# Does every national anthem sound the same? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 7, 2012, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070 "2012-04-07T10:01:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2012, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/1 "2012-04-07T10:01:38Z")
So as I was sitting here the national anthem came on the TV and if it wasn’t for the instrument it was played on(steel pan) you’d have no clue WHAT national anthem it was and still will probably guess wrong.(not Jamaica) This confirms my experience with other national anthems where I often can’t tell by it where I am, assuming I am unclear on that for some reason. So like does every national anthem sound alike unless you have a degree in musicology or something? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/2 "2012-04-08T03:11:15Z")
No, not at all. No offense, but could you possibly be tone-deaf? I’m asking this as a serious question, not an insult. Have you ever had a problem distinguishing other songs, or classical pieces? ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/3 "2012-04-08T03:14:10Z")
Really. I mean “La Marseilleise” sounds like “O Canada”? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/4 "2012-04-08T03:21:30Z")
Presumably Jamaicans would be able to. I’m from the US so I can recognize The Star-Spangled Banner, as crap as it is and I also know O Canada and God Save the Queen (When she kicks it, will the anthem change to God Save the King? Or is it God Save the King/Queen Whichever Gender Happens To Be Sitting On The Throne When You Play This Song?) I don’t know La Marseilleise so if you played it and the Jamaican anthem one after the other, I probably wouldn’t be able to authoritatively state which one goes with which country. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/5 "2012-04-08T03:24:46Z")
I suspect you do in fact know La Marseillaise, you just don’t know you know it. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/6 "2012-04-08T03:25:47Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > . . . I don’t know La Marseilleise . . . Give yourself a treat and listen to it! It’s so damn inspirational, it’s absolutely buoyant! The Mexican National Anthem is also fun; here along the border, it gets played every night when the big Mexican broadcasters shut down, and the version they play is really bouncy, vigorous, almost like classical dance music. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/7 "2012-04-08T03:26:21Z")
Yeah I just looked it up on youtube. It sounds familiar but I don’t know where I might have heard it. I suppose movie soundtracks? ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/8 "2012-04-08T03:33:56Z")
It’s featured prominently in Casablanca, among others. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/9 "2012-04-08T03:37:47Z")
Too bad I’ve never seen Casablanca or this mystery’d be solved. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/10 "2012-04-08T03:38:57Z")
Also in Schumann’s _Die beiden Grenadieren_, but that’s probably a long shot… ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/11 "2012-04-08T03:39:04Z")
The Japanese national anthem is sad and beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/12 "2012-04-08T03:46:02Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > No, not at all. No offense, but could you possibly be tone-deaf? I’m asking this as a serious question, not an insult. Have you ever had a problem distinguishing other songs, or classical pieces? I’m definitely not tone deaf, but I’m not familiar enough with most national anthems to be able to tell which one’s which. If you don’t know them, you don’t know them. I know Canada, the UK and the US. That’s it. And I love the Canadian one, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/13 "2012-04-08T06:07:19Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I’m definitely not tone deaf, but I’m not familiar enough with most national anthems to be able to tell which one’s which. If you don’t know them, you don’t know them. > > I know Canada, the UK and the US. That’s it. And I love the Canadian one, BTW. Well, it’s one thing if you don’t know them all, another to say they all sound the same. I like “O’Canada” too. (One sign that you’re a hockey fan: you know the words to the Canadian national anthem and you’re an American) **Inner Stickler** , yes it will change to “God Save the _King_”. Oh, and “La Marseilleise” is awesome. The lyrics are really really bloody. (If you’ve ever heard the _1812 Overture_, then you’ve heard “La Marseilleise”) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/14 "2012-04-08T06:39:06Z")
I personally like [South Africa’s](http://youtu.be/bq5J7TKt8xI) anthem. It starts at the 7:00 minute mark in that clip. It’s the best version I could find, also the way I first heard it at the end of the movie Cry Freedom. Anthems do tend to have rising melodic lines and have “march” feel to them with simple melodic lines and not a lot of syncopated rhythms. (mostly on the down beat) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/15 "2012-04-08T07:07:35Z")
All anthems are not equal: Google the Russian national anthem. No other anthem comes close in terms of stirring refrain. I even bought the 12" single when I visited the USSR. ---
**Author:** ![Molesworth\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Molesworth\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molesworth_2)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/16 "2012-04-08T08:22:25Z")
I have no connection to Italy, and I loathe the Azzuri (the Italian national soccer team), but hearing their anthem being played before their matches is one of the parts of the World Cup that I really love. There’s a bit where the same 4 bars of music are played over and over again that I find really stirring. On the other hand, I recall the Romanian national anthem being played at the '94 World Cup in the US, and thinking that if I too had lived behind the Iron Curtain for around half a century and was really miserable as a result then that would be the anthem for me. It sounds like a funeral dirge. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/17 "2012-04-08T17:51:53Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > All anthems are not equal: Google the Russian national anthem. No other anthem comes close in terms of stirring refrain. … and it sounds a LOT like La Marseillaise. I actually sort of agree with the OP, at least with regards to most anthems. It’s not thatthey’re the same tune; obviously, I can hear the difference in melody between “O Canada” and “La Marseillaise.” But they’re all sort of the same style of song - martial, marching-band songs that sound ideally suited for a really big brass section. If you listen to, say, Greece’s national anthem, it doesn’t sound Greek. It’s just a general martial-sounding song. They could trade it to Germany for the tune to “Deutschland Uber Alles” and it wouldn’t make any difference. ETA: I’d agree Japan’s anthem is distinct, though, probably because it comes, at least partially, from a very different musical tradition. ---
**Author:** ![Postariti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Postariti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Postariti)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/18 "2012-04-08T18:28:37Z")
[This blogger](http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2010/07/06/grading-every-countrys-national-anthem-part-one/) did a humorous series about nation anthems with links where you could hear them. He does comment at one point ‘how many countries just listen to “La Marseillaise” and say “we will have one of those, please.”’ If you read through, it sounds like there are quite a few anthems that are distinctive sounding. (I can’t confirm this, because I’m on dial-up and youtube doesn’t work very well for me.) ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/19 "2012-04-08T20:53:08Z")
While it is not true that every national anthem sounds the same, what is true is that the **second** (and subsequent) verse of every national anthem is sung nah nah nah nah naaaa … until the last line Si credit to Terry Pratchett for that ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070/20 "2012-04-08T20:55:42Z")
Kind of like how most every college fight song sounds the same? I guess the instruments (brass) and the time signatures and general octaves used are all similar-USC’s is the most distinctive to me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-every-national-anthem-sound-the-same/618070.md?page=2)