Tag Archive for: music

Ten classic sports arena anthems

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Sporting events just wouldn’t be as fun without great soundtracks. Whether at the ballpark, a football stadium, a hockey arena, or a basketball game, there are some songs that are guaranteed to get fans out of their seats and cheering along.

Here is a partial list of some of the biggest stadium anthems:

“The Final Countdown” – Europe

Swedish band Europe’s arena anthem “The Final Countdown” was originally supposed to be just a concert opener. Lead singer Joey Tempest wrote the keyboard riff it was based on years before the song was released, and the lyrics were inspired by David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”.

“We Will Rock You” – Queen 

“We Will Rock You” is almost fully a cappella, except for Brian May’s guitar solo. The percussive “stomp stomp clap” effect makes it easy for sports fans to join in with the beat. For the studio version of the song, the stamping effects were created by the band’s stomping and clapping, overdubbed and with delay effects added, to make it sound like many people were stomping and clapping along.

“Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne 

Osbourne’s debut solo single features an iconic riff and a call to action “All aboard!” that makes it a popular walk-out song for many sports teams. The lyrics are notably dark for a stadium anthem – they refer to the Cold War and the anxiety about annihilation that was prevalent at the time the song was released.

“Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns ‘n Roses 

With an iconic guitar riff (courtesy of Slash), this song doubles as a stadium anthem and an intimidating message to the opposing team. According to Stephen Davis’s ‘Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N’ Roses’, Axl Rose said the lyrics were inspired from an encounter he had as an 18-year-old hitchhiker coming to New York, during which a man told him “Do you know where you are? You’re in the jungle, baby!”

“Whoomp! (There It Is)” – Tag Team 

‘90s rap duo Tag Team created a stadium smash when they released “Whoomp! (There It Is)” in 1993. A similar song, “Whoot There it Is” was released a month before by Miami’s 95 South – according to a Chicago Tribune article at the time, the phrase “Whoot/Whoomp there it is” was a popular expression among dancers at nightclubs in Miami and Atlanta, where both groups frequented. 

“Thunderstruck” by AC/DC

The instantly recognizable riff that starts “Thunderstruck” is certain to turn up the “high voltage” at sports events. The name “Thunderstruck” comes from a childhood toy of the Young brothers. In the liner notes of The Razor’s Edge 2003 re-release, Angus Young said that they were searching for a name for the song when they came up with the “thunder” motif, based on their childhood toy Thunderstreak. “It seemed to have a good ring to it. AC/DC = Power. That’s the basic idea,” he wrote.

“Song 2” – Blur

According to Blur founding member Graham Coxon, “Song 2” started out as a joke on the band’s record label – but the label executives actually liked it. It was originally called “Song 2” as a working title since it was song two on the tracklist, but the name stuck.

“Seven Nation Army” – White Stripes 

“Seven Nation Army”’s instrumental chorus has made it a favorite sports anthem across the world – from soccer matches in Italy to NFL games in the states. It often appears in audience chants, where the crowd sings the riff on the sound “oh”, or inserts the name of a player. It was the theme song for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

“Enter Sandman” – Metallica

“Enter Sandman” was one of the first songs written for Metallica’s eponymous fifth album (released in 1991), and the last to have lyrics. Mariano Rivera, who played for the New York Yankees for 19 seasons, started using “Enter Sandman” as his walk-up song in 1999. Rivera – who sometimes goes by the nickname “Sandman”, used it for 15 seasons and had a 89.7 save percentage in that time.

“Run the World (Girls)” Beyonce

In 2014, then- 13-year-old Mo’ne Davis made history by tossing a full-game shutout in the Little League World Series’ Mid-Atlantic Regional final, leading the Taney Dragons to victory. She used Beyone’s 2011 song “Run the World” as a walk-out anthem. French skater Maé-Bérénice Méité competed at the 2018 Olympics to a medley of Beyonce’s songs, including “Run the World”. The song was also used as the anthem for Great Britain’s women’s soccer match against Brazil in the 2012 London Olympics.

Are there any songs you think belong on this list? Let us know in the comments! 

“Running Up That Hill”, “Master of Puppets” and other songs that became popular again through movies and TV

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WARNING: This post contains mild spoilers for “Stranger Things Part 4”. 

Sometimes, popular movies and TV shows can help resurrect songs that were released decades ago and push them back up to the Top 100 charts.

Over Memorial Day weekend 2022, the premiere of Netflix’s “Stranger Things Part 4” helped propel English singer Kate Bush’s 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” into the No. 1 spot on iTunes, after the song was heard playing from a main character’s Walkman.

The premiere of “Stranger Things Part 4 Volume II on July 1 helped shoot “Master of Puppets” to the top of iTunes’ Top 100 Rock Songs. According to Billboard.com, streams for the band’s music have shot up 400 percent from June 30 (the day before Volume II was released).

Here are some other songs that received a second shot of fame after being used in popular media:

Ben E. King – “Stand By Me” 

This 1961 song has been covered over 400 times by recording artists including John Lennon, Tracy Chapman, and Florence + the Machine. Although it was a number four pop hit when it was released, the track re-entered the Billboard 100 chart in 1986 when it was featured in the soundtrack of “Stand By Me”, a movie based off of Stephen King’s story “The Body”.

