I think Japan has the worst, it just slides off the brain into non-hearing. And i'm sure it's not the only one, i bet i heard a lot more of so fucking boring ones i even forgot i listened to them.

I mean what is the point of anthem from a musical standpoint? To offer a distinct and simple melody so even the densest people can remember and follow it. Also one which can be screamed loudly (often when drunk) on various patriotic-ish occasions. In short, an officially sanctioned pub song. From that point of view US anthem is pretty good one. French or German too, even Polish is not bad.

Finally also note that anthems specifically composed as anthems, especially after WW2 tend to suck donkey ass (with some exceptions), it's just the audible equivalent of tricolor flag.

[–] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 5 points 2 months ago

I do think that Japan's anthem is interesting if for no other reason than that the lyrics are literally a thousand years old and allude to legends about sazare-ishi, but it is a very drowsy song, and anything pro-monarchy is just fundamentally kinda cringe.

I think that much like flags, anthems serve different purposes in different countries. Japan adopted a national anthem really just for the sake of emulating Western countries, and didn't really have any sort of locally-grown, naturally-developed "national anthem culture" at the time. And in a country where people aren't necessarily going around drunkenly screaming patriotic songs, the purpose of a national anthem is oftentimes more like... I dunno, some short ditty to play in like ceremonial meetings between heads of state or whatever. It doesn't need to be particularly inspiring, it just needs to exist.