Who Picks The Music At Kids Sporting Events?

I watch a lot of hockey. Not on TV but of course at all of the local rinks. My kids and grandkids. Before the games start and during play stoppage loud tunes are broadcast throughout the arena. A few weekends ago, I travelled to Edmonton with my granddaughter for a few exhibition games while my daughter went two hours south to Lethbridge for a different tournament. While watching, I enjoy the short bursts of song, singing along as I often know most of the words. What is interesting is that as a 65 year old, so many of the songs are from my youth. That weekend had me humming along to Queen, CCR, ZZ Top, Kiss and AC/DC to name just a few. Even what I would consider current is actually kinda old. Like Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio. That’s a fave and yet it came out in 1995. Coolio was a young guy wondering if he would live to see 24. He did die young but he was 59. He was a few years younger than myself. All the music I listened to in the 1970’s is played a lot at my grandkids games. So I wonder. Who picks it? Because their parents weren’t around back then.

I was trying to reframe the whole idea in my mind. If we had been playing music at our high school volleyball and basketball games back in the mid seventies, it would have been the music we were listening to at the time. I remember one bus ride where our volleyball teams were heading to another small town and someone brought a new 8-track along. My boyfriend was on the boys team, who we travelled with and he had a portable 8-track player. The teams were an eclectic group and I certainly wasn’t a country fan but this band Lynyrd Skynrd had me with the first track. Tuesdays Gone. Simple Man. Free Bird. Come on. An amazing debut album. That was an album I bought right away. I was in junior high that night on the bus and I am still hearing Skynyrd’s tunes at hockey games today. The music played today is 50 years old often. So if you make the direct comparison, that means we would have been listening to music from the 1920’s. The decade my parents were born. The decade referred to as the roaring twenties. The first world war was ended and things were looking up here and in Europe. The years of frugality and scarcity were ending and the world was on its way to rebuilding. Consumerism was on the rise and economies were doing well. Homes were built, cars became more common and less of an item just for the upper class. Radios were becoming popular. Music was a way for people to let loose and live a little. Young men and women turned to dancing and going out. Movies were changing with the addition of sound.

Like anything, music reflected the mood of the day. Jazz and the blues were becoming more popular in the 1920’s. Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were two early Jazz musicians who merged their tunes with big bands making them such recognizable names. Upbeat tunes helped to leave the dreariness of the war years behind. More money. More freedom. More integration both racially and societally. Most importantly more young women casting off the old fashioned sexual roles. People wanted fun. They needed excitement. And dancehalls and bars provided both. But showtunes were also rising in popularity as dancing became the thing to do. And so the music of composers like Irvin Berlin and George Gershwin made the move from musical theatre to dancehall. Ballroom dancing and classical music did not suffer in this resurgence of gaiety. Just as ballroom dancing was influenced by the new music, classical was also on the fast train of change. The 1920’s saw the introduction of twelve tone as well as the addition of folk music into the classical composers bag of tricks. I imagine it was a pretty heady time to be alive. Assuming you had a few bucks.

When I think about the music from those days I am surprised at how many tunes and artists I know. One of the most popular songs of the day was Old Man River. And then there is Sweet Georgia Brown. Ain’t Misbehavin’. Bye Bye Blackbird. Makin’ Whoopie. The list goes on and on. And while I can’t imagine songs like these being played at my games in the 1970’s, I do realize the influence these pioneers had on the music of my day. My absolute favourite artist in the world was Harry Nilsson. In 1973 he put out and album called A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night. And on that album was Makin’ Whoopee. Not only that he put his own spin on awhole series of classic tunes. Lullaby In Ragtime, It Had To Be You, Lazy Moon, What’ll I Do. Classic stuff. But for me the best was As Time Goes By. Man I love that song. I have always loved old movies and for anyone who loves Casablanca, you know the scene. Early in the movie Ilsa says to the piano player “Play it once Sam, for old times sake”. And later when Rick demands that Sam play it. “You played it for her, you can play it for me”. Oh my heart. Bogey at his best. Who cried when she got on that plane? I did. Every time I watched the movie.

Years later, my love of Jeff Beck had me buying his album Truth which came out when I was just a small lass. It was an amazing set list. My truck was stolen and it was one of the CD’s I had in the changer. My heart was broken but luckily insurance brought me back my 8 faves. His take on Old Man River is fantastic. He also covered Muddy Waters tune You Shook Me. As did Led Zeppelin my ultimate fave band. The 1960’s was a great decade for that blues tune with 3 incredible reditions being produced. Speaking of Led Zeppelin. apparently Jimmy Page was a big fam of Muddy Waters. Zeppelin’s early music was heavily influenced by the blues and in turn they influenced a great many other musicians as their own style evolved and changed. Eric Clapton is an amazing guitarist yet two of his most famous songs are JJ Cale Originals. Cocaine and After Midnight. Lynyrd Skynyrd also covered Cale.

Let’s face it. Everyone covered someone they loved. My man Otis, of the Redding variety was struck down young. One of his songs is considered the greatest R&B song of all time. Not his recording but that of the great Lady herself Aretha. Her cover. Her way. Two of the greatest voices singing the same song and owning it. He spoke of respect. She demanded it. Even today artists sample the tunes of others. I love this style. Eminem brought Game of Love into his Love Game with Kendrick. He also did a take of Joe Walsh’;s Life’s Been Good To Me So Far. It was amazing and I love Joe Walsh. He helped make The Eagles palatable for me. Eminem also covered Steve Miller. From the looks of it, Eminem and I love a lot of the same artists. So I guess, although the tunes played at the hockey games are old, they truly have evolved from a time covering the last 100 years. But I don’t think I would have enjoyed listening to Al Jolson’s Old Man River between volleyball games.

I will never forget the day our “stereo” was delivered. What an incredible piece of furniture that was. It had a radio and could play 45’s. 78’s and 33’s. I wasn’t allowed to play with it but I remember the music. I had a few of my own albums at a young age but they were played on a little record player that opened like a small suitcase. I still have those first albums and I will forever be grateful for love of music my parents instilled in me. It wasn’t anything they said. It was their love of music. The radio always on. The family dances we attended where coats were piled on chairs for little ones to sleep as their elders danced the night away. Something we always did when our kids were young. Dance them to sleep or dance with them in the living room. It is their language now. It was the greatest eduction we could have ever given the kids.

I keep adding to my collection of albums and I cherish the old box sets I saved from my Parents collection. My hubby used to spoil me when it came to music. I would hear a song and turn it up. A few weeks later he would bring home a CD. Pitbull. The Weekend. Flo Rida. Just a couple of albums he bought because I liked them. Music he would never have listened to. Until he did. I recently added Ella Fitzgerald in Berlin to my collection. A live album where she forgot the words to Mack the Knife, and just carried on. It was a hit and a game changer. That was also a tune from the late 1920’s and Louis Armstrong recorded it in the mid 1950’s, but Bobby Darrin was the guy who made it a hit. Even Frank Sinatra recorded it in the ’80’s. The man himself did agreed that Bobby’s version was it!

But I have to say the one important lesson I have learned about music is this. I love the old stuff. I love the history. I love so many types of music. But I recognize the talent that is coming out every day. And if you confine yourselves to what you grew up with. Or just listen to one genre, well you are doing yourself a big disservice. Live a little. Explore the new stuff. You won’t regret it.