I’ve found the problem with trying to draw connections between two distinct, unrelated professions is that it’s almost always a zero-sum affair. Comparing apples and oranges in the end still leaves you with nothing but apples and oranges. If I were to tell you for example that sometimes watching Barcelona is like watching an improvised fugue, with contrapuntal subjects weaving in and out of each other over the cantus firmus of the holding midfielder, it might sound profound but it doesn’t tell you anything new about either music or football. This kind of synesthesia is useful only when trying to craft especially pretentious metaphors.
This is why I have tended to avoid discussion of my musical life as a countertenor when writing about football, though the two have long intertwined. When I first graduated from university in Montreal, I helped relieve nervous tension ahead of solo performances by watching Champions League matches at my favourite cafe, EuroDeli on Boulevard St. Laurent. When I went to audition for schools in England just over a year ago, I visited Guardian Towers and ended up on Football Weekly one day before singing Schubert and Debussy for the Royal College of Music (my school auditions were successful; I’m still waiting to hear back from the FW team).
There is also a certain joy though when the two interests overlap. It pleased me to no end when my 80-year-old-plus Welsh voice teacher, who has taught more than her fair share of accomplished opera stars and concert soloists and personally known musical nobodies like Benjamen Britten, confessed to me that she had to stay away from Swansea matches because otherwise she would have gone “out of control” and ruined her voice. And there was a particularly special moment at the annual Tafelmusik sing-along Messiah in Toronto’s Massey Hall when I looked up at the final chord of the “Hallelujah” chorus to see a man in his thirties holding an Arsenal scarf aloft.
But the one area that I think my experience in music could really help is finding music for game or player clips on YouTube. It’s a universal in football that the only people who take the time to find every single Dennis Bergkamp goal on film and then edit them together into an attractive looking YouTube-length clip listen to either emocore, pop schlock, or trance/house music. It’s hard to fathom; anecdotal evidence (always the sturdiest kind) has long led me to believe that football people have fairly decent musical tastes. Yet apparently the goals of Matt LeTissier, one of the greatest natural English players in this half of the 20th century (so say I), are worthy of Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out.”
This to me is like choosing to walk down the aisle to Ke$ia. I don’t think I’m being silly. One of the names we’ve long given to the game of football is Beautiful. Why shouldn’t beautiful images be set to beautiful music? The essentially quality of both is enhanced, something I’ve recently discovered by listening to baroque music while watching games on my computer at home. Last weekend for example, during the lead up to Phil Neville’s decisive game-winning penalty against Chelsea last weekend, Zadok the Priest came up on my iTunes player. Handel’s expectant arpeggios accompanied Neville’s nervous placing of the ball, and finally, after he scored and had just walked up to the crowd, the choir entered on a double forte just as Neville stuck out his arms to Everton’s supporters.
Mozart + Matt Le Tissier. Slightly edited footage taken from this YouTube clip.
Writing about it does it no justice. It was magical. The shouts of the announcer and the crowd dancing over the Handel’s regal chords; I wanted more. Hungary beating England 6-3 over Shostakovich’s symphonic music. The opening chorus from Bach’s cantata 140 over highlights of Holland’s 2-0 defeat of Brazil in the 1974 World Cup. The utter, stunning beauty of LeTissier’s best goals set to Mozart. We need to flood YouTube with these clips, both because decent football deserves decent music, and because I feel a lot of this music makes sense when held up against the game. It’s a big ask to get a kid to sit still in a concert hall and listen to Beethoven, but try planting one of his string quartets all over his Barça highlights. A few might jump for the mute button, but I bet far less than if it were Nickelback.
Another possibility: Britten + Holland v. Argentina, 1974 World Cup.
Were there a career in finding the perfect music for the perfect game or player, I would humbly submit my CV. As it stands though, I don’t know how one does this. Perhaps you do and can help. We can set up a Tumblr together. You make the clips, I pick the music, we post up and host the vids. Eventually others will join in and find even better musical/football partners. And then hopefully the day will come when I and all other football-loving, trained musicians can finally say yes, we’ve found the definitive shady bit in the Venn diagram between classical music and modern football, and it’s awesome. Bach, whose music contrary to public perception is as wide and embracing as any ever written, would approve.
