The new football season is officially under way, and with it, as always, a slew of uniform tweaks, new marketing campaigns, and fresh attempts at brand development.
Some are subtle. Others, not so much. But while the entire coaching staff remained the same this season, everyone in attendance Saturday knows that there have been some changes around here.
So since everyone else is discussing important things like defensive woes, first half penalties, the running back rotation, the D-line rotation, players being suspended, players not being suspended, Cam Newton’s arm, Cam Newton’s legs, Cam Newton’s scooter, and, of course, cowbells, I thought I’d let you know all the things about all the things that don’t actually matter.
The Intro Video: We’ll begin, of course, with the major hot button issue of the moment; the new intro video.
Now, we all knew when the intro song was put up for fan vote months ago that A.) some (see: most) people would be unhappy with the results because they voted for another song, and B.) any fan vote is automatically guaranteed to get you the worst possible result. We also knew that, for whatever reason, people were going to care twice as much about the intro video than the videos played before and after it.
Well, as everyone in Jordan-Hare witnessed Saturday, Murphy’s Law of Democratic Masses* struck once again, as “All I Do Is Win” won (ironically) the fan vote, over perennial favorite “Ladies and Gentlemen”, incumbent “Family Reunion”, perfect shoe-ins “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Eye of the Tiger”, that Coheed and Cambria hit, and a song written specifically for the occasion, “Tiger Walk”.
My perspective on this might be a little bit different than some folks; I’m personally a huge fan of rap. But as you likely know by now, my cup of tea isn’t safe for work, let alone a football game — you know… less about night clubs and Patron and more about firearms and forty ounces. That’s not to say that one of those kinds of songs should have been the song, just that “All I Do Is Win” is terrible.
I’m sure most fans of the genre will agree. The song’s performing artists: T-Pain? Don’t get me started. Ludacris? Don’t get me started. Rick Ross? Has the fakest background since Vanilla Ice. Snoop Dogg? Behind only Flava Flav as the hardest sell out in the history of rap, and besides I’m more of a Ruthless Records kind of guy anyway.
So the question becomes: who exactly voted for this song anyway? I have no idea. It wasn’t my crowd. And it certainly wasn’t the “Get off my lawn” crowd, either.
Who knows, maybe somebody out there actually does enjoy it. If they’re into T-Pain, and, you know, Britney Spears.
Personally, I think that those who voted for it should be shot and have their student tickets revoked, in that order. That’s just me.
As for the video itself — it just goes to show how stupid the idea of a fan vote was in the first place. As anyone who has ever played around with Windows Movie Maker for more than two seconds will tell you, it’s pretty much impossible for a videographer to make a decent video when they are handcuffed by having to use a song that doesn’t conform to their vision. This clearly shows in the video. (The onside kick? Seriously? And words can’t describe how super lame the brown-nosing to fans at the 0:53 mark is.)
But maybe someone will figure it out and we can pull the old switcheroo again, and change it to something else. Anything else. (Hit it, Auburner.)
The OTHER Videos: With all that said, the other videos are incredible. The band video is once again far more awesome than it has any right to be (not that I’m complaining), and the kickoff video — the one that the players see, and the opposing players see — is once again the best out of the bunch, as it should be.
The “Tiger Walk” mix at the slot during warm-ups was great, and so was the surprising little “Enter Sandman” video that was played later in the game. (Neither of these are online, for some reason.)
The Uniform: Though the off-season fears of fans voting for the worst song possible came true, the other potential change that had some up in arms in the spring didn’t come to fruition.
The “experimental” larger helmet stickers that were worn at A-Day turned out to be just that — experiments — as the powers that be decided to stick with the standard sticker size. Definitely the right call.
But there was one major uniform change: the team has gone from wearing black shoes and black socks back to wearing the classic white shoes and white socks. The change was actually made for the Outback Bowl, and carried over to the 2010 season.
What’s interesting, at least for me personally, is that I didn’t really like the white socks and white shoes combo when watching the Outback Bowl on TV, but it looked just gorgeous against Arkansas State in person.
The difference? Call me crazy, but I think the whole set is make-or-break over one, minor, little tweak: the trim on the white shoes was changed from orange to dark blue.
