This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/24/can-the-abcs-rebrand-get-the-nation-singing-the-same-song

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Can the ABC's rebrand get the nation singing the same song? Can the ABC's rebrand get the nation singing the same song?
(about 1 hour later)
Those of us of a certain age pricked up our ears the other night while watching the ABC. A song we love and grew up to, Throw Your Arms Around Me by Hunters and Collectors, which had echoed for decades at football stadiums and pubs across the world, had just been afforded the lofty status of “station ID”.Those of us of a certain age pricked up our ears the other night while watching the ABC. A song we love and grew up to, Throw Your Arms Around Me by Hunters and Collectors, which had echoed for decades at football stadiums and pubs across the world, had just been afforded the lofty status of “station ID”.
In other words, until further notice, a more recent version this infectiously heady 1984 tune will provide an appropriate coupling for the new, equally stirring visual interlude between programs on the ABC, as part of their #OurABC rebrand. In other words, until further notice, a more recent version of this infectiously heady 1984 tune will provide an appropriate coupling for the new, equally stirring visual interlude between programs on the ABC, as part of their #OurABC rebrand.
For those of us who swayed in the mosh pits of the 1980s, arms entwined, to Mark Seymour’s muscular baritone, the song was an unofficial anthem to a carefree, blue-skied, multicultural nation, a youth of free education if not, thanks to Aids, the type of carefree loving advocated by the lyrics ("so shed your skin and let’s get started").For those of us who swayed in the mosh pits of the 1980s, arms entwined, to Mark Seymour’s muscular baritone, the song was an unofficial anthem to a carefree, blue-skied, multicultural nation, a youth of free education if not, thanks to Aids, the type of carefree loving advocated by the lyrics ("so shed your skin and let’s get started").
I’ve been to countless birthday parties, weddings and anniversaries for which this “Hunners” song has acted as ode. Throw Your Arms Around Me has also worked pretty damn well at too many funerals.I’ve been to countless birthday parties, weddings and anniversaries for which this “Hunners” song has acted as ode. Throw Your Arms Around Me has also worked pretty damn well at too many funerals.
Almost three decades after the original, Seymour added a new verse to the song for an asylum seeker resource centre campaign. So, always a paean to physical love, bonds of friendship and togetherness, in 2013 Throw Your Arms Around Me became a hymn to multiculturalism, urging us to reach out across borders, to embrace the new and the foreign.Almost three decades after the original, Seymour added a new verse to the song for an asylum seeker resource centre campaign. So, always a paean to physical love, bonds of friendship and togetherness, in 2013 Throw Your Arms Around Me became a hymn to multiculturalism, urging us to reach out across borders, to embrace the new and the foreign.
It was an anthem to inclusiveness, a celebration of tolerance and otherness at a time when Australia had become absolutely anything but. Now, thankfully, it is the ABC’s anthem – its message to the country:It was an anthem to inclusiveness, a celebration of tolerance and otherness at a time when Australia had become absolutely anything but. Now, thankfully, it is the ABC’s anthem – its message to the country:
Whatever world you come fromWhatever tongue you speakWe may speak a thousand languagesBut you will make me call your nameAnd I’ll shout it to the blue summer skyWhatever world you come fromWhatever tongue you speakWe may speak a thousand languagesBut you will make me call your nameAnd I’ll shout it to the blue summer sky
The new station ID is a beautifully shot piece. The faces are many different colours, appropriately reflecting the reality of Australia’s genuinely diverse ethnic and not least, Indigenous mix.The new station ID is a beautifully shot piece. The faces are many different colours, appropriately reflecting the reality of Australia’s genuinely diverse ethnic and not least, Indigenous mix.
We see our major religions reflected, too. There’s a female football team, Muslim girls wearing headscarves. Kids dance in the schoolyard and jump, in golden light, from a jetty into our sea.We see our major religions reflected, too. There’s a female football team, Muslim girls wearing headscarves. Kids dance in the schoolyard and jump, in golden light, from a jetty into our sea.
If, like me, you love this new ABC station ID, then you’ll probably pause, as I do every time I see it now, to contemplate whether it captures the true heart of Australia.If, like me, you love this new ABC station ID, then you’ll probably pause, as I do every time I see it now, to contemplate whether it captures the true heart of Australia.