Read More: Music
by Richard Whittall · February 28, 2011
“This kind of synesthesia is useful only when trying to craft especially pretentious metaphors.” You say that like it’s a bad thing. Otherwise, Richard, a truly wonderful post.
And of course the challenge you present is likewise wonderful. I will have to think about this a good deal, though I will say here at the outset that the only possible music to accompany an Eric Cantona highlight reel is the Carmina Burana.
youtube clip of ryan giggs goals mixed with lift me up by moby is legendary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GxhYklM_3M
I dunno, this works pretty well imho:
http://tubedubber.com/#DkS3FQnaMxI:f3Yp_gdAHHE:0:100:0:0:true
I watched Crystal Palace under George Burley earlier this season, at Selhurst Park, to the strains of John Barry. Not sure you’ll find too many Youtube clips of the games though.
Brilliant article, particularly the suggestion about muting nickelback more so than an orchestral piece.
I think the good people who visit this site, the intellectual bunch that we are, should indeed start a trend of creating videos with classical music as the soundtrack….now I’m no video editor but I do know good music, so here’s my suggestion: anything by Rob Dougan on his Furious Angels Instrumental album. Blissful!
The Le Tissier video is just wonderful. And I can barely tell Mozart from margarine. Impossible to look away from that.
I’m curious how naturally you matched Le Tissier to that piece of music. Was it an immediate reaction in which you saw the goals and knew the perfect music for it? Or did you have to experiment a bit to find a good fit? Several moments were just perfect, in particular during the parts of the piece that featured a brief, soft “fluttering” of notes (pardon my musical ignorance). Those few seconds were matched with Le Tissier in a way I’ve always hoped music could be married to the videos.
I relate to this in such a huge way. This was fantastic to read.
Alright, not being a big Moby fan but being a die hard Ryan Giggs fan I wasn’t sure what to expect with that link voja. The FA cup goal gave me goosebumps, nuff said.
Not entirely unrelated, there’s also a lot to be said for good editing.
excellent post. i think for far too long we have put up with mediocre music soundtracking brilliant football. this idea deserves a chance to live on
Many thanks for kind comments. I need to emphasize that the video creations are entirely Brian’s creation. I almost had to stop watching the LeTiss vid, it was so marvelous. I’d like to do some of these at some point, will mentally sort out how. But these are amazing!
You were on Football Weekly? Woof! Instant respect
As for the music, it would be interesting to know what soundtrack plays in, say, Anekla’s head as he waltzes through defences. I’m fairly sure that it isn’t Bach blasting out from a pair of oversized and ridiculously overpriced headphones though
FAIR PLAY
WHERE SPORT MEET MUSIC
Great Article, beautiful videos
Excellent reference
EUNOFPLAY ……… WHAT ELSE ????
http://www.48fm.com/fairplay Where Music meet Sport
@Richard Whittall Well, I mean, you were the one who said “I want to see Mozart with Matt Le Tissier.” I just pushed the “mix” button.
@RDM yeah editing could be a separate talking point. or maybe not.
but it’s simpy out of this world for the FA cup goal. not a huge fan of moby either.
wait, isn’t it also such a beautiful game because it’s open to everyone? isn’t that why the internet and web 2.0 is such a great gift of technology? with youtube you’re confronted with what it means to be human. it’s not even about being adult, but human. maybe it doesn’t always rise to the level of politeness, sophistication, and taste that you desire, but with no regulation on who’s allowed in the club, your squeamishness that you experience when exposed to the more brusk elements of society is just going to have to check its limitations.
THAT is what youtube is about. when you start criticizing, that’s when you lose out. this “soccer fans have good taste” nonsense just reflects the classist skewing of soccer fandom in america.
here i was, all ready to embrace this quirk of soccer fandom and its internet elves with a loving sense of humor, and you give me this. i’m not opposed to your effort to put some videos up with better music. i would like to see that, but to imply that people are desecrating soccer with their music choices and then disguise your elitism with some kind of revolutionary idealism…well
i choose fifa. i choose youtube commenters. i choose the human spirit.
I’m half-joking and this is my favorite site, but sometimes it really tests my patience.