Compare white shoes with orange trim and white shoes with dark blue trim. See? And just for fun, compare both to 2009’s black shoes and black socks.
And, hey, while we’re at it, compare A-Day’s white shoes with black spat to Saturday’s white shoes with white spat.
The verdict? At the end of the day, I think Saturday’s version looks the best out of all of them, which is a very good thing.
But not all things changed for the better.
The Field: For years and years and years, Pat Dye Field at Jordan-Hare Stadium was marked at midfield by a blue AU logo. Last year, the logo was changed to orange, and it looked pretty good.
But on Saturday, it was back to blue… but different. This year’s version is taller and wider (stretching past the 45-yard-lines for the first time ever), and is without white on the interior.
I’m pretty sure no one wants to see the big white dot of old, but white makes up two-thirds of our home uniforms, and all of our away uniforms, does it not? I’m not sure why they went out of their way to buck tradition and avoid it this year, but whatever the reason, it just doesn’t look as good.
You’ll also notice that SEC logo at the 25 yard line on this year’s field is orange and blue, rather than its traditional blue, white, and yellow, as seen last year. Once again, doesn’t look as good, and, for whatever reason, the logos switched to where, when looking from the TV side, the SEC logo on the left has moved from near to far and the one on right has moved from far to near.
Thankfully, the end zones remain the same.
The Program: And then we have last Saturday’s Auburn Football Illustrated.
The cover, as you can see, is a pictorial masterpiece, every inch answering important questions long dormant. I think.
Going from left to right — since I wouldn’t know where else to start — we see Zac Etheridge, tossing aside his neck brace just as Saturday night he tossed aside the doubts and the questions, and all that has for the last nine months forced its way between him and the game that he truly loves. He has triumphed over disaster, and here he stands, in uniform, prepared for anything and everything, as he has already faced and conquered the greatest of challenges that would have easily broken a mere mortal.
Next we have Airon Savage. Who is standing. With a football. Being resilient. And stuff.
Finally we have Mike McNeil, another safety that battled a significant injury to return to the field. No, wait, that’s not him. No, that would make far too much sense.
It’s Demond Washington. Breaking out of a straight jacket.
Why is he breaking out of a straight jacket, and why is there a football jersey underneath said straight jacket, you ask?
I’m not sure. Maybe I should have bought the program. But five dollars is a lot for a roster I have already memorized. (See, mom, those hours upon hours of studying Auburn football wasn’t useless after all. It just saved me five bucks.)
The only logical explanation is that Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where Demond transferred from, is actually a front for an insane asylum, and that the football team (the “Bulldogs”) is some sort of real life mental ward version of The Longest Yard.
Am I the only one that thinks the campus looks a little… enclosed?
(Further proof: MGCCC gave us Eltoro Freeman. And this guy.)
See you next week. Beat Cowbell U.
*Totally just made that up.
…
Justin Lee is a third generation Auburn man and proudly makes maybe the third best Auburn music videos on the internet today. In his spare time, he is a sophomore at Auburn, majoring in journalism. Curse him at auborangej@gmail.com.
The 2004 entrance video will always be by far the best and whoever is in charge of the in-stadium media (video/music) needs to be fired. Why are they still playing zombie nation? When did jordan-hare become a turn of the century soccer stadium? Who are these unimaginable, horribly uncreative people in charge? “Hmm, this video is good but we need more camera shakes and grain effects. We also need to find a song that is appealing to the student body but won’t offend the bluebloods and ‘tradishuninelists.'” Some things will never change about that place…
I couldn’t agree more on the tunnel video…. PLEASE make a change Auburn!
So this post was a little whiny for my taste. I’m not sure why the intro video song is such a big deal. At the game, I’m pretty sure I saw the entire student section go berzerk when the song played. Given that the student section accounts for a huge proportion of the atmosphere/electricity/energy in JH, I just don’t think of this as a bad thing. IMO, a much worse song would be one that has already been used once, maybe multiple times (welcome to the jungle, eye of the tiger, etc) and a diminished affect on the crowd, who says “Meh, I heard this last year.”
