Before everyone jumps down my throat: I love THE WAVE. I've been at every non-COVID season WAVE, and it remains a moving experience. But as noted in a different thread, some of us think it isn't quite what it used to be
The most obvious needed change is to bring back the Pat Green song WAVE ON WAVE. It was perfect in tone and content--heck, the game where he came and played it as a standalone song (not during a WAVE) brought people to tears, just thinking about it. The fact is, musical continuity is critical to emotional rituals like this. Imagine if we ditched "Back in Black," and instead let a fan pick a different entrance song each home game, or if we had 50 fight songs we rotated thru each season
The song WAVE ON WAVE quickly became an essential part of the experience, a sense-memory that choked you up even before you started waving. Yes, it's a nice gesture to let the Kid Captain pick the song, but it's simply not the same. There's no emotional cue when you hear the first few notes, as in WAVE ON WAVE. People strain to figure out what the song is, distracting them from the moment. Please don't say I hate Kid Captains, because their intro before each home game always chokes me up, and remains a great tradition all its own. But it's time to bring back WAVE ON WAVE for the actual WAVE
The other change is to DITCH THE ANNOUNCEMENT BEFORE AND AFTER
I cannot tell you how much I hate them. DUDE, WE KNOW. WE STARTED THIS, SO YOU CAN STAY OUT OF IT. I feel like they think we'd forget to do it, if they didn't say something! And then thanking us for doing it? Like they're my mom or something? This wonderful ritual, suggested by a single fan, was taken up on all the messages boards and turned into a personal and emotional experience between fans and sick kids, but then the U of I took it, and changed the song, and is starting to act like it's THEIR ritual. They didn't even provide an explanation for the song change. They only announded it was gone: poof! And ever since then, THEY'VE been in charge
And that's wrong
Surely I'm not the only one who feels this way. Or am I?
The most obvious needed change is to bring back the Pat Green song WAVE ON WAVE. It was perfect in tone and content--heck, the game where he came and played it as a standalone song (not during a WAVE) brought people to tears, just thinking about it. The fact is, musical continuity is critical to emotional rituals like this. Imagine if we ditched "Back in Black," and instead let a fan pick a different entrance song each home game, or if we had 50 fight songs we rotated thru each season
The song WAVE ON WAVE quickly became an essential part of the experience, a sense-memory that choked you up even before you started waving. Yes, it's a nice gesture to let the Kid Captain pick the song, but it's simply not the same. There's no emotional cue when you hear the first few notes, as in WAVE ON WAVE. People strain to figure out what the song is, distracting them from the moment. Please don't say I hate Kid Captains, because their intro before each home game always chokes me up, and remains a great tradition all its own. But it's time to bring back WAVE ON WAVE for the actual WAVE
The other change is to DITCH THE ANNOUNCEMENT BEFORE AND AFTER
I cannot tell you how much I hate them. DUDE, WE KNOW. WE STARTED THIS, SO YOU CAN STAY OUT OF IT. I feel like they think we'd forget to do it, if they didn't say something! And then thanking us for doing it? Like they're my mom or something? This wonderful ritual, suggested by a single fan, was taken up on all the messages boards and turned into a personal and emotional experience between fans and sick kids, but then the U of I took it, and changed the song, and is starting to act like it's THEIR ritual. They didn't even provide an explanation for the song change. They only announded it was gone: poof! And ever since then, THEY'VE been in charge
And that's wrong
Surely I'm not the only one who feels this way. Or am I?
