Are the vocals now allowed in figure skating giving anyone 90-00s GFB vibes?

[Jarrett]

For anyone that wasn't watching skating in the 90s-00s the term GFB was thrown around a lot. It might have been used long before then but that is when I started watching skating. GFB = Generic Female Ballad was used mostly as a diss as far I know. Usually, it was the U.S. skaters skating to the latest pop track to forgettable choreography.

After sitting through Yuma Kagiyama's short program at Japanese Nationals and wanting to turn it off just because of the music used (Imagine Dragons) I have to wonder if is this what the powers that be wanted when they allowed vocals? Yuma's skating skills are not forgettable but this type of pop music definitely is IMO. Were they hoping to bring younger crowds into the seats by allowing (insert skater's name here) to Justin Timerlake/Billie Eilish? For what its worth, it hasn't based on any of the Nationals I have gone to. Was there a lobby from record companies to the ISU to try increase streaming music revenue? I honestly can't think of any programs that wouldn't have been as successful using vocal-less(sp?) music besides a couple of Nathan Chen's.

I believe vocals have been allowed in ice dancing for a much longer period and they seem more adept in pulling more emotions from vocals even though I don't think they are necessary in that discipline either.

 

[tony]

IMO, the number one problem with vocals coming into play in the 2015 season, and then on top of that in 2019 season reducing the pairs/mens free skates to 4 minutes, is that skaters are spending the majority of their programs completing the required elements, and 30 to sometimes 45 seconds in both programs are dedicated to step sequences that often don't go with the music but instead check off the boxes to level up.

I think we see increasingly bland, slow music (especially covers of popular songs) because the skaters don't have the power or energy to match dynamic, faster music with everything else going on. Back when we saw typical fast/slow/fast program tempo set-ups, the skaters were doing step sequences that often consisted of turning in only one direction and completing the element in 10 seconds, and the spins didn't have 15 different transitions to get them to level 4- they were often straight-forward and minimal positions to fill the requirement. They also could sneak in a rest period in their free skates in the 'slow' section. They also weren't saving their energy to do three jumping passes (often the more difficult and/or combinations) right after the 2 minute mark to get their bonuses.

I used to be a big fan of all skating music but the last few years have been grating on me, too, I think mostly because most programs just don't really have any choreography or phrasing to the music, which then makes the slow, snoozy choices even more WTF. Skating is more popular around the world now and I imagine 14 year old me on the message boards would be giddy over at least some of this, but even if they went back to no vocals in singles/pairs (won't happen), the issue still remains that there is no time for most skaters to fit any kind of storytelling choreography into the programs.

ETA- I've ranted about this for many years, but the way the ISU currently has it, you're almost guaranteed to see a program setup of 4 jumping passes in a row, a spin, a footwork sequence, 3 more jumping passes just after 2 minutes, 2 more spins, and the choreo sequence to end the program. I bet it's in 90%+ of the programs. Zagitova backloading all the jumps, as frantic as it was when she got it wrong, was a breath of fresh air.