@MC Wait, so not liking Nickelback now means you’re against the human spirit?
to be honest, i think the Fifa 11 soundtrack (and almost all the soundtracks before) does a good job of relating music to football. guess it depends on your taste in football,taste in music, and what pumps up up and gives you inspiration
@Brian Phillips no, and i knew i was going to get called out on that phrase. “the human spirit”. really hazy concept for an argument, i know. i was never a good debater.
but not liking nickelback is not what this article is about. i don’t like nickelback. i mute those videos. i personally prefer the sterile, emotionless eurotrance when it comes to bad music in youtubes.
but what he’s arguing for here is that “the beautiful game deserves beautiful music” or however he worded it. this is exactly everything i hate about the thinking that dominates much of whatever internet soccer circles we’re running in here.
the word “deserves”
there’s a fine line between “thinking about sports and trying to find meaning in them” and “elevating them to the status of high culture” or whatever. there was an article that bethlehem shoals wrote before the world cup about why he was never interested in soccer. he articulated it much better than i could. but it basically comes down to the pomposity of it’s fans in white america. wearing berets and all that.
i don’t know. i guess i was also maybe just lashing out at the fact that there is hardly anyone in the comments section that ever says anything sucks. it’s always just “brilliant!” or “genius, i dare say!”, and i wanted to do something different.
While I reserve the right to make subjective aesthetic judgments about music, my taste in beautiful music does in fact expand beyond “classical music.” I just think because we have 500 years of music to choose from, we have the luxury of being creative about what sort of music we choose to set to YouTube clips. Am I a pretentious git? Maybe. But I’m speaking from my perspective–I work in “classical” music. But I’m a big Def Jukie, Aphex Twin person. But I want to hear Bach with Cruyff because I’ve never heard something like that before. Like the LeTiss vid Brian kindly made.
@Richard Whittall yeah, right. that’s fine. but i really think you sold yourself short here when you began this article. i was really hoping for a more creative rumination on this aspect of youtube because, even though i hate hearing “HEY NOW YOU’RE A R-” before promptly muting the sound, i find something incredibly endearing about how it stands as a smaller piece of some kind of greater magic phenomenon. it’s a part of the culture, and you have no power over it. so, i found your decision to attempt to rally people to make better music/video combos to be simplistic and disappointing. but by all means, proceed, even if it only impacts some small corner of the internet.
Richard – I always imagined you as one of those McGill graduates who refuses to directly say “I’m a McGill graduate.”
But seriously, wonderful article and great videos from Brian!
I said it was brilliant simply because I admired the idea. It was a brilliant idea. Your argument is excellent and solid, and I’m loving your self-conscious humour.
Thing is, Run of Play is a place for writers to express their opinion in whatever way they desire. You read them for enjoyment, and give positive feedback if you feel compelled.
We don’t do what you’re doing, its just like walking up to a busker in the street and enforcing upon him your disagreement of his art in front of a crowd of his loving spectators.
What’s the point?
When watching highlights, I agree that this is a neat concept and something worth doing- music taste is often subjective, but I think we could all agree that the readers of Run of Play are mostly against the emocore stylings that exist in most Youtube videos.
As far as having music on during actual matches themselves, I’m staunchly against that, but on a personal level only- I love hearing the roar of the crowd.
Lastly, I hope you’re not insinuating that these videos should only be set to Classical Music, as that’s pretty narrow minded, but I doubt that’s the point you were trying to make.
All in all, great article.
@Robin i wasn’t saying anything against you in particular when i made that “brilliant” comment. it is just by far the favorite word of the comment-community here in general.
anyway, i am kind of regretting the negativity just because it had sort of a disrespectful tone, and we’re all just in this for fun. but i think comparing mr whittall to a busker is kind of disingenuous. i would hope the writers here would desire arguments. my criticism was halfway arbitrary, but i also think i was trying to make a point about being conscious of the arena we’re in. this is not directed at richard, but sometimes i feel like, it’s a pseudo-intellectual soccer fan’s french-impressionistic world, and we’re all living in it.
I knew you’d say that…!
@Robin man, i don’t even know what that means, but it hurts.
not even one curve ball?
I remeber the first time that the BBC set goals to pop music (in my head it’s the lightning seeds but I could be wrong) it genuinely seemed revolutionary (at least to me).
