Beyonce Apologises For Challenger Disaster Sample, But Sorry Isn't Good Enough For Some
Beyoncé released her fifth, self-titled album without warning at the beginning of December, resulting in a mad flurry of excitement from fans and media outlets alike as her release methods were heralded as groundbreaking and the actual content on the album marked as some of her best. With such little time to scrutinise and analyse the new release thoroughly, plenty of its content went under the radar, including some of the album's more unsavoury moments.
Beyoncé has been called her best album to date, but beneath all the sexual references and odes to motherhood there is a darker side to the album
The singer has been labelled "insensitive" by certain members (current and former) of NASA and their families for a sample she used on the track 'XO.' At the start of the song, which is about a struggling relationship, Bey uses a sample of now-retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt's voice - the man who narrated the launch for television audiences at home.
"Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction," Nesbitt told the horrified viewers watching at home as the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded into flames and fell towards the ocean. The Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after take off from the Kennedy Space Center on 28 January, 1986, with each of the seven crew members on board dying inside the wreckage. Almost thirty years later, six seconds of Nesbitt's voice reemerged out of context and the singer has been forced to explain herself and the use of the sample.
"My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster," Beyoncé told ABC News on Monday, 30 Dec. morning. Her apologetic statement continued: "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."
Watch the video for Beyoncé's 'XO'
Next Page: Why sorry isn't good enough for those still affected by the space disaster
Although she has since apologised for her use of Nesbitt's distress call, a number of former and current NASA workers and families of those on board the Challenger shuttle are still hurt by the sample. According to ABC News, those currently employed by NASA are unable to publicly voice their disgrace due to company policy, but they have privately spoken of their hurt, with retired NASA members and non-NASA affiliated persons affected by the sample doing the public talking for them.
The singer's apology hasn't been accepted by everyone
June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger Space Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee and a founder of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, described how she was "disappointed" that Bey had used such an "emotionally difficult" sample. She told ABC News, "We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song 'XO.' 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."
Former NASA employee and head of the NASAWatch.com website Keith Cowing has equally as disgruntled with the choice of sample and thinks that it should be removed from the song for all future releases, as well as demanding a full apology for the families and friends of those lost in the disaster. He told ABC, "This choice of historic and solemn audio is inappropriate in the extreme. The choice is little different than taking Walter Cronkite's words to viewers announcing the death of President Kennedy or 911 calls from the World Trade Center attack and using them for shock value in a pop tune."
"For the words to be used in the video is simply insensitive, at the very least," retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson went on to say. Anderson also had a regrettable and sadly very true reflection on the use of the sample, conceding, "What we do in space just isn't as important to young people today."
It may not have a great deal to do with the use of the sample, but the once engrossing and awed-at profession of space exploration and advancing the human race is slipping from public view in favour of liposuctioned stomachs, fake tans and 72-day marraiges. People just don't seem to care about important things anymore and the 'XO' sample is just the tip of this unsettling iceberg.
To her defence, the album is still pretty good, but it won't be inspiring any future astronauts