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Fields of sport
Jesús Castañón Rodríguez y María Elena Martín Pérez

http://www.efdeportes.com/ Revista Digital - Buenos Aires - Año 8 - N° 46 - Marzo de 2002

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3.3. Relationship between sportsmen and modern music

    The relationship between sportsmen and modern music in the 20th century has given rise to sportsmen's musical incursions and to the musicians or singers' declaration of their hobbies, specially football ones.


Sporting voices in the musical industry

    In England, the international Paul Gascoigne, Glenn Hoddle, Francis Lee, Keving Keegan and Bobby Moore recorded discs. The first one, together with Lindisfarne, popularized the theme Fog on the Tyne. Glenn Hoddle recorded a version based on We Are The Champions. Francis Lee & Bobby Moore formed a duet in order to perform Sugar Sugar. And Kevin Keegan, with the selector time from England, was the singer of This Time We'll Get It Right as well as the ballad Head over heels in love in the eighties.


Musicians' sporting hobbies

    The musicians' declaration of sporting hobbies has become a way of sign of identity in their relation with the musical fans. But it is doubtless, the English musicians' declaration of the football preferences what has given rise to a special combination of these two cultural ways based on a passionate experience in England. A first list is formed by:



Sporting acts in musical concerts

    But musicians don't agree to state their sporting preferences, they establish a new communication with their audience resorting to several sporting ways they develop on the stage during the performances in concerts and films.

    Throughout the history, numerous curiosities have appeared. The singer Mick Hucknall has managed to train with the Manchester United's professional team in order to be on form and carry out an international tour with his group; Jimmy Pursey, from Sham 69 harangued his followers in the performances as though they were supporters.

    Since 1982, when The Rolling Stones performed in Turín and Mick Jagger jumped on to the stage wearing the Paolo Rossi's shirt, after winning the World Cup, it's frequent that singers wear the sporting team's shirt from the locality where they are performing in order to get a better communication of emotions. This technique has been only extended by Steven Tyler, from Aerosmith, who appeared wearing the Real Madrid's shirt and performed the white club's hymn in a performance in the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, in Madrid.

    Finally, a special case is the communication carried out by means of the scarves, which is started with The Beatles when for the film Help, they persuade John Lennon, Everton's fan, to the group appeared sporting the Liverpool's red and white scarf, the team the other three components support. This magic communication of feelings in the wind has gone to the musical field with the welcomes directed to The Faces in their performances.


The relationships with the mass media

    Music with sporting subject has managed to incorporate the sounds of sport in the musical industry, as an accompaniment of the melodies. Specially, in the United Kingdom, the songs based on football include radio and televised reports of the main successes, songs of supporters, etc.

    As example it is important emphasize the labor carried out in the following albums since 1968:

    The record business house Cherry Red Records is an outstanding case, which has numerous compilations of English and Scottish teams:


Stadium as the stage of the popular solidarity

    The epic poetry of the stadium and its intense lyric poetry of feelings has transformed sportsmen and musicians into modern heroes who fight in 4/4 time against the chaos of the real life in order to get a better imagined world.

    In that facet, musical stars dress themselves with short clothes in order to contend for charitable matches, out of all the ones it is important the tournament Soccer Six, a championship which has been obtained by the groups like Apollo 440, Reef, Blur and James. However, it has got the stadium to become a source of social solidarity with the victims and of solidarity with sportsmen and sportswomen.

    It is the demonstrated case by Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead), John Entswhile (The Who), several components of Girlschool and Gerry Marsden (The Pacemaker) and their recording of You'll never walk alone in favor of the victims from the stadium of Bradford, in the second half of the eighties. And also there have been signs of support directed to the footballer Eric Cantona because he was subjected to a judgment in 1996 and it generated the compositions Eric The King, Ooh Ah, Eric Cantoná and Cantoná The Album, all of them belonging to Jim Phelan & Peter Boyle.


3.4. The musical competition in the tier: pop songs used as sporting hymns


Sport is so unusual

    Sport and music are two new ways of social communication in the last third of the 20th century and establish an outstanding relationship based on a "round trip". From the artist to the tier, but also from the tier to the artist as a way of popular expression, to the extent of transforming different successes of the modern music, both in a general aspect and the one directed to specific sports, into sporting hymns. In the first case, we throw into relief Tina Turner with The Best and the British group Spandau Ballet with Gold. In athletics it is frequent to hear Go west by Pet Shot Boys. My Sharona, by The Knack, usually makes pleasant motor racing. The North American baseball is one of the most productive fields in this kind of communication, with:

    The different activities extreme sport includes, show preference to the Limp Bizkit, Creed, Metallica, Bon Jovi and Eminem's heavy-metal notes in order to make pleasant the competitions.

    Football is another place preferred by the supporters in order to transform the musical successes into hymns. Thus, they are important:

    American football (soccer) welcomes the My Sharona's notes, by The Knack, and Rock and roll radio, BY The Ramones which are included in its favorite melodies. It is curious the fact that the first of these musical themes is also very common in motorcycling races.

    All this panorama is completed by those pop songs which are used as signature tunes of sporting programs of radio and television. Thus, themes like Love Song, by the group Simple Minds and Nirvana, by El Bosco have succeeded in getting a great popularity in Spain.