It is certainly a reminder of what I want Australia to be. Sadly, it feels like a deeply poignant lament, too, for an Australia that is not always on show nationally or to the world. Is it about a country that was rather than is? I hope not. I think that's what this new station ID is trying to evoke in me – hope and pride (the word is spelled out on a football banner) in what so many of us want and know Australia really to be.It is certainly a reminder of what I want Australia to be. Sadly, it feels like a deeply poignant lament, too, for an Australia that is not always on show nationally or to the world. Is it about a country that was rather than is? I hope not. I think that's what this new station ID is trying to evoke in me – hope and pride (the word is spelled out on a football banner) in what so many of us want and know Australia really to be.
It doesn't reflect the Australia of offshore processing and crowded, sweltering detention centres; of children being held in ships so they might be denied asylum; of an ancient, proud, culturally rich Indigenous people, too many of whom are relegated to out-of-sight poverty, deprivation and racism – for which an international aid solution often seems appropriate.It doesn't reflect the Australia of offshore processing and crowded, sweltering detention centres; of children being held in ships so they might be denied asylum; of an ancient, proud, culturally rich Indigenous people, too many of whom are relegated to out-of-sight poverty, deprivation and racism – for which an international aid solution often seems appropriate.
It is not the Australia of governments of all persuasions that wrench political capital from the fear of otherness; of shock jocks and columnists who advocate minimising Muslim migration as a terrorism deterrent; of bucolic, clean-aired country towns where supporters of a mosque might feel threatened; of a national holiday where our flag is culturally misappropriated as a symbol of territorial and racial exclusion.It is not the Australia of governments of all persuasions that wrench political capital from the fear of otherness; of shock jocks and columnists who advocate minimising Muslim migration as a terrorism deterrent; of bucolic, clean-aired country towns where supporters of a mosque might feel threatened; of a national holiday where our flag is culturally misappropriated as a symbol of territorial and racial exclusion.
Thanks to recent funding cuts, the ABC's volume in Asia has been muted, but it remains the publicly funded, widely trusted, if sometimes imperfect, voice of Australia.Thanks to recent funding cuts, the ABC's volume in Asia has been muted, but it remains the publicly funded, widely trusted, if sometimes imperfect, voice of Australia.
The ABC's enemies (of whom there are many, some in the highest of places) and friends (many, many, more I'd wager, if not quite as on high) accordingly monitor, dissect, criticise, delight in, identify with, rely on and take comfort in that national voice. No other institution in this country has been fixed as firmly for so long in the sights of the cultural and political rightwing as the ABC.The ABC's enemies (of whom there are many, some in the highest of places) and friends (many, many, more I'd wager, if not quite as on high) accordingly monitor, dissect, criticise, delight in, identify with, rely on and take comfort in that national voice. No other institution in this country has been fixed as firmly for so long in the sights of the cultural and political rightwing as the ABC.
Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s the spear throwers seethed at what they still regard as the endemic soft-left bias of the broadcaster. They railed then, and now, at the corporation’s purportedly politically correct obsessions with womens’ rights and multiculturalism, Palestine, Indigenous Australians and, later of course, the really big ones, Muslim asylum seekers and refugees.Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s the spear throwers seethed at what they still regard as the endemic soft-left bias of the broadcaster. They railed then, and now, at the corporation’s purportedly politically correct obsessions with womens’ rights and multiculturalism, Palestine, Indigenous Australians and, later of course, the really big ones, Muslim asylum seekers and refugees.
What will everyone make of the ABC’s new station ID? It is the potential stuff, I suspect, of marathon Senate estimates hearings. It’s hard to deny that such a re-branding is a forthright, courageous move by the ABC at a time of great cultural siege.What will everyone make of the ABC’s new station ID? It is the potential stuff, I suspect, of marathon Senate estimates hearings. It’s hard to deny that such a re-branding is a forthright, courageous move by the ABC at a time of great cultural siege.
So, what does it all mean besides an incidental middle-finger to the culture warriors? Well, just go to the words.So, what does it all mean besides an incidental middle-finger to the culture warriors? Well, just go to the words.