As per title, the three superpowers have flags, emblems and all that jazz, but what about national anthems? Do they each have an anthem? What would it sound like? So, I'm curious as to what y'all think the three superpowers anthems would be like, what style of music, maybe a piece of music you think would be suitable or similar to what the superpower would use...
So the superpowers have flags, but what about national anthems?
- Thread starter VR Jay Le Chardon
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Deleted member 182079
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Federation - US anthem
Empire - UK anthem
Alliance - EU anthem
Empire - UK anthem
Alliance - EU anthem
Strangely all the super powers have almost identical national anthems with minor difference in wording and accent.
The (Federation/Empire/Alliance), the (Federation/Empire/Alliance), the (Federation/Empire/Alliance) is best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest
The rottenest bits of this galaxy of ours
We've left in the hands of some unfriendly powers
Examine the (Federation/Empire/Alliance) or (Federation/Empire/Alliance)
You'll find they're stinkers, as likely as not ...
With apologies to A Song of Patriotic Prejudice by Flanders & Swann.
The (Federation/Empire/Alliance), the (Federation/Empire/Alliance), the (Federation/Empire/Alliance) is best
I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest
The rottenest bits of this galaxy of ours
We've left in the hands of some unfriendly powers
Examine the (Federation/Empire/Alliance) or (Federation/Empire/Alliance)
You'll find they're stinkers, as likely as not ...
With apologies to A Song of Patriotic Prejudice by Flanders & Swann.
Nice idea.
It might be pretty cool if, upon arriving at various systems/stations, we got faction-specific music instead of the regular music.
Obviously, it isn't the most important thing on the "to do" list but it'd be a nice opportunity for FDev's music/sound department to show us their stuff.
Federation:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLIOEbUyeXo
I'm pretty sure Empire took "Also sprach Zarathustra".
I'm pretty sure Empire took "Also sprach Zarathustra".
The Alliance is "Ode to Kale", with the forth stanza pure farting.
I'm thinking "Imperial March" for the Empire. 
Not cos they're "evil" but just cos it's suitably pompous and overbearing.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8
Not cos they're "evil" but just cos it's suitably pompous and overbearing.
I was thinking the Blakes 7 theme for Federation
I'm thinking "Imperial March" for the Empire.
Not cos they're "evil" but just cos it's suitably pompous and overbearing.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8
Lorewise the spaceforce theme would be a good fit for the federation. Although I've got to admit that lately I've ben struck by how beautiful a piece of music "Vide Cor Meum" by Hans Zimmer is, and think it would be a fitting anthem for the Empire?
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP9IrCCMUUw
Just a pity about the baggage it carries, having been used for the theme tune for a movie about a cannibal... But it's still beautiful.
Or if the cannibal overtones of Vide Cor Meum are too much for even the most eloquent imperial ambassador to assuage, or if that piece of music surpasses it's movie association, but is just too soothing and you'd like to go for something more stirring, how about Era's "the mass"?
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HETRaN9tjXE
Just a pity about the baggage it carries, having been used for the theme tune for a movie about a cannibal... But it's still beautiful.
Or if the cannibal overtones of Vide Cor Meum are too much for even the most eloquent imperial ambassador to assuage, or if that piece of music surpasses it's movie association, but is just too soothing and you'd like to go for something more stirring, how about Era's "the mass"?
I guess it depends on when/where you grew up but, to me, the word "Federation" has always conjoured up images of Servalan, Tarrant and dudes in gas-masks rather than Kirk, Spock and all their space-hippy antics.
As an empire rules over many nations, any national anthem it has must stem from the times before it became an empire and would come from the nation which founded the country that went on to become an empire. The Federation, for example, could only have national anthems if it had carried forward heritage American anthems, as America had transformed into an empire even before it joined forces with other states to form the Federation. That heritage America anthems would carry across two successive empires is not realistic. Neither the Empire or Aliiance would have had national anthems either as neither have nationalist roots. National anthems would guaranteed be found across all the settled worlds where conditions and passage of time allowed nations to form among the settlers, but such sentiments would be repressed and demonized by the ruling empires as nationalism contradicts imperialism. The only time nationalism doesn't directly contradict imperialism is when the founding nation stays not only in control, but separated from the foreign nations it rules over, as happened with the British.
Of course, I suspect you meant national anthem to mean a song representing each respective empire. Just pointing out that isn't a national anthem at all. The British retained their British anthems as they were in the unusual position of maintaining their national homeland while all the foreign elements of the empire were overseas. America still has American anthems as they transitioned from a nation state to an empire relatively recently and most people in America don't understand what's happened, so they carry on as if America is still a nation state.
Empires would have music pieces appointed as is done with military or state functions, as a formality. They wouldn't have the spirit of a national anthem, as it would not be an organic expression of a people and culture, but would be calculated political propaganda.
