I find them tacky and unnecessary. And more importantly, the Union Jacks destroy the Elizabethan era setting of Banbury Cross.
Banbury Cross (England)
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
Agreed, but so does the "British Invasion" pop music. Stick to the classical!
Quite possibly one of the hottest takes on this site, but I don't entirely despise the British Invasion music. I love older (i.e., 90s and earlier) music, so the British Invasion combined with Handel's Water Music is fantastic. Sure, they should still lean heavily on classical, but they could also sprinkle in some Beatles, The Kinks, Dusty Springfield, etc.
It's only a hot take because of how severely BGW has degraded thematically and atmosphericly over the last two decades. 15 years ago discussions were commonplace amongst fans about how much we hated the modernization of the soundtracks.
I can tolerate the British Invasion music as a goodbye at the end of the night (as it was used in the 2000s) but I firmly believe that the combination of the two all day long is wrong.
I hate how much of the time period of BGW's theme has been lost since the BEC sale. So much of the park is now "ambiguous time period in _________ country" whereas the park was designed and previously operated with both place AND TIME PERIOD taken into account thematically.
Banbury Cross is meant to represent 1600s and 1700s England. The Union Jacks and the British Invasion music clash directly with the original conception of this hamlet and, given how much of the original hamlet remains intact and untainted by unnecessary thematic modernization, I think it's especially annoying that they choose to taint it with things that are so easily changed.
I accept thematic deviations during special events and, if people really, desperately want it, I'll even tolerate "more modern but still nostalgic" country-specific soundtracks at the end of the night (much like our own version of Disney's Kiss Goodnight vibe shift).
During the day though, as guests are roaming the European countryside from country to county, they should only ever hear period-correct music or thematically-appropriate soundtracks. Keep in mind that lot of original music was produced for BGW—classical music specifically composed to accentuate the vibe and beauty of the park—and much of that music is no longer played.
It will take someone with a lot of vision and passion inside BGW to pull it off, but I really hope that we will one day see a comprehensive overhaul of the park's soundtracks to restore the original BGW compositions and set strict standards for the tone of each area of BGW to properly ground the soundscapes to match the aesthetics of the park. The current hogepodge is vastly inferior to what we had years ago in my opinion.
I can tolerate the British Invasion music as a goodbye at the end of the night (as it was used in the 2000s) but I firmly believe that the combination of the two all day long is wrong.
I hate how much of the time period of BGW's theme has been lost since the BEC sale. So much of the park is now "ambiguous time period in _________ country" whereas the park was designed and previously operated with both place AND TIME PERIOD taken into account thematically.
Banbury Cross is meant to represent 1600s and 1700s England. The Union Jacks and the British Invasion music clash directly with the original conception of this hamlet and, given how much of the original hamlet remains intact and untainted by unnecessary thematic modernization, I think it's especially annoying that they choose to taint it with things that are so easily changed.
I accept thematic deviations during special events and, if people really, desperately want it, I'll even tolerate "more modern but still nostalgic" country-specific soundtracks at the end of the night (much like our own version of Disney's Kiss Goodnight vibe shift).
During the day though, as guests are roaming the European countryside from country to county, they should only ever hear period-correct music or thematically-appropriate soundtracks. Keep in mind that lot of original music was produced for BGW—classical music specifically composed to accentuate the vibe and beauty of the park—and much of that music is no longer played.
It will take someone with a lot of vision and passion inside BGW to pull it off, but I really hope that we will one day see a comprehensive overhaul of the park's soundtracks to restore the original BGW compositions and set strict standards for the tone of each area of BGW to properly ground the soundscapes to match the aesthetics of the park. The current hogepodge is vastly inferior to what we had years ago in my opinion.
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I like that actually. A nice, groovy song to listen to as you leave the park.
What if they did the classical music to set the mood when entering but then around 2pm or 3pm they switch it to the British invasion music.
Yeah, I'm with most of you on here that classical music at Banbury Cross should come back full time during the day, and when the sun sets, the British Invasion rock music starts to play as a cap off.