How about Deana Carter………”Did I shave my legs for this”
My vote was for T-Will’s “Tiger Walk”. Back during voting I also expressed a desire that something epic like what was used in 2004 be an option. That sort of “right before you go into battle and fight against all that is unholy and absent of goodness” music they play in movies is what I was looking for. Similarly, my favorite Metallica album was always “S&M” (stands for Symphony and Metallica, not the other thing, for all of you older/younger readers not familiar).
But the video isn’t that bad, especially if like w4au says it gets the students pumped up. And thank all things pure that it was not Saliva AGAIN. They did that one like three years in a row right? The theme song from Three’s Company would have been better than that unoriginal horsecrap again. We better keep winning though or DJ Kahled could be brining a lot of resented and unwanted irony to our Saturdays.
The Auburner video is good stuff.
Philip — Nah, I don’t think anyone should be fired over anything. Like I said, the other ones are beyond amazing. The fan vote idea was just a dumb idea to begin with.
w4au — Remember, it’s not just the song, but it’s the video as well. They could do Welcome to the Jungle, and even though we’ve all heard the song a million times, it could still be a great video that meshes well with the music and gets everyone fired up. Conversely, you could have something like All I Do Is Win, where even though one might like the song, there’s no denying that the video is lackluster at best because the creator was told to fit the video to the song, rather than fit the song to the video.
If they really wanted to do a fan vote, the best thing they could have done is gone ahead and made videos with each song back in the spring, and then we vote for which video we thought was best. Because anybody can listen to a song and think that it would be good for a football video, but until it’s actually done, you never know. Sometimes it just doesn’t work right.
P.S. All — The new Tiger Walk mix has been uploaded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCy20R3Sw9o
As a 40 yo, I don’t get the music but the students went crazy during the intro.
The only thing that people should truly be up in arms about is that the stadium is now selling DREAMLAND FREAKIN’ BBQ!!! I don’t know about y’all, but supporting a company that is synonymous with Tuscaloosa is something that I just cannot do.
@ AubOrange – I think you’re dead on about the video. Looks like they made the video and then decided whichever song won would just be slapped in. Love the song to get the students excited, but could have done a better video to match the action to the lyrics.
In fact, I was kind of bored with all the pregame videos. Need to have some kind of update with those. Now I wasn’t at the game, so that may change seeing in person.
@ Justin – I voted for the song. You would rather have Saliva or “Welcome to the Jungle?” I don’t think the collective yawn of the fans would be quite what gets the team hyped to go. Is it cliched? Yes. Which of those choices was not? (Possible exception of Coheed and Cambria noted). At least it is new and different and pretty exciting, if I may say so.
@ Philip – Spot on about Zombie Nation. Fun in 2001, but it’s 2010. Surely we can update our “Now That’s What I Call Rave Music” CD by now.
Back to the black socks, plz. K, thx.
Wow, lots of hatred for All I Do is Win! You want to know who voted for it? Nearly every single student I know did. After all, it was Brian Fletcher’s walk out song and that’s when we all first heard it. And I don’t know if you happened to see the student section, but seeing 8,000+ students dance along and throw hands in the air was pretty cool. Maybe the old folks will participate next time.
Tiger Walk [rap] was disappointing, to be honest. Way too long. But best video of all – of course – was the band video! Makes me wish I had musical talent.
I like the new AU. I hated the orange one last year and never liked the white paint. Intro videos. I like it when they’re cool, but don’t really care at the end of the day.
Gus and Cam’s Bus —
I’m glad you just proved my point for me right there. Like you said, you heard it from Brian Fletcher’s walk out song. Not from the radio, or the album, or the mixtapes.
Have you ever listened to the song all the way through?
This is my point. It’s not just the “old folks” that dislike the song. Plenty of young fans — dare I say most fans that like rap — dislike the song.
But, hey, if you’re down with auto-tuning and Drake and Justin Beiber and that kind of stuff, that’s fine.