Of course, I suspect you meant national anthem to mean a song representing each respective empire. Just pointing out that isn't a national anthem at all. The British retained their British anthems as they were in the unusual position of maintaining their national homeland while all the foreign elements of the empire were overseas. America still has American anthems as they transitioned from a nation state to an empire relatively recently and most people in America don't understand what's happened, so they carry on as if America is still a nation state.
Empires would have music pieces appointed as is done with military or state functions, as a formality. They wouldn't have the spirit of a national anthem, as it would not be an organic expression of a people and culture, but would be calculated political propaganda.
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@here_it_comes - I could have parenthesised the word "national" and or its entire context ie: "national anthem", and perhaps I should have? But I didn't think anyone would split that particular hair... I'd draw other earth-based parallels to counter your points about the reign of one anthem over multiple member states, the "star-spangled banner" rules over 50 semi-autonomous states and the governing federal district, which could be argued is the 51st state, as the District of Columbia and the federal district doesn't belong to any of those 50 states. Using your logic either no anthem would serenade the American flag, or each of the 50.5 states anthems would be playable on presentation of the flag. Another example is the former Soviet Union and its successor, the Russian Federation, the latter of which is 21 or 22 states depending on your stance on Crimea. All those states, to the best of my knowledge, unite under the "Gosudarstvennyy gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii" or "State Anthem of the Russian Federation".
Similarly, and a little closer to home, and also closer to where we are in game with the three superpowers, the European Union has adopted "Ode to Joy" from the final movement of (Ludwig van) Beethoven's 9th Symphony as the overarching anthem of the union, yet all the memberstates retain their individual anthems such as France's "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle or Germany's "Deutschlandlied" their "Song of Germany".
So I see no reason why the individual planets / colonies / even settlements couldn't have their own identity, but unite under their corellating superpowers anthem? This sort of brings me full circle, back to the question posed on the OP, albeit slightly rephrased...What would you expect the overarching anthems of the superpowers to sound like, or are there any particular pieces of music y'all think would be a good fit for any given superpower?
Similarly, and a little closer to home, and also closer to where we are in game with the three superpowers, the European Union has adopted "Ode to Joy" from the final movement of (Ludwig van) Beethoven's 9th Symphony as the overarching anthem of the union, yet all the memberstates retain their individual anthems such as France's "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle or Germany's "Deutschlandlied" their "Song of Germany".
So I see no reason why the individual planets / colonies / even settlements couldn't have their own identity, but unite under their corellating superpowers anthem? This sort of brings me full circle, back to the question posed on the OP, albeit slightly rephrased...What would you expect the overarching anthems of the superpowers to sound like, or are there any particular pieces of music y'all think would be a good fit for any given superpower?
So long as they're better than the Irish national anthem...
The US was largely homogenous up into the 1970s. National sentiments are a product of nation, not of politics. This is why despite having a large number of states with a degree of political freedom, American national sentiment was largely uniform and embraced until only very recently. As national homogeneity has declined, the calls for changing/removing American national anthems, along with history associated with it, have risen. This is why empires do not have national anthems. Non-native nationals in an empire will only stomach being outsiders in the empire as long as they have no choice. The same is playing out in the UK now as well.
The USSR was an empire and it's original anthem, the Internationale, is not a national anthem in the slightest, it is communist political anthem. The anthem that replaced that was meant to bolster the fighting spirit among Russians during WW2, as national sentiments touch the heart more than a political anthem. And even then reading the lyrics, it is overtly an imperial anthem and tosses the nationalist sentiment a bone for effect. Modern Russia is in a strange state of returning to a national spirit, while still having to maintain the spirit of citizens who lived in the old empire and their anthem reflects it, enshrining the state in the first line. Their current anthem is national in word choices, but not much more. It's poor popularity proves this.
This is precisely how the superpowers would pick their anthem. As a matter of formality, calculated towards desired political aesthetics and notions. No different than how songs are picked for political rallies. The European nations maintaining their anthem despite the EU has no relevance to ED superpowers, as the EU is not a formal empire ruling over the European nations. Should that come to pass, those national anthems will be expunged yesterday.
A people that form a nation will necessarily have a sense of identity strong enough that they will want to self govern. This is where movements to self-determination stem from. Nations don't want rule by foreigners, which is precisely what an empire is, and rulers of foreign subjects don't want their subjects trying to break away. So, you may see no problem in some backwater planet having a strong national identity, but the empire that rules over them certainly would, guaranteed. Their national anthem may sound like interesting culture to you, but to some Federation Governor, it means revolution if isn't dealt with.
It's not hair splitting. The differences between an empire and a nation, and the products of either, are so far apart they are practically opposites. Empires will never have national anthems, not for long at least.