The Japanese writer Haruki Murakami once described music in an article, saying that there is a deep, gentle, private landscape in music, and that if our lives lacked music, they would be nothing more than dry deserts! It is true that music is so important that it floats in almost all corners of the earth, and of course the world of sports is no exception, and music plays an important role in all kinds of sports scenes. In this series, I have selected a few impressive sports BGM (background music), of course, there are tens of thousands of songs, music stories are also too numerous to mention, the author's choice is inevitable, but the choice is always subjective, after all, personal sports viewing history is almost equal to the history of a person's life, which is to ask for the readers to please bear with us.
The first sports BGM to be featured in this series should be one of the most prominent songs in today's global sports scene, regardless of the type of sport or the country, it's a complete and utter border-crosser! It's Detroit duo White Stripes' Seven Nation Army, a track from their fourth album Elephant. Until then, White Stripes' influence hadn't really extended beyond their hometown, and even frontman Jack White said in a 2001 interview that they never thought they'd be able to play in stadiums and never thought they'd be able to do it. Even frontman Jack White said in a 2001 interview that they never wanted to play stadiums or write chart-topping hits. But then Seven Nation Army came along and changed all that. Jack White says the song was created in Australia, and that he initially played the intro and notes to Meg White (a member of the White Stripes, who claimed that Jack and Meg were related, but were actually married but divorced in 2000) and a mutual friend, Bryan White (who was also a member of the Stripes), who said that the song had been written in Australia. Jack White recalled that Swank was passing by at the time, and briefly replied "OK" to the intro, but Swank himself said that the intro was hard to listen to because it was weird and he didn't like it, but he had to reply to Jack White politely, saying that he didn't like it. He had to return to Jack White as a courtesy: I don't know, but I think you can change it for the better. ......
Since the album's debut in 2003, it started out at #76 on the Billboard charts and was a niche song, mostly played in fans' rooms or small bars, but by chance, over the course of a few months, it grew in popularity in European soccer, and then became a sports anthem for sports fans and stadiums all over the world. Why did Seven Nation Army start out as a European soccer anthem and then spread out to become such a recognizable sports anthem? Let's go back to the beginning of the story, starting in Milan, Italy in 2003!
The Seven Nation Army would begin to appear on the sports scene, with many sources pointing to Club Brugge, a traditional Belgian soccer club, and a 2003 Brugge trip to Milan, Italy, for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (where Brugge would take on the giants).
AC Milan (football club)
The Belgian fans gathered in a Milanese bar for a drink before the match, and by some strange chance the Seven Nation Army was playing. The bar happened to be playing Seven Nation Army, so the Belgian fans hummed it all the way to the San Siro, and even more amazingly, David Brugge beat Goliath 1-0 in that match!
AC Milan (football club)
The fans continued to sing the infectious rhythm of Seven Nation Army all the way back to Belgium! The Brugge fans continued to sing the infectious Seven Nation Army beat (OH OH-OH-OH OHH OHH) all the way back to Belgium, and the song became the unofficial Brugge cheering song, with the stadium's PA system blaring out Seven Nation Army whenever the home team scored a goal so all the home fans could celebrate together. Whenever the home team scored a goal, the stadium's PA system would play Seven Nation Army loudly for all the home fans to celebrate.
Three years later, Bruges took on another Italian side, AS Roma, in the group stage of the Champions League, but this time AS Roma won 2-1, and the Italians not only took the victory, but also brought home the Seven Nation Army, which the Italian fans have nicknamed The Po Po Po Po Song! Francesco Totti, the captain of Roma at the time, said that he had never heard of Seven Nation Army before he stepped into the Bruges stadium, but after the match his head was filled with Po Po Po Po Po Po Po Po Pooo's melody and he couldn't get it out of his head, so he went to the nearest record store to buy the album! So as we can see, Seven Nation Army went from Italy to Belgium and back to Italy again, and the song became Italian for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany!
the national team
The unofficial anthem of the Seven Nation Army, the popularity of the Seven Nation Army has since taken off, moving beyond the borders of a single country, and as we all know, the World Cup was won by Italy, and after beating the finalists, France, the streets of Rome were basically filled with people singing the Po Po Po Song all night long! Frontman Jack White was flattered and said he was happy that the Italian fans were able to claim the song as their own, because there's nothing more beautiful than people embracing a song and then propelling it into the pantheon of ballads! At the time of these remarks, Jack White himself probably didn't know that the song he had written was about to cross the ocean and return to his home country of the United States, where it was about to become a sensation, loved and embraced by sports fans and become one of the most popular sports BGMs of our time.
