Comments on: Sports and Music: Music and Sports

By: mumsee

mumsee — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:39:19 +0000

well, the boisterous singing that goes with soccer matches worldwide may be sweet but the mayhem that normally goes with them is not.

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By: Peter L

Peter L — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:28:28 +0000

Okay, so it has been so long since I have seen it, I forgot that it was a tuba player (tubist?). I inadvertently made my point!

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By: hrw

hrw — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:24:57 +0000

Hockey Night in Canada’s theme song over the last 30-40 years has evolved into a second national anthem. But the constant Jumbotron demands for action is annoying as is the need to cover every break with music. Watching hockey in montreal or soccer elsewhere in the world and you see and hear a cultural event — the new Toronto FC in the MLS have managed to tap the same tradition.

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By: krm

krm — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:53:14 +0000

If you’ve attended sports events over a long span of time, you’ve seen the movement to fill every available second with noise and activity.

The same is occuring in all areas of life (do you remember back when a restaurant or bar didn’t have any TV – much less one every ten feet? Gas pumps and checkout stations at the grocery store now have a TV to blare at you.

We are getting saturated in stimulation.

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By: Travis Birkenstock

Travis Birkenstock — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:18:17 +0000

Another peculiarity that I’ve always wondered about is that regardless of the arena, crowds at basketball games always chant “Air Ball” in the same key – F to D.

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By: michelle

michelle — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:16:55 +0000

We were on the bus to the 1976 Rose Bowl game–UCLA vs. the team whose tuba player high steps his way to dot the I in Ohio–when the drum major said, “I’ve just heard the most extraordinary thing! They’ve put a football game on both sides of our halftime show!”

The sad thing is, this may be the only time many people sing in our society–at sporting events. So, I think it should be encouraged.

And I love the Olympics theme, too.

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By: Xion

Xion — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:59:00 +0000

Bostonians are still trying to figure out why they sing “Sweet Caroline” in the seventh inning stretch of Red Sox games.

There are many theories. Some think it’s about Caroline Kennedy, but that doesn’t really help. Others think an organist played it once and it stuck. No one really knows why.

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By: Night Watch

Night Watch — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:35:14 +0000

Football or “soccer” crowds are the best in the world, bar none. In the US, we have too many sports for one to be totally ingrained in the fabric of our culture the way the sport is around the world.

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By: adios

adios — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:19:54 +0000

Travis, that is what my hubby and I noticed watching Euro 2008 this week. Lots of singing by the crowd itself. Croatia had motions to go with the songs. Wish the crowd had been micced.

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By: Travis Birkenstock

Travis Birkenstock — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:06:46 +0000

Good stuff, Mickey.

With Jim McKay’s recent passing, it reminded me of how much I loved the Olympic theme, and how getting to hear it every four years was/is such a treat.

The glory days of the NBA (mid 80s) were always appropriately punctuated by the Pointer Sisters “I’m so Excited” during the NBAs commercials on CBS and those “NBA – it’s FANtastic” spots.

A personal pet peeve of mine is how every player at a baseball game these days has to have their own individual theme song played as they step to the plate. In fact, all stadium and arena sports are a bombardment of 12 second snippets from rock songs (e.g. GNRs ‘Welcome to the Jungle’) synced to video clips on the Jumbotron. These function as multimedia queue cards for the crowd to cheer. There is no longer any spontaneous cheering. You go to the game, sit in your seat, and the guys working the Pavlovian Jumbotron and PA tell you when and how to cheer.

I recall attending a World Cup Soccer game at the Cotton Bowl in 1994. The Nigerian crowd (about 10,000 strong and all in Nigerian garb stood for the entire game and spontaneously burst into song and dance at every turn in the action. No scoreboard, no PA. Magical.

I’ve got “Baseballs Greatest Hits” loaded in my car CD player right now. I’m partial to Joltin Joe Dimaggio by Les Brown Orchestra, and Steve Goodman’s epic “Dying Cub Fans Last Request”.

http://www.amazon.com/Baseballs-Greatest-Hits-Various-Artists/dp/B0000032LO

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