Tournament time! Jock Jams, anyone?

Now only a week away from the start of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, our attention at TJoC is a little split- as alums of The University of Kansas, this is by far Matt's and myself's favorite sports time of the year. Music is a big passion, but this ranks juuuuust about as high.

I do want to stay on the theme of music, of course, and this is what I thought of during lunch: Sports venues traditionally have horrible music: "Start Me Up", "Black Betty", "Under Pressure", "Welcome to the Jungle", whatever bland Top 40 hip-hop is #1 that summer. If you go to baseball games in the midwest, you even get to hear country- and not the cool kind (Hi, Rascal Flats!). It's not even really about the quality of the songs, as much as it's the same songs every year- kind of like alternative radio stations (In fact I turned 96.5 this morning and was able to hear Stone Temple Pilots "Interstate Love Song" again. I thnk 96.5 stands for "Music from May, 1996"). At a certain point, how pumped up can you get when you hear the same song at the same point in a contest? Predictablility is hardly a blood-pumper.

If you're a sports enthusiast, do you have any songs you would love to see used in said setting that maybe haven't been used? Of course, part of playing songs is playing them at the right instance- to wake fans up, drive them into a frenzy, create a party atmosphere (like anytime anyone plays a song, I suppose). Is there a song that you heard at a game that you want banned, or one you still enjoy no matter how many times you can see it coming a quarter/half/period/inning away?

What jumps into my head are two electronic tunes: "Battleflag" by Lo Fidelity All Stars for an opening introduction,



and "Setting Sun" by The Chemical Brothers for a timeout.


Chemical Brothers - Setting Sun
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The songs themselves have been around for awhile, but I don't think I've ever heard them at a game.



I would love to ban "Start Me Up". I get the theme of it, but it really only works on the first verse, and it's not a great sing-a-long stadium tune; I always enjoy "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC. The whole song is about kicking your ass, and has a great sense of build to get the crowd fired up.
-Chris