But, personally, I wish my fellow students would have some more culture in them. And if not, the least they could do is stop pretending that they do.
i agree with some of the above stuff, but there is definitely far too much whining going on in this post and these comments. we still have better videos and a better pregame show than any other stadium i’ve been to.. are they perfect? no.
try not to judge all of it so intensely and just scream for auburn anyway! at least the chorus doesn’t say “it’s a family reunion.. boom!”
2 of my room mates voted for all i do is win and they wouldn’t stop talking about how awesome it was. i just don’t see how a gimmicky auto-tuned piece of crap that sounds like ever other club song on the radio gets people so hyped up. I agree that the 2004 intro video is the best. you are never gonna satisfy everyone with pop music because it changes so often. they should just throw on an epic symphonic score and be done with it.
Justin, sorry to touch a nerve. Is it a bad thing I heard it at a baseball game? The first time I heard it I looked it up and listened to the song all the way through. It was better than every other walk out song.
You missed the point entirely though. Every student participated. Just like “Ladies and Gentlemen.” If you’re trying to prove that lots of people dislike the song, you’ve got a silly argument on your hands. Everyone disliked all the other songs MORE (granted, there were some crappy options in the voting). Sorry to break it to you, but tons of people loved it. If anything, Tiger Walk has gotten bad reviews – they played all four minutes of the song and after a minute every stopped screaming and yelling. It was awkward that they played the entire song.
I also wish my fellow students would have more culture. You’ve got the two extremes of rap and country music (with 80s rock tossed in). The Independent is a start, but oh well.
And Harrison wins – symphonic score is always the answer.
Gus and Cam — Come on now. The implying that not every student would have participated had it been another song is pretty silly. Everyone’s going to cheer the football team, regardless of what song the video is set to.
What I’m saying is, of all those people that voted for it, very few of them actually listen to it on a regular basis.
It’s a pop song. The song, from its inception, was designed for the radio and television. Which is why no one can say that it’s actually any good, because, by definition, it’s not. It’s not supposed to be. It’s for the radio, so there can be no suggestive themes, it can only be three and half minutes long, a whole slew of other limitations. It’s the equivalent of daytime television.
Why did it get voted for if it’s not any good? Because more people of heard of it. Just like more people have seen an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond than have seen Pulp Fiction. But if you ask anyone who has seen both, they would say that Pulp Fiction is the superior work of cinema.
The bottom line is, no one likes the song. They tolerate it. Which is lame, because we could have had something good but the fan vote — and that’s really the only reason we’re talking about it in the first place — completely dropped the ball. Jackie Smith style.
As Mark from the Auburner said, “It doesn’t matter. They could play a clip of ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ on a didgeredoo and my brain will still be maxed out with absolute glee during those precious moments before kickoff.”
Justin, that’s perhaps the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
“The bottom line is, no one likes the song.”
No, the bottom line is you don’t want people to like the song. Plenty of people actually DO like the song. You can bash on intellect and creativity and originality all you want, but I’m afraid you can’t change that fact. It’s simply as that. Even though you don’t like this song, other people like it. It’s okay to admit it.
You must be a Kayne fan.
Kanye*
But I’m not sure this is worth arguing over anyway. Other than all this hoopla, nice article.
I’m not an “older folks”, and I can state without a doubt that the intro song sucks donkey ass. Speaking of the band video, how about just let the fucking band play the fight song for the intro. When did that become passé? This isn’t the NFL. And if we are going to insist on piping in loud rock, crappy rap, even crappier euro club music, how about invest in a decent sound system for the stadium.
Not a fan of the song. In the end it doesn’t really matter because I don’t think it has a whole lot of effect on whether we win the game or not. Some of you complain about the old songs and I’ll reply with this. Welcome to the jungle and eye of the tiger give me chills before the game. They don’t when I hear them during the day on an ipod etc. Why??? Because when I’m in the stadium my mind associates all the great memories I’ve had there with those songs. I think everyone has sounds or smells that bring back memories for them good or bad. Part of that whole tradition thing we talk about. I think the fact that an Auburn football game is about to kick off should be motivation to scream at the top of your lungs, but I’m old school. Its great to get the players pumped to start, but my beef with JH continues to be that it calms down QUICKLY. After the first drive everyone is seated and quiet with the exceptions of some really big games. I mean the last time we played UF at home was awesome. The stadium rocked the whole night and much like we can’t expect the players to be up for every game the entire year I guess we can’t expect the same from the fans. I try hard to get people in my section to get up and cheer on 3rd downs to help the D, but I’m always sitting in the “down in front” section. Alright off my soapbox. Point is it does help get our guys up and intimidate the other guys when the crowd is in a frenzy before kickoff, but it is equally important or more so to get rowdy for the D on 3rd down. I love the older stuff, but it is only 3 minutes of pain. If the younger crowd likes it then let it rip because they are the loud ones in the game for the most part. See u in starkville. hope the bells are leaving at the half.
