Nasania
TNPer
Greetings TNP,
I am Nasania and I am officially a citizen so I believe that entitles me to vote in the Regional Assembly and propose legislation, One proposal I think would be cool would be to propose an official regional anthem to go with our flag, Before I do any such thing, best to first acquire community input.
This is not a new discussion and on June 4, 2014, there was a regional poll done on the Nationstates website itself where residents voted for an 'anthem', and 'The Clash-I fought the Law' won the poll(Here is a list of all the submissions for that poll), and technically means it's our official anthem, but hardly anyone remembers it or uses it(I actually thought it was 'the Northern Lights' until I looked up the old information.) Also should the principle 'fighting the law' be what our region stands for, considering that many of our officials and residents actively promote some form of Rule of law? There are also the recent threads here and here, showing the ignorance of what our anthem actually is, or that we even have one. Now there are several concerns about anthems that I wish to address.
Do we even need an anthem? Not necessarily, but I think it may be cool to represent our region with a song and one could also argue in the same vein whether we need an offsite forum to play Nationstates(the region 'North Korea' and their affiliate 'Korean Peoples Army' for example doesn't seem to use one). Songs can be useful for communicating an idea, concept, or an emotion to an audience. Many Real Life nations use songs for this very purpose. This website goes into the purposes of anthems in real life. One thing we could use for it is to foster activity in the region.
If we do decide to adopt an official anthem into our legal code, how should the region choose said anthem? Real Life nations seem to have contests between several proposals and decide their anthems with some sense of democracy, though this is not always the case. The Ottoman Empire would just use the Sultan's favorite song for example. I think the basic anthem adoption process should be as follows: the Regional Assembly or other legitimate entity authorizes the Anthem contest, first week the forum members submit an anthem proposal to an 'Anthem Contest board', then the next week the Proposals are voted on then the legislation is drawn up and adopted making said song the official anthem of the region(unless the original legislation authorizing the contest allows for it). This process is modeled on the election system we already use.
What kind of music should we use? Well there are basically 5 different kinds of anthemic music we can choose from.
1:Hymns: This would be a song like God Save the King/Queen or Domine salvum fac regem. This was the original form of anthems actually.
2:Marches: China's "March of the Volunteers" is an example of this type. There are also "Marcia per l'Imperatore Bonaparte." and "Vive Henri IV".
3:Operatic: Latin American Anthems, like El Salvador and Chile tend to be based on Italian Operas. Chant du Depart and "Veillons Au Salut de l'Empire" also count.
4:Folk: Hawaii's anthem and "Dang dan cung" Vietnam's anthem before WW2 are good examples.
5: Fanfares: The Anthem of the Ottoman Empire from 1829-1839 is an example of this, It used no Lyrics.
Now on to the major part: What anthems do I think would fit the Character of the North Pacific? I think "Maple Leaf Forever" would be the best pick, though "Partant Pour la Syrie" would be a good contender. The Lyrics of the Maple Leaf Forever are much easier to rework into North Pacific Lyrics, it's fairly upbeat but can easily be turned into a more pastoral hymn if necessary(we do have an Official Religion, Flemingovianism). The Lyrics themselves are based on the tranquility of the nation and emphasize togetherness and community with a nod to ancient heroics in other lyrical versions(this region does have an active Military Tradition and emphasizes the values of community, equality and democracy). I have already written lyrics for a TNP "Maple Leaf Forever" in case of its adoption by TNP. Partant Pour la Syire is also fairly upbeat but is more suitable to the NPA honestly and was a song originally about a Catholic Crusader that somehow became the anthem of Bonapartists. Bonapartists liked a strong, active executive and a heroic military tradition combined with moderate liberal and communitarian ideas, so a mostly compatible fit for TNP, plus the idea of Catholic Crusader might appeal to our Flemingovian tradition as well. I have written no lyrics for that one though.
How do we promote our anthem? Once all said is done, we could upload a video, or ask someone to upload a video of our flag and anthem using the FRAPS video capturing software and Free Flag Screensaver program to Youtube or Dailymotion. like LordDaine and FlagandAnthem channels have done. Consider for a moment if the North Pacific Flag flying and anthem playing in the background on Youtube. It might look pretty cool. We'd be one of the first of the GCR's to do so, all we'd have to do is provide a link in our signatures to that very video. This alone could foster new recruits for the region, and at the very least we'd gain propaganda points.
Anyhow, let me know what you think and feel free to post songs you think would fit the character of our region. You can also write lyrics for it but remember that not all anthems have lyrics.