@fergal We’ve been doing this on-off for a while but instead of providing a classical soundtrack to a compilation it has been the ‘Back to the Future’ overture to our epic bouts of Fifa
Great article as usual. Hits on something that everyone will appreciate and has been grumbling about whenever they chance upon a compilation they want to watch. Thank you.
A well written article, but personally I find that the 2 vids posted above just didn’t quite do justice to the game. No doubt the music by itself is beautiful, but imho if any music is to be played over a football clip, it needs to be one that reflects the adrenaline-pumping, blood-rushing feeling that you get in the heat of the game. rock and techno, with their thumping bass line surely fits the bill, and while criticism of usual choices made by Youtube users (crappy emorock and brazillian techno beats) are valid, the fault lies with the songs, not the genre on a whole. I refer to the Moby + Giggs video posted by voja. Now that was a good fit, esp at the bit against Arsenal in the FA Cup. The rising crescendo, followed by the outburst of LIFT ME UP LIFT ME UP matched the buildup to the goal, and the following celebrations by Giggs, the crowd and the gaffer as well.
Using Mozart or Bach may be well and good if you want to showcase the beautiful intricacies of passing and dribbling, but when it comes down to showcasing the speed, the power and particularly the passion of the game, you definitely need something more powerful. I mean, it was abit farcical to watch the Dutch supporters chanting away, and all I hear is the delicate strum of strings (polar opposites don’t you think?)
My oh my… that video with Holland v Argentina 1974 with Britten is simply sublime. Just amazing. Wonderful wonderful wonderful!
Every time I watch footage from the 1974 World Cup I ask myself how in Jebus’ name Holland managed not to win the 1974 World Cup. They were just so phenomenally superduperwondergood. I have the same bafflement as regards the 1954 Hungarians. And how the hell the 1982 World Cup didn’t end with a France v Brazil final I’ll never know. The World Cup is such a cruel, dream-crushing contest. I can’t think of any sporting event whose history is so full of the vicious death of hope.
Anyway, those were the thoughts brought forth by watching Holland v Argentina 1974 set to Britten.
I have nothing against Nickelback or bad electropop but when I watch videos set to such music I don’t find myself musing languidly on the futility of all human endeavor when confronting die Deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft.
great read. The Britten/Holland v. Argentina video especially is just entrancing. Which piece (pieces?) did you use? not overly familiar with his choral works here
Ennio Morricone’s score for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is the most fantastic music to watch a match to.
While it would of course be wrong to suggest that only classical music counts as “good” music for these purposes – Baba O’Riley by The Who is a great example of rock suiting football perfectly – sometimes classical music can be just about perfect. The use of Britten’s version of Handel’s Zadok the Priest for the Champions’ League is perfect (especially the singalong version, which my brothers and I wrote; to whit “This is the Champions, the f*cking Champions, the Champions’ League – For Champions”).
However, the crowning moment of classical music and football in wider broadcast is this incredible moment back in 1990 when those of us on the eastern side of the Atlantic tuned into BBC to watch the World Cup in Italy. Previous football programmes had opened with simple little banterous ditties or dry greetings. You can imagine how special football became to an eight year-old when it began like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqzz7B7V2IE
Operatic in every sense.
Man, I use the word “perfect” a lot.
Pre YouTube, I relied on the BBC for my formative football/music mash-up experiences. I’ve always enjoyed Auntie’s ability to pick out a great tune to soundtrack a collage of great goals or tournament highlights (or lowlights, were England were concerned) with a snappy tune.
There’s a few that stand out…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqzz7B7V2IE&feature=related
Turin tears.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYycW0hkmUg
This song soundtracked Match of the Day’s Goal of the Month competition in the mid nineties. I can’t hear it without thinking of Dalian Atkinson and an umbrella.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVvguaUAoOE
More commonly associated with the Danes/Di Caprio Romeo & Juliet film I guess, but a fine job nontheless. Over the last decade or so I’ve enjoyed the Euros more and more, and the World Cup less and less. This is wrapped up in that feeling somewhere.
