[masraum]

Originally Posted by Capt. Carrera

Okay, the supposed Col. has a preference on how the song should be sung. Good for him; however, it's a rather bombastic, selfish, request. Singers are free to warble whatever cringe worthy version they see fit. Without that freedom we'd have never been graced by versions such as those by Jimi Hendrix or Jose Feliciano.

I get the sentiment in the OP, and would prefer a more straight-forward rendition without someone like Mariah Carey doing a ton of warbling. But at the same time the idea that the singers (artists) would think that respecting the anthem means that they would not perform that embellishment is silly. It's entirely possible that a singer with an amazing voice feels that they are honoring the anthem by pushing their voice to make the song rendition as "magnificent" as possible. This whole thing is based on opinion, and frankly sounds like the opinion of an old white guy (I'm cringing to have typed that, and am an old white guy in training myself).

This whole thing reminds me of the truth in this video (which pretty much directly applies in this circumstance.

How do you make a law about offending people?
How do you make an offense to offend people?
Being offended is subjective.
It has everything to do with you as an individual or collective or group or society or community, your moral conditioning, your religious beliefs.
What offends me may not offend you, and you want to make laws about this?
Im offended when I see boy bands for God sake.


It's a valid offense.
I'm offended.
They're corporate shills posing as musicians to further a modeling career, and frankly, I'm disgusted.