How the legislation might look
I am Nasania and I am officially a citizen so I believe that entitles me to vote in the Regional Assembly and propose legislation, One proposal I think would be cool would be to propose an official regional anthem to go with our flag, Before I do any such thing, best to first acquire community input.
This is not a new discussion and on June 4, 2014, there was a regional poll done on the Nationstates website itself where residents voted for an 'anthem', and 'The Clash-I fought the Law' won the poll(Here is a list of all the submissions for that poll), and technically means it's our official anthem, but hardly anyone remembers it or uses it(I actually thought it was 'the Northern Lights' until I looked up the old information.) Also should the principle 'fighting the law' be what our region stands for, considering that many of our officials and residents actively promote some form of Rule of law? There are also the recent threads here and here, showing the ignorance of what our anthem actually is, or that we even have one. Now there are several concerns about anthems that I wish to address.
Do we even need an anthem? Not necessarily, but I think it may be cool to represent our region with a song and one could also argue in the same vein whether we need an offsite forum to play Nationstates(the region 'North Korea' and their affiliate 'Korean Peoples Army' for example doesn't seem to use one). Songs can be useful for communicating an idea, concept, or an emotion to an audience. Many Real Life nations use songs for this very purpose. This website goes into the purposes of anthems in real life. One thing we could use for it is to foster activity in the region.
If we do decide to adopt an official anthem into our legal code, how should the region choose said anthem? Real Life nations seem to have contests between several proposals and decide their anthems with some sense of democracy, though this is not always the case. The Ottoman Empire would just use the Sultan's favorite song for example. I think the basic anthem adoption process should be as follows: the Regional Assembly or other legitimate entity authorizes the Anthem contest, first week the forum members submit an anthem proposal to an 'Anthem Contest board', then the next week the Proposals are voted on then the legislation is drawn up and adopted making said song the official anthem of the region(unless the original legislation authorizing the contest allows for it). This process is modeled on the election system we already use.
What kind of music should we use? Well there are basically 5 different kinds of anthemic music we can choose from.
1:Hymns: This would be a song like God Save the King/Queen or Domine salvum fac regem. This was the original form of anthems actually.
2:Marches: China's "March of the Volunteers" is an example of this type. There are also "Marcia per l'Imperatore Bonaparte." and "Vive Henri IV".
3:Operatic: Latin American Anthems, like El Salvador and Chile tend to be based on Italian Operas. Chant du Depart and "Veillons Au Salut de l'Empire" also count.
4:Folk: Hawaii's anthem and "Dang dan cung" Vietnam's anthem before WW2 are good examples.
5: Fanfares: The Anthem of the Ottoman Empire from 1829-1839 is an example of this, It used no Lyrics.
Now on to the major part: What anthems do I think would fit the Character of the North Pacific? I think "Maple Leaf Forever" would be the best pick, though "Partant Pour la Syrie" would be a good contender. The Lyrics of the Maple Leaf Forever are much easier to rework into North Pacific Lyrics, it's fairly upbeat but can easily be turned into a more pastoral hymn if necessary(we do have an Official Religion, Flemingovianism). The Lyrics themselves are based on the tranquility of the nation and emphasize togetherness and community with a nod to ancient heroics in other lyrical versions(this region does have an active Military Tradition and emphasizes the values of community, equality and democracy). I have already written lyrics for a TNP "Maple Leaf Forever" in case of its adoption by TNP. Partant Pour la Syire is also fairly upbeat but is more suitable to the NPA honestly and was a song originally about a Catholic Crusader that somehow became the anthem of Bonapartists. Bonapartists liked a strong, active executive and a heroic military tradition combined with moderate liberal and communitarian ideas, so a mostly compatible fit for TNP, plus the idea of Catholic Crusader might appeal to our Flemingovian tradition as well. I have written no lyrics for that one though.
How do we promote our anthem? Once all said is done, we could upload a video, or ask someone to upload a video of our flag and anthem using the FRAPS video capturing software and Free Flag Screensaver program to Youtube or Dailymotion. like LordDaine and FlagandAnthem channels have done. Consider for a moment if the North Pacific Flag flying and anthem playing in the background on Youtube. It might look pretty cool. We'd be one of the first of the GCR's to do so, all we'd have to do is provide a link in our signatures to that very video. This alone could foster new recruits for the region, and at the very least we'd gain propaganda points.
Anyhow, let me know what you think and feel free to post songs you think would fit the character of our region. You can also write lyrics for it but remember that not all anthems have lyrics.
How the legislation might look
Regional Anthem of the North Pacific Bill:
, I'll take it as a submission then when you get it done. St George would especially like that I think.
