I’ve been thinking a lot about music and the Olympics. Is it because Celine Dione made me tear up during the Opening Ceremony in Paris 2024? Maybe.
These days, music is a delicious garnish or an elegant window dressing to The Games. It helps them feel special and unique and singular. There’s the Olympic Fanfare and Theme by John Williams, which, like a Pavlovian bell, NBC uses with surgical efficacy to signal to our brains that “you’re about to see some pretty incredible feats of human ability.” There’s the seemingly endless breadth and variety of music that figure skaters select to accompany their routines as they flit and spin and awe around the frozen Olympic rink. And naturally there’s all the music during the opening and closing ceremonies.
But that’s not what I mean. What I’ve been thinking about is when music was an event at the Olympics.