Gus and Cam’s Bus —
We’re not going to waste space here discussing the finer points of hip hop in mass media, but let me tell you something you must have missed about the genre.
The song is a pop song, meaning “popular”, or widespread. It was made for the radio and television, by people who don’t usually make songs for the radio and television. It is, by design, a billboard, an advertisement, for the artists involved, because the vast majority of their songs can’t be put on the radio or television.
All the artists involved — DJ Khaled, Ludacris, T-Pain, Rick Ross, and Lord knows Snoop Dogg — will tell you that it isn’t their best work, and not even close. It’s not supposed to be. It’s not their element. Their skill, and the skill of rappers in general, lies in provoking thought and arousing emotion, which they cannot do with restrictions of the radio.
If you look, each rap album that is released has one radio jam to be put out there as an advertisement. No more, because then the radio would further cut album sales, and no less because then it wouldn’t get any publicity. This is one of those songs. This one even more so, because it is a collab.
This is my point. No one is a fan of this song. People can say they are a fan of it, but those people don’t have the Khaled album. And those that do have the Khaled album, will tell you it’s not the best song on it.
It’s disappointing that the fan vote succumbed to today’s media culture, because something good could have been picked instead. This is what I am saying.
And, no sir, I’m definitely not a Kanye West fan.
Funny Justin, you begin by saying you don’t want to waste space discussing the finer points of hip hop in mass media and then proceed to do exactly that.
I understand your point. I really do. Trying to make music mainstream drains the creativity out of it. Many argue the same point when it comes to movies. When you’re trying to appeal to a worldwide audience with movies, you have to have rather generic scripts and certainly don’t want to offend people (i.e., Transformers). So yes, I know what you’re saying.
But with all of that said, you still didn’t get my point. People like this. It baffles me that people like Justin Beiber or the Jonas Brothers. But my friend, the simple fact is that people DO like it. You can acknowledge it or continue to avoid that point altogether. I like plenty of bands that I don’t have the full album for. So back to my original point – deny it all you will, but yes, there are people who like the song. Simple as that.
And you’re missing my point. Justin Beiber and the Jonas Brothers are radio and television entities. Ludacris, Rick Ross, and Snoop Dogg aren’t. They’re rappers. They use suggestive themes. Most of their songs don’t make it to the radio. Their fans like them this way. And when they do make a song for the radio, their fans don’t like it, because it’s not their true style.
This is why I can truly say that no one really likes this song. No one has it in their car right now. The true fans of the artist don’t like it, and the fans that do “like” it — and in this case voted for it — just heard it in pop media in someplace or another and have hardly ever listened to the thing all the way through.
This is the true tragedy here: The fans could have voted for something good. They could have voted for Welcome to the Jungle or Eye of the Tiger, because they are classics and they fit perfectly. They could have voted for the Coheed and Cambria song or the Vox Pupuli song because they would make good football videos. They could have voted for Trick Daddy and Lil Jon because it would have gotten everyone fired up. Or they could have voted for Tiger Walk because it was made for purpose and would have been perfect.
But, no, they voted for the little It pop song of the spring. Because they have no culture, and just voted for whatever they heard on the radio over and over again that day.
