It was once considered proper among staunch Southern traditionalists to stand during “Dixie.”
However, I’ve only ever heard this from aging Daughters of the Confederacy. One of these women embarassed herself by standing out of habit when an orchestra struck up the tune in Ohio.
I’ve also heard that when an orchestra plays the Blue Danube Waltz, they pause after the first few cords, because everyone is supposed to stand and applaud.
Does that count?
What about other nation’s national anthems?
They haven’t played God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch at Oakland A’s games or San Francisco Giants games for quite some time. They did it only at the end of the 2001 season and the beginning of the 2002 season.
They still play Take Me Out to the Ball Game in both Oakland and San Francisco. When I toured all the major league ballparks in 1993 I found they played the song in most parks.
Once, well before the post 9/11 “God Bless America” saturation, I was in a crowd that stood for that song. I (alone) remained seated. I was taught to stand for national anthems, and a showtune is not a national anthem. I suppose my great antipathy for that particular showtune may have been a factor as well. But if the announcer had asked the crowd to stand, I would have stood, regardless. Although I agree with the OP that this cheapens the respect shown to the anthem, it’s pretty much a lost cause by the time everyone else is on their feet. And I don’t see any reason not to stand if standing seems to be the tradition for a certain song in a certain situation.
So my take on the etiquette is this:
Stand if asked to stand.
Stand for national anthems (all nations) whether asked or not.
Stand if you feel like joining the standing crowd.
Does that work for everybody?
There is likely a written directive from the Commissioner’s Office that instructs all Major League Baseball teams to play the National Anthem or some other appropriate song before a game.
But does anyone know if ONLY the Canadian anthem is played before Jays-Expos interleague games?
I don’t know for sure but I’d assume that only the Canadian anthem is played. When the Dallas Stars play the Detroit Red Wings they only play the American anthem.
Crunchy Frog says:
No, I didn’t miss it, I was wanting clarification on the point. Also, at every event I have been to where something other than the anthem was sung, people stood. My next question would be if you knew you were going to be planted on your butt for 3 hours at a baseball game, why not stand - anthem or not?
There are also (in the USofA) state songs.
Being a former Okie, I was very torn about remaining seated while watching Oklahoma! on broadway during the title song.
Boom Boom when played by John Lee Hooker live, may he R.I.P., and possibly Boogie Chillun. John Lee sits, everyone else stands. 
The old custom of standing for the ‘Dead March’ from Handel’s Saul - which was almost certainly copied from the custom of standing for the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ - appears to be completely defunct.
One might ask why there is a custom of standing for national anthems at all. The odd thing is that the earliest evidence for people standing for British National Anthem on occasions when the King wasn’t present roughly coincides with the earliest evidence for the tradition of doing so during the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’. That was the period in the late eighteenth century when the idea was emerging that ‘God save the King’ was the ‘national’ anthem, and indeed that there could be such a thing as a national anthem. Interestingly, Saul, Messiah and ‘God save the King’ were each first performed within six years of each other. (Assuming, that is, that ‘God save the King’ was first performed in 1745, a point that some music historians have questioned.) It may not be a coincidence that Britain was then at war with France (again) and that there was a very real threat of a French-backed Jacobite uprising. Patriotism was in vogue.
Yes. Between any two competing Canadian teams only “Oh Canada” is played, which is great for me because it reduces my stand time by half. BTW, I only take my hat off for the Canadian, is that proper etiquette?
A related etiquette issue is that you should not applaud, hoot, holler or cheer for the national anthem, although almost everyone in the stadium seems to ignore that rule.
OK, so I’m not the only one who doesn’t stand for all patriotic songs. I don’t mind standing for 9/11 stuff but YMMV.
BTW, at Yankee Stadium they also play YMCA during the stretch–everybody gets up and dances and the groundskeepers, dragging their rakes, do their own little dance too! Nothing funnier than watching twelve burly mostly Latino guys doing a cut-price Astaire with their rakes.
U.S. Marines always stand at attention when the Marines’ Hymn is played.
My NROTC unit in college was heavily influenced by the Marines attached to the unit. It was drilled into us Navy pukes to always stand as well. To this day, I still stand when the Marines’ Hymn is played, but to maintain some sense of pride in my own service, I also stand when Anchors Aweigh is played.
Do you remember the explosion of flags after the attacks? Do you remember that a large percentage of them were displayed somehow improperly? I was taught that it is better to not display a flag then to display one improperly.
You also must know that some people would like to change the National Anthem, though God Bless America would a bunch of people up in arms due to the 1st Amendment, which some people think the words ‘sepperation of church and state’ are in - but that’s another issue.
So I must conclude:
1 - Most don’t know that there is no reason to stand, and just going along w/ the crowd.
2 - A few see this as a more appropiate N A then the war based S.S.B.
3 - Some don’t like having thier vision blocked by all the asses in the way and stand so then can see.
4 - Some are trying to be patritic but don’t know the rules, and most likely still have a light blue, white and pink flag still attached to their car window or antenna that they bought 9/12/01 and don’t know truely how disrespectful that is.
for ballgames, you’re expected to stand for “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”, “YMCA”, and “The Chicken Dance”
Personally, I won’t stand for any of this nonsense. 