradation of the minds and morals of each new generation of Americans. This is by design. Not only is solid morality cast aside, but in its place is the fallacious mindset of relativism which says that the definition of right and wrong depends on each man’s opinion and perception. This warped thinking is pounded home throughout the entertainment world, as well as the public school systems.
The influence of socialistic indoctrination in the public schools has also been molding people to be more amenable to looking to an all-powerful government for their sustenance. It is stripping away individual initiative and creativity and personal responsibility. In short, it’s creating a nation of dumb sheep. As Michael Savage might say, here is the world through a Super Bowl halftime show.
Ironically, as I cringed at the sound of the Black Eyed Peas, other critics complained that their performance was lackluster and boring! It’s amazing that two people can look at the same object and see entirely different things.
Although I didn’t catch the lines, the Black Eyed Peas apparently threw in some politics on one of their halftime pieces. As a columnist on the Orange County Register’s website wrote,
“Which brings me to the bit that political pundits with nothing better to discuss may natter on about come Monday morning: will.i.am’s lyrical change-up for the first verse of ‘Where Is the Love?’: ‘In America we need to get things straight / Obama, let’s get these kids educated / Create jobs so the country stays stimulated.’’
Oh, the irony! The kids are educated exactly as planned. The fact that groups like the Black Eyed Peas achieve such huge success is a testament to the kind of public school education our kids are receiving, and it’s not good.
So, what good does all my lamenting do? Probably not much, but I’m saying things that I am certain many people believe about our popular culture. It’s rotten to the core. If we ever hope to change the rot, we have to first address it and acknowledge it. Define it, then defeat it. How? We have to offer something true and good in its place, and that is a mighty tall order—not just offering a replacement for the moral rottenness in entertainment, but finding an audience to receive it. Not many people in our world have a taste for the truth. It comes down to changing the hearts of the people, and that is a difficult, if not impossible, thing to do at this point in our world where so many have firmly rejected the truth.
Until or if we figure out how to reclaim our culture, can we at least feature singers who will render our National Anthem in the classic and honorable styling, and return the talented marching bands to the field for halftime shows?
Wow! My sentiments, exactly.
I watched at my cigar club, which has a quite conservative membership. I was surprised that I heard no one express disgust for any of the "entertainment" and some guys actually seemed to enjoy at least parts of it.
I said nothing. I had never seen or heard any of these people or what they do before (except for Aguilera, I heard of her). My tastes run in a different direction, so I thought maybe I just didn't understand, but I sure was thinking "low class" for all of it.
ML/NJ
People keep saying this, but it's just plain nonsense. For example, the transition from slavery to Jim Crowism to petty discrimination to near-equality is evolution, not "degeneration" (I presume that the author is not some kind of racist pin-head).
I almost never listen to the National Anthem before a sporting event because the singers butcher it so badly by "personalizing" it. It makes me grit my teeth so hard that I get a headache.
And if it were not for a segment on Glenn Beck's radio show, I could still claim such innocence. That Beck segment made me grateful that I missed the SB half time show...
Hey America,hitch up your pants and act like adults.Liberalism never sleeps and it has been gaining on us for years.Just look at the “cartoons” that are on the tube for our children to watch.Just trash.
You are right on the mark.They will call us rascist for it but I could give a shit what the American hating trash says.
Wha? The "gospel way"? That wasn't gospel, that was R & B, which is Soul Music minus the soul.
That is a very bold but true statement.
The race card is played out. I say what I think now.
Sad but way too true!
I think a randomly selected high school choir student would have done a better job, provided the school was from a flyover state and not an urban graft school district.
(BEP) sounded like noises from hell
This is an astute observation. On one end of the spectrun, Gregorian chant offers a glimpse of heaven; the other end a glimpse of hell.
So, you joined on 7 Feb 2011 to post that gem? I smell a troll.
It bugs me when people like this complain about the de-evolution of our culture but still actively participate in and finance it. If you really believe what you say turn off the TV, boycott sports and Hollyweird.
I wouldn’t mind end zone dances if the players all hooked arms and did a few chorus line kicks, perfectly synchronized. Now that would be just lovely. ;^)
bump
Even to this day, that sort of thing would be trouble in baseball, and it would be self-policed by the players. The taunting and showing up of the other team would not be tolerated.
I'm a baseball fan. If my home team behaved the way football players behave, I'd be ashamed of them.
Exactly. I frequently argue with someone from my office that is a hard core liberal. He said Republicans are racist. I replied that with the election of the first black president that his argument no longer held any water and to find something new to complain about.
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