AubOrange and Gus- let’s see if this fits both your arguments so we can put this one to bed. There are people out there who like this song. In AubOranges view they have no musical taste and that may be the case. Alot of these young kids don’t know what they like yet. They just like it because their friends like it, who may also like it because their friend likes it. Kid of like the spread of an STD or something. Growing up my parents didn’t listen to alot of music in the house or on road trips so I wasn’t exposed to a whole lot. I had a nintendo and didn’t listen to the radio much. My first foray into music was country and I went all in with boots and hat (didn’t do the dinner plate buckle though). That shifted to a band like the offspring that a friend let me listen to which I thought was too hard. That spread to bands like pantera and white zombie, and then back around to rap. All during 4 years of high school and my first year of college. I was like a sponge soaking it all in. Some of it I liked immediately, and some of it I tolerated because I liked hanging out with the people that listened to it. The rest I grew to love or hate or tolerate. Anyway, Aub, you made the point that this is a pop song – popular- and it has proven both it and you correct. Perhaps it appeals to kids who haven’t yet developed a musical taste or culture or maybe it is good and it’s AubOrange that is off (which I doubt because your taste and mine seem similar) As I see it you’re both right and don’t care to see the other side. Let’s put this all in perspective and remember that we are dealing with an American Society that recently had more votes for the winner of american idol than president of our country! Granted those are skewed numbers, but you get my drift. These are strange days.
I gotta say that I like the song. Not for any musical reason. Only because it’s now associated with one of the things I love the most: Auburn football.
http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2010/09/all-the-students-hands-go-up-and-they-stay-there/
I’m surprised that nobody’s brought up this point yet, but I think what most of the people commenting here have missed is that the song is only complementary to the video. The purpose of this song isn’t to showcase brilliant rap talent, or new beats. It’s not supposed to be good in the sense of good music, but rather it’s supposed to evoke emotion. It is meant to take those that get the most excited about Auburn Football and get them as excited as possible. And I have to say, although I didn’t vote for the song, when it came on, it did just that, not just within the student section, but with me as well, and I found myself to be one of the few across the stadium from the students with his hand in the air. Auto-tune be damned, that song is perfect for what it is intended to do.
Also, I disagree with the points that you have made regarding the popularity of popular music. The funny thing about music is that it is meant to entertain, yet a lot of people like AubOrange and to some extent Tigertracker there will make you feel guilty for being entertained by something so simple. Why do you two feel that that something has be complicated for it to be good? That’s like saying that minimalist design is lazy and designers and artists that primarily use it are terrible. If people like it, then you did your job, if it showcases immense talent, then you’ve accomplished something very different, if you evoke emotion, you’ve done something else entirely. If you can accomplish all three at the same time, congratulations, but that’s certainly not necessary for something so very complementary to the main focus: the video.
Justin, I have no idea why you are still arguing this point. Let me repeat: I get it! You don’t like it. You think it was a bad choice. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say it was a “tragedy” as you assert, but eh, whatever. It’s not “real” rap because it is pop and mainstream and limited by the radio. There is no point of disagreement here.
Let me make that clearer. If you were sitting at a table with me right now and told me this, I would shake your hand and say “you’re right, good sir.”
The only point of contention is whether people like it. I’m doing my best to reconcile this. To end this stupid debate, you only have to say one thing: “I admit it, some people like it.” And the plain truth is that there are some people who like it.
I told a girl in class that I was having a silly argument over this. Her response? “Oh yeah! That’s the song I listen to when I run every morning.” Ah! Someone likes it. Is there really anything difficult to understand about this? Again, I see your points. But believe it or not, there are plenty of people listening to this in their car, on YouTube (7 million views), and on their ipods.
That’s all we’re left with. If somehow this is still confusing, I suggest we settle it at Chick-fil-a.
This horse has been beaten deader than Paul Bryant.
Everything I needed to say and so much more has already been said. The fan vote looked past songs that would be much better fitting in favor of a lame T-Pain collab that has nothing to do with Auburn, nothing to do with tigers, nothing to do with confrontation, and, as evident, did not make for a good football video either. This is a bad thing. Even Auburn fans are victim to the incoherence of pop media, and that sucks. And so does the intro.
So, now that that’s over with…..
What did you guys think of the new white shoes?
Haha
Sorry buddy but I can’t let you have the last word on this because I feel like what your saying is not just an affront to the music (which I think is okay) and the video (which I think is masterful), but to Auburn fans as well (whom I adore).