4. Epilogue

    Music and sport in the United Kingdom and the United States have exerted a seductiveness based on numerous dimensions since the end of the 19th century. They have created a new industry based on leisure, a meeting point in order to give happiness and art to the villages on fleeting stages where their protagonists mix freedom and wisdom in order to offer something which has never been nor will be alike again….


When we play

    The magic experience of feelings, emotions and fancy beating in time, has created a new reality, formed by at least: a hundred of authors who give their talent to 207 songs based on aspects of general kind, Olympic Games and 15 sporting disciplines; 5 sportsmen who carry out musical incursions; 15 specific albums based on sporting themes, 25 authors who transform 20 musical successes into hymns for the tier…. The musicians who have given their fancy in the brief composition in the margin of this article give their regards to the audience 3 while all the lyric and creative energies of the stadium, the collective space full of golden fields of air and water form a ground in order to play in both senses instilling peace, calm and renewed hopes into people. Fields of gold, fields of sport.


Notes

  1. CASTAÑÓN RODRÍGUEZ, Jesús: "Gambetas que encandilan las pupilas", in La Página del Idioma Español, Río de Janeiro (Brazil), 19th of December, 2000, http://www.el-castellano.com/diego.html.

  2. The convergence between Anglo-Saxon pop music and sports, with the discovery of the stadium as a field for the rock epic poetry and the dissemination of sociological values takes place in the stadium from Wembley (London) because of Live Aid, a charitable concert in 1985 where there were artists like David Bowie, Adam Ant, Bob Geldof, Roger Daftrey, Elton John and Sting. And in the United States it is outstanding in the star matches based on basketball and soccer (American football), due to the performance of the boxer Marvin Gayle in 1984 with the theme "The Spangled Banner" in the match of the stars from the NBA. Both the basketball matches and also the final of the Superbowl include musical shows or spectacles in order to throw into relief this special and historic moment from which the spectators are going to be witnesses.
    Technologically, this brotherhood was confirmed in 1995, when the Brazilian subsidiary of the Music Television (MTV)- United States company which starts its broadcasting the 1st of August, 1981-creates a rock & goal championship where several musical tracks contended for a football championship.

  3. The following themes, singers and groups have given their voice's echoes to this article, in order of appearance. In the epigraph I, Introduction: Sport is in the air (Love is in the air, John Paul Young).In the section II, Towards two industries based on leisure: The roars of silence (The sounds of silence, Simon & Garfunkel), The sport machine (The Soft machine, Soft Machine) and Rock and sport music (Rock and roll music, Chuck Berry). In the third epigraph, The sound track, we have the following songs which have given their experience: A chorus line (A chorus line, Marvin Hamlisch and Edward Kleban's musical comedy), Rock around the sport (Rock around the clock, Bill Haley), Blowin' in the wind (Blowin' in the wind, Bob Dylan), Born to run (Born to run, Bruce Springsteen), Saturday afternoon fever (Saturday Night Fever, Bee Gees) and Sports got rhythm (Girls got rhythm, AC/DC) in order to group the songs with theme based on sport as far as sporting disciplines are concerned; The dark side of sport (The dark side of the moon, Pink Floyd) in order to narrate the relationship between modern music concerts and sports; as well as Sport is so unusual (She's so unusual, Cindy Lauper) when the musical competition is established in the tier with the use of pop songs as sporting hymns. Finally, the following titles of songs have given their melodies' echoes for the epilogue: When we play (When we dance) and Fields of sport (Fields of Gold), both of them by Sting.


References

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  • CASTAÑÓN RODRÍGUEZ, María del Rosario: "Músicas para el fútbol español", en Seminario Virtual Expresiones Comunicativas del Deporte. Centro de Estudios Olímpicos José Benjamín Zubiaur, Villa Mercedes (San Luis, Argentina), 17 de noviembre de 2001. http://linux0.unsl.edu.ar/~squiroga/ponencia7.htm

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  • DODD, Philip: El libro del rock. Barcelona, Ediciones B, 2001.

  • EXOTICA RECORDS: Exotica Records, Londres, 2001. http://www.exoticarecords.co.uk

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  • LÁZARO CARRETER, Fernando: "El español en el lenguaje deportivo", en El idioma español en el deporte, Madrid, Fundación Efe, 1994, págs. 19-36.

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  • SCOWCROFT, Philip: "The interface between sport and music". Music Web, Londres, 2001. http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2001/Jan01/Sport_and_Music.htm

  • SCOWCROFT, Philip: "Sport and light music". Music Web, Londres, 2001. http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2001/Jan01/Sport_and_Music.htm

  • SCOWCROFT, Philip: "Cricket and music". Music Web, Londres, 2001. http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2001/Jan01/Sport_and_Music.htm

  • SOCCERGAMING: Soccergaming, Brisbane, 2001. http://www.soccergaming.com

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  • ZONA DE OBRAS: Gol!!! Especial fútbol y rock & roll. Zaragoza, 1996.

  • ZONA DE OBRAS: Especial fútbol mundial. Zaragoza, 1998.

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