Weekend Read: The music of the World Cup
With World Cup fever reaching its global crescendo this Sunday, there’s no better time to read up on some vital stats… not about the players, though!
Instead, we’re talking about the singalong crowd chants, the unofficial anthems, the best and worst World Cup songs, and links between sports psychology, upbeat pop music and victorious football teams.
Some of the world’s best writers have delved into the link between music and the the so-called “beautiful game,” and some of our favourites articles are below.
Happy weekend reading – and may the best team win!
- BBC Culture – ‘World Cup 2018: The extraordinary power of the football song’ by Arwa Haider
- BBC Music – ’11 of the most bizarre world football songs’ by Jeremy Allen
- Bloomberg – ‘A Football Song to Conquer the World’ By Justin Fox
- CBC – ‘How a White Stripes song became the biggest soccer anthem of all time’ by Jennifer Van Evra
- The Conversation – ‘A psychological theory to explain how music helps footballers prepare for the pitch’ by Costas Karageorghis, Jonathan Bird and Marcelo Bigliassi
- The Guardian – ‘Why Atomic Kitten and Earth, Wind & Fire became England’s World Cup chants’ by Dave Simpson
- The Independent – ‘Why New Order’s football song ‘World in Motion’ was a game-changer’ by Nick Hasted
- New York Times – ‘Waltz for a Soccer Game? This Composer Sets the World Cup to Music’ by Giulia Pines
- New York Times – ‘Why the World Cup Needs Music‘ by Musa Okwonga
- South China Morning Post – ‘Exo beat BTS for most requested World Cup semi-final music – Fifa Twitter poll makes South Korea world champions’ by Dong Sun-hwa
