This has a lot of layers to it and I’ll try to get to each one. Television and how they want to present the show take over. Then you have the person who is actually choreographing the show and anyone that’s above them giving their feedback. So you have a lot of people involved, and they all want to put on the best show possible. It is appropriate to play patriotic music or a music bed for the presentation of the colors as long as the commander of the color/honor guard has given their blessing which can have its own lines of red tape involved. Since I wasn’t at the game itself, I’m not sure if the music was played in stadium or if it was just on television. With technology you can do a lot of that on the fly. Heck, you can send one music track to TV and a second music track to stadium.

It really depends on the situation and how everything is lined up. When the anthem is to be performed on TV, the performer will always face the camera regardless of the location of the fans. However, when singing the National Anthem, I have always had my singers face the flag, or stand adjacent to a color guard, or in some situations, have them stand in front of the color guard as the flags are held above the performer.

Is it appropriate for the riflemen in the color guard to present arms when "America the Beautiful" is played?

I think there is something rotten in Denmark.

An Old Vet