Good sports

The Olympics may be over, but the London Games have left my ears ringing with great music. After all, from start to finish, the kaleidoscopic spectacle approximated a wonderfully hectic house party, one with a playlist that was only broken up by the occasional slideshow featuring GIF-ready super-athletes. Forget pieties about international brotherhood, sportsmanship and peace — to me it was all about fun, with pop culture as its cornerstone. In a way, what went down in Stratford a fortnight ago was the opposite of last summer’s riots.

After watching Danny Boyle’s opening extravaganza, Isles of Wonder, his riff on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, I got the sense that while this was to be an intensely British moment — with a rural scene complete with cows, cricketers, and 30 Mary Poppinses slaying a giant Lord Voldemort — the Slumdog Millionaire director would tell the story of Britain’s contribution to world culture in his own hyperreal, camp way. His secret weapon? The Trojan horse of tracks he curated for the show.

Inspired Musical Montage?

Spanning old, older, and reasonably new songs, Boyle’s frenzied recap of British pop music history folded almost everyone into its sweaty embrace. In fits of happy weeping, I pumped my fists as Dizzee Rascal and the Arctic Monkeys performed. I also uninhibitedly enjoyed an inspired musical montage, which, packed with hits by the Sugababes, Rizzle Kicks, Franz Ferdinand, M.I.A., Amy Winehouse, Happy Mondays, Soul II Soul, New Order, The Specials, and the Prodigy — among those that I recognized — made up for the bizarre dancing parts that referenced the UK’s ailing National Health Service. I don’t recall Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s 2008 Beijing inauguration being this life affirming.

With such a memorable opener, the onus was on executive producer Stephen Daldry — responsible for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close — to deliver an equally memorable curtain closer. If Boyle poked fun at the idealized landscape of cathedrals and village greens, Daldry and artistic director Kim Gavin cleverly turned the stadium into a giant gig with the athletes as the audience. Modelling the stage on the Union Jack — which made for truly breathtaking overhead shots — he adorned it with representations of familiar London landmarks. Entertainment-wise, however, it only went for the bronze.

Though free of the quirkiness, irreverence and edge that mark the more mature British musicians, the younger pop stars punched above their weight that night. As One Direction, Tinie Tempah and Taio Cruz kept the under-30s from nodding off, Jessie J — in a Vivienne Westwood body stocking — annoyed them with her ubiquity. Instead of giving The Voice UK judge so much stage time, organizers should’ve extended the Spice Girls’ unfairly short reunion segment and Take That’s lighters-in-the-air number. As Yahoo!’s Chris Willman says, “There is no cold shower quite like the one that occurs when the surprise lead singer for a climactic Queen run-on turns out to be Jessie J.” Yes, so little talent ever so widely spread.  

At Least There Was No Coldplay

Speaking of Queen, it seemed that Daldry was souffléing the show by filling the program with too many veteran acts. George Michael singing Freedom was great, but letting the ex-Wham! vocalist gyrate to a newer, unknown composition was downright unnecessary. “Annie Lennox was utterly underwhelming. The psychedelic section with Ed Sheeran playing Pink Floyd and Russell Brand doing a karaoke Beatles was too slow and Liam Gallagher was nasal and off-key,” notes The Telegraph. Again, there must be a way to assert Britishness without falling back on the creaky old canon of Brian May, Freddie Mercury, and John Lennon. At least there was no Coldplay.

As London passes the baton to Rio, host of the 2016 Games, I wonder how Brazil — which I associate more with the World Cup — intends to win over young spectators in four years’ time: A lingerie model, a street sweeper, and a rap star puzzlingly represented the Latin American nation during the official handover. “London played to the strengths of the UK music industry and heritage by using rock and pop to create a soundtrack for the Games. Let’s hope Rio goes beyond just samba!” says FutureBrand, the global company that created the “first fully integrated look and feel” for both the Olympics and Paralympics. London may be a tough act to follow, but Brazilians love to party and I’m looking forward to that mix of people, sport, music, and dance. 

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