Music is used in various sports these days, from pre-game music at a football or Rugby game to a walk-in song for the Darts or Boxing and it has a massive impact.
Obviously the most common is Jerry and the Pacemakers’ anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone which is now sung before every Liverpool game at Anfield. It started when the late Gerry Marsden proposed it to Liverpool manager Bill Shankly before Liverpool’s 1965 FA Cup final at Leeds, where the reds fans sung it at Wembley. It really puts shivers down your spine listening to it, famously after Liverpool’s Champions League semi-final victory over Barcelona two years ago, where the players and staff stood in front of the Kop to sing it with the fans.
Stoke City sing Tom Jones’ iconic anthem Delilah at every home game also which has been a tradition since 1987. These footballing anthems really bring the fans together before a game to set a tremendous atmosphere which will certainly pump the players up before a game.
The author Karageorghis states ‘Based on his research, music can be like a performance enhancing drug. It’s just that intoxicating’. I know that before players step foot on the pitch when they’re sat in the changing rooms every team/individual will have one song which is always the last one they listen to before they play. Liverpool players Trent Alexander Arnold and Andy Roberston revealed that Liverpool listen to All of the lights by Kanye West.
Music is also big for individual sports such as Boxing and their walk-in songs. One that sticks out to me is Josh Warrington who’s from Leeds, he’s fought a lot of his fights at Elland Road. He always plays the song ‘Marching on Together’ which is a Leeds United song, followed up by Kaizer Chiefs ‘I predict a riot’. For an individual sport music will be so important to rally you especially for a sport like boxing to get you in the right state mentally.
Darts is also another individual sport which likes to put a show on with a walk in song. The players know how to work a noisy crowd which there always is in the darts.
The atmosphere this creates for fans in incredible and it inspires the players on the pitch.
Tobias' Sports Journalism Blog 