Beyonce's "XO" And The Challenger Disaster
posted in: Music News • Pop
Okay, we’ve got to at least mention this Beyonce-NASA beef.
Beyonce’s new release, her self-titled visual album, includes a song called XO, which incorporates audio from a NASA spokesman speaking directly after the devastating 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, in which the shuttle exploded shortly after liftoff, killing all seven people onboard.
In the sample, which starts the song, NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt says, Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation…Obviously a major malfunction.
Both NASA and representatives of the astronauts’ families have been highly critical of the use of the sample.
We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song ˜XO,’ said June Scobee Rodgers, widow of Challenger Space Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee. The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today.
A few things “ firstly, this track is awesome. Great pop song, and not in a disposable, fluffy way, as some media dimwits have suggested. That alone, of course, does not justify exploitation of an extremely sensitive moment of tragedy. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. I think this song is a surprisingly subtle (perhaps too much so, for some) and somber meditation on mortality and how we connect to each other in life’s fleeting moments:
Oh, baby take me, me
Before they turn the lights out
Before our time has run out
Baby love me lights out
The singer further bolsters this view of the song in a statement she made, responding to the criticism:
“My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster. The song ‘XO’ was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten.”
All that said, the lyrics of the song are obviously open to interpretation, and if Beyonce didn’t think anyone would be upset by the use of this sample, then Beyonce didn’t think. Not having cleared the sample with anyone involved or made her intentions more apparent (the video could have been used toward this end) is indicative of someone who is either a little out-of-touch or who might welcome the controversy. I give Beyonce the benefit of the doubt and tend to believe it’s the former.
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