The one musical collage that had the greatest effect on me by far was a BBC advert for the 1991 European Cup Final, set to the KLF’s ‘Last Train to Transcentral’. I was 13 at this point, and had returned from Australia to live in England the previous summer. My passion and appreciation for football was still in it’s formative stages, but this (coupled with Gascoigne’s performance in the FA Cup semi-final that April) seemed to steal the day. I’d quickly got the hang of English league football, having identifed the heroes and villains and developed a rudimentary understanding of fan culture. But the European Cup was still very new to me, and here it was neatly packaged up in two minutes of pumping rave-disco delight. I was hooked. Papin, Boli, Abedi Pele and above all Chrissy Waddle represented complete European football glamour and sophistication. This wasn’t West Ham versus Notts County. It was Marseille v Red Star, floodlights, a bloody great big trophy and the Ancients of Mu-Mu. Bring it.
A clip of the advert (poor quality, but I hope you get the idea)…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-qZ9frP7U
Some Beeb footage of a preview of the final that I just found….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSujPFUetqg
Is it me or do Holland miss an awful lot of sitters in that vid??
Really lovely music though Richard, however does anyone know of any Vinny Jones/Roy Keane clips set to Rage Against The Machine??
I agree that whilst most pop-schlop, euro-nonsense-house people use to set to highlight reels to is just shocking. I think though, we could develop this further, to encompass the music which is indicative of the ‘personality’ – if you will – of the type of football being played.
You could have Man United set to some heavy Drum n Bass, building slowly to an explosive bassline which rips down the wings with furious speed.
You could have Barcelona set to an ambient Squarepusher mix, all intricate, overlapping half-sounds, subtly expanding and contracting their shape, moving as a larger collective of smaller parts.
You could even have Arsenal set to Def Leppard…. lots of style, not a lot of substance!
@jmcg It’s from “A Ceremony of Carols,” although the movements are out of order.
I think that what soundtracks do, regardless of the genre of music, is draw out and emphasize one aspect of the footage they accompany. If you want to bring out the pace/power/passion, as Shane says above, or the personalities of the teams, as Rich says, you can—and often that’s great. But sometimes emphasizing something else, maybe something less intuitive, can make you see the game in a different light. A few years ago I went through a phase where I couldn’t stand to listen to announcers really early in the morning, so I would play Felt songs during the first wave of matches. It was definitely not the way you would always want to see the game, but as a change of pace it was amazing—it made the games sort of floaty and dreamlike in a way that unexpectedly made perfect sense with 6am and a pixelating feed on a monitor. That’s what I like about Richard’s idea here. It’s not that classical is the only kind of music that should ever go with soccer. It’s that it opens up all kinds of new possibilities for how to see the game.
Although personally, I’m still waiting for some intrepid clip artist to figure out how well the Flatlanders go with Messi.
@Brian Phillips I would like to add to my earlier Cantona dictum the equally authoritative pronouncement that clips of Johann Cruyff should always be accompanied by Art Tatum solo piano music.
Ronaldo (Barca) set to the Kronos Quartet’s cover of Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis.
I’d written a bit about this on my own site not too long ago. I get turned off my footy highlights set to mindless Europop or some heavy metal.
(shameless link, as I’ve nothing to lose)
http://unprofessionalfoul.com/2011/01/21/cantankerous-notes-on-youtube-soccer-videos/
@Brian Phillips What I like about this idea are the possibilities for “Dark Siding” soccer. (Referring here to playing Pink Floyd & _The Wizard of Oz_ together…) This is different than composing (emphasis on composing) a series of clips, right? I mean, one of the joys of Dark Siding is the sort of unexpected exhilaration when the heavy drumbeats that kick “Great Gig in the Sky” into gear coincide with Dorothy slamming her foot against the Gales’ closed cellar door. Serendipity? Consummate stonerdom? Yeah, but a lot of fun, too, I think. I kinda want to try this out; put on some random Bundesliga match from ESPN3 & play, I don’t know…Talk Talk?
Did this inspire this submission?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5YLG57a2GE
Holland – Uruguay 1974. Majestic.
I concur that good music needs to be added to youtube football clips. Also, we need an automatic Arab-commentary-mute option.