 

Journey – “Don’t Stop Believin’” 

Journey’s 1981 hit “Don’t Stop Believin’’” has never REALLY left the public consciousness – this smash is still a karaoke favorite and a regular feature of classic rock radio stations. But it enjoyed a surge of popularity in 2007 when it was used in the controversial final scene of HBO’s The Sopranos’ series finale. Downloads of the song spiked after the episode aired and prompted Journey to find a new lead singer (former singer Steve Augeri left the band in 2006 due to ongoing vocal problems).

 

Fleetwood Mac – “Dreams”

TikTok has had a hand in making lots of songs reach viral popularity in the past couple of years. “Dreams”, released in 1977, was a huge hit in its own right, topping the Billboard Hot 100 when it was released. In 2020, Idaho resident Nathan Apodaca shared a video of himself longboarding while sipping Ocean Spray and lip syncing along to the track. The clip went viral – and also tripled sales of the song. 

 

Badfinger – “Baby Blue”

“Baby Blue” was Welsh group Badfinger’s last Top 20 single. It was released in the U.S. as a single in 1972. When the song was featured in Breaking Bad’s explosive series finale in 2013, it received a huge dose of popularity. The song was purchased over 5,000 times the night of the broadcast, and it was on the Billboard Digital Songs chart later that month. The song also charted for the first time in England following the finale.

Dick Dale – “Misirlou”

“Misirlou” is an Eastern Mediterranean folk song with a long history of being performed by Greek, Arabic, and Jewish musicians. In 1962, guitarist Dick Dale popularized the song in the West with a surf-rock cover. In 1994, Dale’s version was used in the opening credits of Pulp Fiction. It was featured on the movie’s eclectic soundtrack, which went to #21 on the Billboard 100 that year.

Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Queen’s 1975 six-minute “mock opera” dominated the charts in England and took the number one spot in a dozen other countries when it was released – but in the U.S., it never made it past #9. When Wayne’s World came out in 1992, the car scene featuring “Bohemian Rhapsody” helped shoot the track to #2 on the Billboard chart. Queen guitarist Brian May told the BBC in 2015 that “there was a time when we completely owned America, and we would tour there every year. It seemed like we couldn’t go wrong. And then we lost America for various reasons, which are now history. … Freddie [Mercury] had a very dark sense of humor. And he used to say, ‘I suppose I’ll have to die before we get America back.’ And, in a sense, that was what happened. And it was Wayne’s World, which came completely out of nowhere, that made it happen.”

That’s not the only assist the song has had from the silver screen – the 2018 band biopic Bohemian Rhapsody helped it to become the most streamed song from the last century.

The Beatles – “Twist and Shout” 

Director John Hughes put this track by the Fab Four back into the charts with his 1986 movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. The teenage protagonist of the film stirs up the crowd at a parade when he jumps on a float to lip sync the 1964 hit – which spent 16 weeks on the charts when it was released, but jumped back onto the Billboard Hot 100 for another seven weeks in 1986 after the film’s release! The resurgence in popularity made “Twist and Shout” the Beatles’ longest charting Top 40 song.

How to protect your hearing while playing music

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When you’re ripping away at a new song, either by yourself or with a band, it can be tempting to crank the sound on your amplifier all the way up! 

However, even if the music doesn’t feel too loud, it can still be damaging to your hearing. 

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that noise exposure not be over 85 dB(A) averaged over a daily eight-hour work shift. Most musicians don’t play that long per day – however, the louder the noise, the sooner it can harm hearing. 

“For instance, musicians who practice or perform at an average sound level of 94 dB(A) would begin to be at risk after only about an hour,” NIOSH says. 

Noise levels above 85 dBa can come from unexpected places. According to the Hearing Health Foundation, an example of 85 dBa is a busy school cafeteria or heavy city traffic. The average dBa of a subway platform is 95 dBa, personal listening devices at max volume can be 105 dBa, and a rock concert or a symphony orchestra is 110 dBa. 

According to the National Council on Aging, hearing loss in older adults is common and affects one in three people from the ages of 65 and 74. Click here for the NCOA’s recommendations and resources. 

A German study from 2014 found that professional musicians are four times more likely than non-musicians to report noise-induced hearing loss. 

Luckily, there are ways to protect your hearing while practicing or performing. 

You can use a dB meter during practice sessions to monitor the sound levels around you. You can find some apps that do this via a Smartphone. 

Get in the habit of using earplugs in loud environments – not just music venues, but also while using power tools or lawn mowers. You can buy disposable ear plugs at most drugstores. You can also buy reusable earplugs that are made of silicone or plastic, or get a pair of custom-fitted earplugs for the best results. Make sure they seal well in your ears! 

You can also get external ear protection (that looks like earmuffs) that goes on top of your ears. 

If you suspect that you might have noise-induced hearing loss, make an appointment with an audiologist for an evaluation.