Official State Songs Vs. Cultural Anthems: Which Tunes Actually Represent Us?
By Sophia Al-Mansoor
Altering statutory songs sounds simple, but state legislative resolutions face massive practical hurdles. The primary stumbling block is intellectual property. Early state anthems relied on 19th-century public-domain poems arranged to simple hymn melodies. When lawmakers consider modern tracks by homegrown regional artists, commercial licensing enters the frame.
Music publishers rarely give away synchronization and performance rights unconditionally. If a state designates a commercially copyrighted song as its official anthem, public agencies face questions regarding royalty collections for state functions, university athletic broadcasts, and political inaugurations. When Oklahoma adopted "Oklahoma!" from Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1953, special legislative dispensation and royalty carve-outs were required to ensure the state could perform its own anthem without triggering licensing penalties.
Cultural gatekeeping inside statehouses creates another barrier. In 1985, Washington State Representative Jeff Vance introduced a bill to replace Helen Davis's obscure 1959 ballad "Washington, My Home" with the garage-rock anthem "Louie Louie." The campaign generated massive media coverage. Lawmakers wore sunglasses on the house floor, while local bands performed on capitol steps in Olympia. Conservative lawmakers balked at adopting a song with notoriously misunderstood, garbled lyrics. In the end, the legislature compromised with a tongue-in-cheek honorary resolution, leaving the legal title untouched.
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