I’m not kidding about Messi and the Flatlanders, by the way.
generally I think classical music is too complex to really work as just background for video footage, though there are always exceptions – Bolero might do, and I’ve always wondered what a talented vidder could come up with for the Allegretto from Beethoven 7. still believe this is the best football highlights vid ever made, though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYr8sdMVNDE
i believe i have found a middle way for the soundtracks. just do a mashup of, for instance, Ellen Allien’s Your Body is My Body and Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5.
half part Tech House half part Classical, everybody’s happy
I’d never seen that Holland v Uruguay compilation before, that was … well it was astonishing. Also Brian, your Flatlanders + Messi contribution was more or less perfect. I especially liked how the music ended early but there was still footage playing for a few seconds and whether intentional or just a happy accident, it made the two seem all the more suited, like an old TV show where the theme ended just as the credits stopped but then you got a bonus cut back to the cast and crew for a final sign-off, catch phrase or “abdi-abdi-abdi that’s all folks”
Bloody hell, that was fun. I don’t know jack about classical music but I’ve seldom enjoyed watching a Youtube football video as much as Mozart/LeTissier.
And I completely fail to catch the drift of MC. There’s nothing intrinsically pretentious about liking classical music. It is, in case you hadn’t noticed, pretty good music actually. Why should we have to listen to shit music while watching football highlights? The purpose of these videos is to present a distillation of the best the game has to offer. If appropriate music and good editing further increases the enjoyment to be had from these clips, I don’t see how that goes against the “human spirit”? If anything, I think you’re trying a bit too hard here to be seen as one with the unwashed masses. Actually, no, I don’t have a clue what your argument is; if you’re going to go ahead and mute the irritating music anyway, what’s wrong with having music which you’ll enjoy when collated with the video in question?
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be classical either. This is one of my favourite Youtube clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHJvJQ6Boq4
And this illustrates that incredibly irritating music on these clips doesn’t necessarily have to be trance or Nickelback:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv7InVefo74
Actually, on second thought, I find that in a certain state of mind, one can rather have a lot of fun with the music in the latter video.
Here’s a rough version of something I’ve wanted to do for a while.
@aizu alright, let me clarify myself. it was never about the classical music. i think it is cool that richard is a singer. i enjoy classical music, although i’m admittedly ignorant about it. i’m reading a book about ballet, i speak french, and i was rooting for ‘the kids are all right’ at the oscars. separated from the context of the article, i enjoyed watching the videos. i was also, as i said, half-joking about that line where i allied myself with the lowest common denominatored fifa, youtube commenters, and the human spirit. the juxtaposition itself should have made that abundantly clear.
what it is about is tone. i just think there’s a point where enjoying this stuff reaches Amelie-level kitschiness, and stating soccer fans have “good taste” showed a complete lack of perspective, in my opinion. maybe i was projecting, but i read richard’s call-to-arms as being just a shade too prideful. this article, i don’t believe, was a terrible offender. it was merely just one more straw added to the stack that is already a mile high.
@MC or that was kind of poorly worded there. it should read, ” i don’t believe this article was a terrible offender.”
@aizu That…actually could be the best highlight soundtrack ever.
I generally agree with MC. It’s ok to enjoy watching soccer highlights to the music of Bach, but I don’t see the point in arguing that it is better than watching highlights to the music of Franz Ferdinand or Nickleback. Your definition of decent music is different from others (I’m sure you already know that).
I know you are just writing your opinion but who cares if someone post soccer highlights with emocore, pop schlock, or trance/house music? It’s seems you are attacking personal taste rather than just sharing your enthusiasm for classical music and soccer highlights.
ROP is one of my favorite blogs, but I am disappointed in this article.
Oh it’s simply wonderful! I shall join the crusade, sire!
@Marquis Escalier Keep your pince-nez on, Marquis.
@JuanSolo Good shout. Well, almost. Defending Nickelback? Come on now.
The truth is that these videos created for this post are a novelty, which is why they are so great. If this was the standard in Brian’s alternate universe, then he’d be writing about listening to “Take Me Out” is an outrageous concept to have on a video for Ryan Gigg’s dribbling.
All too True. It’s almost Nostalgic now though.
“Is my team ploughing” from Shropshire Lad… Butterworth. To any Arsenal game… but preferably this years thrashing of Chels.
