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Olympic Figure Skating: Classic or Outdated?

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Chapel Hill chapter.

With all the buzz about the Olympic Games, you can’t avoid seeing all the updates on social media. But instead of just tuning in for the highlights, what could possibly draw the attention of more viewers for the live stream of events?

While surfing the Internet recently, I came across a video that combined two of the most buzzed about things right now. Beyonce and Olympic Figure skating. Some really innovative “fan girl” dubbed a video of Meryl Davis and Charlie White doing their doubles figure skating routine to Beyonce’s “Drunk in Love.” Ok, now that you’ve watched it once (maybe multiple times like I did) go back and watch again and be sure to pay attention at 1:35. Fantastic right? I don’t think the timing could be more perfect.

After watching the video at least seven times, I started scrolling through the YouTube comments and I thought this one was quite interesting:| Why wouldn’t Russia approve? Is it because the Olympics is such a traditional event that no one can make modern changes? We watch these elegant figure skaters dance and skate beautifully to music that none of us can recognize. But hey, that’s how it has always been, right? The art of figure skating often seems so detached from reality and so out of reach to all of those watching. With pop culture becoming such a huge influence in many of our lives, I think many people, especially younger people, would love to see more popular music in this event.

As a big fan of the Olympics and its tradition, I love watching the beautiful figure skaters effortlessly dance around to the classical music. I think it is a true art form that should be appreciated for what it is… but that may just be my opinion. I watched the men’s figure skating event on mute with music playing in the background and found that the moves synced with my popular music more times than not. It made the event a little more exciting to watch as the climax of the music added to the climax of the skater’s moves.

Maybe popular music might actually add a little something to figure skating that would boost the popularity of as well as attract a different crowd to the event. I think the marketers of the Olympic games could take a few tips from movies like Ice Princess and Stick It and make the events more modern and relatable to viewers like us collegiettes.

What do you think? Sound off with comments below!

Sources

Video from: “FanGirlOfManyThings” on Youtube

 

Megan McCluskey is a recent graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. with Distinction in Journalism and Mass Communication, and a second major in French. She has experience as a Campus Correspondent and Contributing Writer for Her Campus, a Public Relations Consultant for The V Foundation, an Editorial Assistant for TV Guide Magazine and Carolina Woman magazine, a Researcher for MTV, and a Reporter and Webmaster for the Daily Tar Heel. She is an obsessive New England Patriots and Carolina basketball fan, and loves spending time with her friends and family (including her dogs), going to the beach, traveling, reading, online shopping and eating bad Mexican food.