Exploring Top Genres in Sports
The best sports media explores the emotional core of stories that happen on and off the field. Finding the pitch-perfect track for each moment is key to bridging those emotional arcs, which is why Universal Production Music’s extensive sync library and licensing solutions are made to be versatile. From accompanying exciting highlight reels to scoring stirring documentaries, we have you covered for every kind of sports-related media project.
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Revving up the Fans
The name of the game in sports music is to get the crowd excited. Across almost every sporting event – at least in North America – there are some surefire rock songs to get the people hyped. AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” recently went viral on Tik Tok due to the popularity of a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders documentary, but the Cowboys are far from the only team blasting this tune in the arena.
Similar sports staples include the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” (which began as a soccer chant for Belgian fans in 2003 but has spread to almost all sports crowds), Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” and Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin.’” If your project calls for the huge scale of these arena anthems, check out our catalog of production syncs to see how Universal Production Music tracks can help you achieve it.
Songs that pump audiences up don’t necessarily have to have heavy guitars or booming hip hop beats. Surprisingly understated songs have become powerful sports anthems, such as Phillip Phillips’ folk rock hit “Home,” which was the theme song for USA Women's Gymnastics at the 2012 London Olympics.
NBC used the Mumford & Sons-influenced song during several of its women's gymnastics promos. The US team was on fire that year, securing gold in the women's team competition and several individual medals. The bright, uplifting ‘Home’ turned out to be the ideal song to represent the “Fierce Five.”
“The song is so perfectly put together for our purposes,” senior Olympics producer Al Michaels told Entertainment Weekly. “You had this great instrumental lead-in, you’ve got the vocal that can play in the clear, and then you’ve got the instrumental out. For me, that’s perfect.”
Choosing a track that’s a little unorthodox and gets people excited can be a great way to create a lasting impression. Besides rock n’ roll, pop, and folk, hip hop is also hugely popular with athletes and crowds alike. Check out our sports promo playlist to see the wide range of high-energy music to hype an audience.
Take Us Out to the Ballgame
Baseball’s most iconic sound – the organ – came along relatively late in the history of America’s pastime. Roy Nelson was the first to play the organ at a ballgame on April 26, 1941, when he tickled the ivories before the start of a game at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The instrument quickly became a mainstay in the sport.
Modern baseball crowds are still likely to hear organs (or at least recordings) at their games, but it will be mixed in with a diversity of modern music. One newer musical tradition is introducing pitchers with walk-on music. This began in 1972, when New York Yankees’ Sparky Kyle was accompanied by the graduation march “Pomp and Circumstance” while walking to the mound to debut as the team’s new relief pitcher.
In the same season, the White Sox began playing the “Jesus Christ Superstar” overture when famed hitter Dick Allen went up to bat.
Today, players have control and choose a huge array of music to give their entrances some swagger – Major League Baseball even keeps a running list up on their website. Some of the most famous are Yankee Mariano Rivera’s use of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Dodger Eric Gagne’s use of Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle.”
Check out our baseball playlist in time for summer if you need help crafting the soundscape of this classic game.
Fueling Passion on the Field
You never forget the way a football game sounds. For most Americans, it’s a vivid sense-memory: the crowd, the cheerleaders, the brass-heavy band, the blaring sound system. Hearing a football game on an autumn afternoon transports people back to their school days, and music colors that deep nostalgia.
Football is a dynamic game, and the music that accompanies it should reflect a range of sensations.
From high school locker room huddles to Olympic pre-competition rituals, athletes use music to focus and get excited. One survey of Skidmore College athletes found most college athletes preferred pop and hip-hop before competing, saying they looked for high energy in their pregame music. Find adrenaline-fueled tracks on our epic college football playlist, including drumline-style drums, trap beats, motivating synths, and more.
Music is threaded into the entire sports-watching experience, and it’s vital to get it right when working on a media project. Check out past sports projects we've supported with our tracks and discover your one-stop shop for music of all moods.