These two videos are easily some of the best I’ve seen…I’m still hoping the maker comes out with some new stuff already.
Euro 2008:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGIyNAwtKto
EPL 08/09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDWlQVgoTls&feature=related
1986 world cup film hero, is pretty good. also giants of brazil film.
What would go well with Diamanda Galas? Recent England World Cup campaigns? Holland v Portugal 2006? Wayne Rooney this season?
@Eric Beard Hahahaha! There’s no way I’m defending Nickelback. My sincere apologies if it came across that way. My issue is with the tone of the article, that’s all.
I think the videos are a good idea. And you’re right, the novelty of it is great, it’s what makes ROP great.
One of the greatest football videos w/ music (& Thierry Henry) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SojhbVMIcAM
4 SKINS ALL DAY
Great post! I’ll be sure to be playing a Vilambit Khyal or Dhrupad performance (Hindustani Classical music) during the Barça-Arsenal match then or if you recommend a particularly suitable piece from the European tradition?
Btw, do you still listen to TV commentary when you got the music on?
Nice take on dancing about architecture. I particularly liked the potential pedagogical uses of mixing classical music with football highlights. Would that be an avenue you’d be interested in pursuing?
I really enjoyed the post, but couldn’t get rid of my frustration over the first paragraph. Telling someone that watching Barcelona is like watching an improvised fugue is not comparing apples and oranges. It is creating a metaphor. Comparing apples and oranges, in its colloquial derogatory usage at least is saying that Barcelona’s dismantlement of Arsenal is better than Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2. There is nothing going on there.
Using metaphor is useful because it allows us to describe something by showing how it is similar in certain important ways to something we might be more familiar with, or something that exemplifies the appropriate characteristic.
I would even go so far as to say that claiming that football cannot be explained by metaphor is to remove it from having any relevance to our lives, because it means it can’t be related to other things that matter to us. Unless your point is purely about music and football, in which case I’m not sure why a musician would limit music’s ability to represent. Indeed music with its variations in tempo, rhythm, urgency and intensity as well as its emotional changes seems perfect to describe how football might be played.
To shift back to your specific project, but to live football, not highlights, I think there is something particularly poetic about the way that Debussy and Chopin annotate the rhythms of a live UCL game. You should try it some time.
@Brian Phillips – Flatlanders+Messi is nice.
Lubbock (on Everything) is another favorite. I love this site.
As a designer, let me just say that I believe that something should only be judged based on the final product; football compilations on their holistic impact. Because of this I find it difficult to remove video editing from the discussion. While cheap lens flare effects and color distortion may be outside of the aims of this article, synchronizing the footwork, goals, and celebrations to the music can make or break a musical selection. Ok, ok, maybe there is no amount of editing that can rescue a football clip from Nickelback.
Having said all of that, I would like to shift the focus back to the holistic experience of these videos. One aspect of a good soccer clip is empathy and personality (which is something that Rich Pye had mentioned previously). We all love crowd noise because it helps us empathize with the fans who witnessed the magic. Along with great goal and skills, we also love watching celebrations because we catch glimpses of the players personalities. We enjoy these things because we are fans not only of the sport but also of the wonders and terrors of the game and fan/player personality play a large part of that. In my opinion, musical choice has a greater impact on the success of the video when it matches the empathic and personality traits of the teams/players featured. Rather than matching “beautiful music” to the beautiful game, picking the perfect music for the player/team/skills/what have you is the aim. And yes I know that I am reiterating the point of this article, but in order to make my own case about how a musical choice that compliments personality (on and off the pitch) can make an excellent match and a superb video, I point you to two examples.
An interesting comparison:
Two videos by the same author/producer/teenage kid at home/all the above? The first video is Messi’s goals for 10/11 and the second is Ronaldo’s all goals video. Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VZRtnWYCpA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDfpMaLz3oI&feature=related
P.S. Thanks to all the people who linked to videos, I enjoyed all of them!
Watch any Cruyff clip while listening to Explosions in The Sky….breathtaking
Great article, I think I might give it a shot.
Meanwhile here’s a simply beautiful compilation of technique from many great players over a blissful Debussy soundtrack:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KiO5kdjvpM