You have continually attacked opinions, claiming that there is a right and wrong in this situation. There may be a right and a wrong for you and you’ve made it clear to all of us which one it is in your OPINION, but the fact that you are attempting to encroach on the enjoyment and entertainment of so many great and wonderful people that have done nothing to you personally is starting to get on my nerves.
Auburn fans have not fallen “victim to the incoherence of pop media.” Auburn fans happen to enjoy a song that despite its simplistic nature, is 500x more successful than any piece of wannabe rubbish that you could produce. You attempt to garner attention and respect by tossing aside the vox populi (not the song) and disrespecting the work of someone who is so obviously more experienced than you in this industry in the hopes that someone will mistake your misplaced confidence as professional elitism; and some will, but most people see what you really are. Most of them understand that you are not a rap artist, nor are you a rock star, an agent, a manager, a producer, or any other professional in the music industry. You have not released a major album, you’ve never been heard on the radio, nobody has nor ever will hear something that came out of your mouth and said “Gee, I bet people would pay a lot of money to hear that over and over!” And because of this, you are entitled to one thing: an opinion. You are entitled to your own personal opinion and that is it. You are allowed to say once: “Hey, I thought this kind of sucked” and that’s it. You are not allowed to say that it should be changed, you are not allowed to tell people that they are a lower form of existence for enjoying it and you are certainly not allowed to attack those that spend hours of their life creating something for the enjoyment of others.
Perhaps I’ve been sucked in to a pointless flame war by someone who will undoubtedly respond with their opinion ONCE AGAIN (and if I’m really lucky, maybe he’ll find a typo somewhere in here.) But I can’t help it. It just feels too good to write all of this, and hopefully, there is someone out there who will read this and think, “Maybe I don’t need to be ashamed of enjoying that song. Maybe it’s okay to just listen and enjoy it because it makes me feel good.” That would at least make this worth it.
Johnny, if you live in Auburn, can I treat you to Chick-fil-a or Toomer’s Lemonade or something of your choice? That was amazing. And yes…totally worth it. Thanks for the rant!
JohnnyAuburn —
I appreciate you reading the column, and I appreciate you taking the time to comment. You’ve obviously put a lot of thought into this, so thanks.
And, yet, I think it’s funny you decide to share with us, not your opinion of the song, but your opinion of my opinion. You yourself say that the song is “okay”. If you want to tolerate it, that’s whatever.
I’m just calling it like I see it. On one side of the fence there are the people that dislike it, and on the other side of the fence there are people that tolerate it. No one really likes it, as far as I can see. (And I have suggested a reasoning for this — It’s a radio jam.) It is my feeling that the people that voted for it are people that are casual rap fans and casual Auburn football fans, and could care less one way or the other, and I think that’s unfortunate that that made up the majority vote.
The reason I presented my viewpoint is to show that it’s not just the “old folks” that dislike the song. Plenty of students dislike it as well.
I don’t see why you would get so worked up about this. You act like I’m running around ripping T-Pain CD’s out of people’s cars and deleting DJ Khaled off of people’s iPod’s while they’re not looking. I’m just stating my disappointment.
And I really wish you would read the column past the first bulletpoint and enjoy it. Like I said in the column, I honestly, like last year, care more about the kickoff video than the tunnel video, and I’m thrilled that it’s as good as it is. But like I said, for some reason people care twice as much about the intro video, and so it has been discussed.
Sorry Justin, you accidentally left out the third category – the folks who like it. And there are plenty – in fact, plenty have posted here. What is difficult to understand? I literally don’t see why you have this smug arrogance about this. But whatever. I’m glad we could reach the understanding and I can’t wait to see the video against Clemson.
JohnnyAU, what country do you live in?
“You are entitled to your own personal opinion and that is it. You are allowed to say once: “Hey, I thought this kind of sucked” and that’s it. You are not allowed to say that it should be changed, you are not allowed to tell people that they are a lower form of existence for enjoying it and you are certainly not allowed to attack those that spend hours of their life creating something for the enjoyment of others.”
