Over the past six months Nordic music has found its fire: from the girl power inspired anthems of Denmark's MØ to the harsh revolutionary beats of Mad Decent-signed Ellinor Olovsdotter (aka Elliphant), 2014 is the year pop got its bombast back.
We had to take Kesha's word that her new music would be beautiful, inspired, and bring us to a world where suffering can inspire anthem.
And the flag that inspired the anthem was enormous.
However, nearly all of them stopped short of addressing the issue that inspired the anthem protest in the first place: systemic racism.
The War of 1812, whose end inspired our national anthem, marks its bicentennial this summer, an occasion that will be celebrated in military re-enactments, symphony concerts and historic tours in Ontario, Ohio, Maryland and other sites where battles were fought.
Among the works of fan art it has inspired is an anthem sung to the tune of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun": "Oh, mother dear, Clinton-Kaine were not the ones / 'cause Bernie, he would have won / Oh, Bernie, he would have won".
As well as the slippers, some of its iconic objects include the legendary Hope Diamond, President Lincoln's top hat, the star-spangled banner that inspired the national anthem, and the Apollo lunar landing module.
