CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS FOR EDITED BOOK

The Sound of Victory: Music, Sport and Society

Editors: 

Perry B. Johnson (University of Southern California)

Courtney M. Cox (University of Oregon)

Introduction

The collisions of music, sound, and sport are so common they often go overlooked as popular culture phenomena. It is difficult to imagine, for example, surfing culture without the “California Sound,” the Super Bowl without its highly-anticipated halftime show, or Brazilian Copoeira without its traditional percussive instrumental accompaniment. In this way, the integration of music and sound in sport has become synonymous with the experience of sport itself—from “walk-up” songs and eighth-inning sing-alongs in Major League Baseball, to warm-up playlists and anthem openers in the NBA, and the ubiquitous squeaks of sneakers on indoor basketball courts around the world. This interrelation extends beyond the specific musical moments of athletic games and competitions, linking music, sound, and sport, as well as music and sport industries, through broader shared cultural attributes. The cultural practices of music and sport constitute what German sports journalist Hans-Dieter Krebs describes as “universal forms of expression”—modes of communicating particular understandings of collaboration, competition, fandom, and performance that become legible in specific socio-historical landscapes and cultural moments. Sport scholar Anthony Bateman similarly argues that music and sport both possess “the capacity for emotional stimulation and the ability to evoke a tangible sense of time and place, while both also involve performance, audience/spectator reception and narrative.” Yet, in spite of this historic intertwining of music and sport—or perhaps because of this interrelation—little existing scholarship critically interrogates this intersection. This intersection warrants closer inspection. In this edited volume, The Sound of Victory: Music, Sport and Society, we aim to expand upon this work, further exploring the relationships between music, sound, and sport—their intersections, socio-cultural influences and implications, and historical reverberations. 

We seek submissions that use intersecting moments and histories of music, sound, and sport as generative entry points to further explore questions of culture and power, with a particular interest in submissions that engage with issues, ideologies, and structures of gender, race, nationality, community and citizenship in the articulation, management, and (re)construction of identity, “belonging,” and moreover these respective “entertainment” spheres/cultures/economies. 

This edited volume is guided by the following questions:

  • What are the relationships between music and sport? 

  • What are the relationships between sound and sport?

  • How has the relationship between music and sport evolved over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries around the world? 

  • What is the role of music at sporting events? 

  • How do music and sport alert us to the cultural distinctions of a particular location? 

  • In what ways does music impact, elevate, (re)construct sporting spaces? 

  • What role do musical performances at sporting events have with respect to the construction and communication of identity and cultural inclusion/exclusion in particular socio-historical moments/spaces? 

  • What is music’s role at sporting events with respect to the construction of particular notions of nationalism, patriotism, assimilation, immigration, and/or issues of citizenship? 

  • What role does music play in the construction of particular notions of team/sport allegiance and fandom? 

  • What role does music play in athletic performance? 

  • How has sport impacted the music industry and/or key musical figures and products?

  • How is the relationship between music and sport made visible in musical performances? 

  • How is the relationship between music and sport made visible in athletic competitions?

  • What role does sound play in shaping sporting spaces (e.g. arenas and stadiums)?

  • What role has music played within the industries of sport, sport marketing, and/or athletic/activewear?

  • How are sport and particular athletes mobilized by different music, tech, gaming, and entertainment companies to introduce new products into the marketplace?

  • Can we look to the relationship between key sport and music figures off the field/off the stage to better understand the interrelation and exchange between these two spheres?

Topics may include but are not limited to the following:

  • Sport, Sound and Space/Place

  • History of Music and Sport

  • Athletes as Musical Artists

  • Musical Artists as Athletes

  • The Figure/Trope/Icon of the Athlete in Music

  • The Figure/Trope/Icon of the Musician in Sport 

  • Musical Artists and Sports Fandom

  • Depictions of Sport in Music Videos

  • Musical Entertainment in Sporting Venues

  • Sport Anthems

  • Collegiate Fight Songs

  • Marching Band Cultures

  • Sound/Noise in Sport

  • Corporate Music/Sport Collaborations

  • Music and Olympic Sports

  • The Pregame Performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner”

  • The NFL Super Bowl Halftime Show

  • Branding Music and Sport

  • Songs About Sport

  • Walk-Up Music

  • Sport Performance and Music

Submission Procedure

Please submit chapter proposals to soundslikesport@gmail.com on or before August 31, 2020. All submissions must include a chapter proposal of 300-500 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of their proposed chapter with selected bibliography, keywords (up to five), and a short biographical note stating the author’s current research interests and recent publications.

Authors will be notified in late Fall 2020 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters will be 6,000-8,000 words inclusive of citations. The volume will be published late-2022.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees.

Important Dates

August 31, 2020: Proposal Submission Deadline

Inquiries can be forwarded to

Courtney M. Cox

University of Oregon

soundslikesports@gmail.com

Sources:

Anthony Bateman, “Introduction: Sport, Music, Identities,” Sport in Society 17, no. 3 (2013): 294.

Rob Harms, “Enter Sound Man: An Insider’s Look at Baseball’s Walk-Up Music,” The New York Times, July 31, 2015, sec. Baseball, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/02/sports/baseball/enter-sound-man-an-insiders-look-at-baseballs-walkup-music.html.

Justin Tinsley, “The Players’ Anthem: When Marvin Gaye Sang ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at the 1983 All-Star Game,” The Undefeated, February 13, 2018, https://theundefeated.com/features/marvin-gaye-the-star-spangled-banner-1983-nba-all-star-game-players-anthem/.