This is America, where we can agree to disagree. If AubOrange wants to shout all this from a rooftop he is “allowed” to do so. Nobody is forcing any of us to read this dribble or to comment on it, yet here we all are. Ain’t America great! WAR EAGLE
Jerry n Justin, don’t take the dribble comment personally. Just putting in perspective that most everything on these blogs is opinion (save sports statistics) and that we live in a free country. I love to read it or I wouldn’t be here.
Lets face it. The guys like the song because the girls like to dance to these kinds of songs, and college guys like doing things that involve grinding up against college girls. This same crappy rap was around while I was in college, and I damn well knew the songs because the girls went crazy when they started playing at a party or bar. I conditioned myself to like it then for that reason, just as I’m sure many of the students have conditioned themselves to like it now.
However, it really doesnt matter why they like the song. What matters is the student section provides the atmosphere of the stadium, and the student section went crazy for the song/video. Mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t want to get involved in this argument about whether all i do is win is a good song. I would just like to note that I do enjoy the song. It is on my iPod, I listen to it sometimes. I also enjoy rap. My favorites being Nas and Black Star, both totally different acts than DJ Khaled. I strictly enjoy this song because it is fun, it isn’t exactly something I like to put on when I’m sitting by myself, but it is a great party song. To deny that anyone likes this song is simply stupid.
Also, if they had chosen the same song as last year, it would have been disappointing on extreme levels.
I can not possibly be more in disagreement with the writers review of the entrance video. The truth of the matter is that the video is made in a n effort to pump up the student section. Why?, do you ask is the reason that its only for the student section? 1. The rest of the stadium has an actual seat so a large majority will spend the game sitting down eating peanuts. 2. The players come out from the student section so where is the place that should be the loudest. 3. THE STUDENT SECTION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTION!
Now the reasons why this song doesn’t suck is fairly simple: 1. Look at the past two rock based songs from saliva (one so bad, that they cut it half way through the season). 2. Despite the distaste by many old southerners in the crowd the song is youthful and appealing to the students. Don’t believe it listen to the songs they are playing in all the other SEC stadiums=all the latest club hits. 3. The song gets the crowd involved in a collective cheer with the shakers.
Now the one thing I agree is a poor decision within the song is the fact that the chorus is all I do is win. Kind of sets us up for a big fail.
So, next time your sitting in your seat eating a Bryan dog on the other side of the stadium saying, “why are they using this terrible song?” Look at the student section and see how they feel about it.
“3. The song gets the crowd involved in a collective cheer with the shakers. ”
That may be the dumbest thing I’ve read this morning and I’ve only been up for thirty minutes. Really? Are the shakers that important that if they’re not involved then it’s obviously not going to work? You are aware there are numerous other stadiums that don’t use those idiotic rags of thin plastic strips and they get along just fine, right?
I voted for 30 Seconds to Mars…
Really philip…… “the dumbest thing I’ve read this morning….” What about the instruction’s on your toothpaste bottle? What about your job title? Since we’re critiquing statements, how about this gem?; “Are the shakers that important that if they’re not involved then it’s obviously not going to work?” Is what not going to work? The shakers? The video? The whole game?
Also I find this one completely irrelevant; “You are aware there are numerous other stadiums that don’t use those idiotic rags of thin plastic strips and they get along just fine, right?”
WE ARE NOT DISCUSSING THE BENEFITS OF WHAT DIFFERENT STADIUMS DO FOR CHEERS. WE ARE DISCUSSING DIFFERENT SONG CHOICES WITHIN THE SAME STADIUM WITH THE SAME SHAKERS!!
So, now that you have been brought into the actual topic, would rather a song that no one gets enjoys, or one where the student section creates a cool illusion when 24,000 people move the shakers in the same manner?
Sounds like your just bitter on shakers…. Do you want to talk about ? Show me on the doll where he put the shaker? It’s alright your with friends.
Sweet Christmas, this thread will not die.
So, after this championship season, does anyone that posted above give a rip anymore about “The New Aesthetics of Auburn”? Got sort of heated there, didn’t it?
I have to say that I was skeptical at first but now I’m ALL IN!
WDE.
I like that song . . . (OK, I was in college during the Civil War)