Tonight I got free tickets to see the Los Angeles Kings play the St. Louis Blues at the Staples Center. Though a poor hockey fan, I’ve played hockey most of my life and couldn’t turn down the opportunity. Though I have not been to many professional sporting events, I never fail to take notice of the inspiring, crowd rousing music they play at the games. Arriving at the game tonight I expected to hear the typical Queen and Steve Miller Band peppered with some more recent tunes by Greenday and Hootie and the Blowfish, maybe Nirvana if I was lucky. They fortunately serve beer to dull the senses into submission as these songs pound worn beats over the roar of the crowd. However tonight the first song I heard ( I arrived 2 minutes into the 2nd period) was not the much anticipated clap-thudding of ‘We Will Rock You’, but the stinging guitars and tightly strung throaty rasp of Jack White. Yes the White Stripes were ripping through the stadium with “My Doorbell”.
Despite the excitement of the crowd, or perhaps because of it, this got me to thinking: how did a a minimalist Detriot rock band make it so far into the mainstream that they enter the canon of arena rock? Perhaps it was their jump to V2 records in 2002 along with nominations for 4 MTV music awards and the Grammy or was it Jack White’s secret wedding to Karen Elson? Regardless, to rise to the professional sports circuit, and I guarentee that if its played at the Staples Center its played elsewhere, larger trends must be at work. That is the not-so new wave of rock & roll bands like the White Stripes, The Strokes, The Hives, and myriad “The” others has truly reached into the corners of pop culture and then beyond to the not so musically contemporary mind of the sports fan. This critique should not be regarded as the now common indie lamentation that everything alternative is going mainstream. On the contrary I would suggest that the stadium is a kind of music hall of fame. Once a song is accepted into this forum of public consumption it is forever memorialized through an odd feedback loop. The dj plays the song because s/he thinks that it will excite the crowd. And if enough people cheer, then the dj will play it again, causing more recognition, more cheering, and then likely more plays by the dj. Any band should be so lucky as to played as frequently as Queen echoes through the nations sports arenas. Don’t miss the intro on their website.
Also on the playlist for the evening (little bit of a Halloween theme):
Elton John - Bennie and the Jets
Weezer - Buddy Holly
Ray Parker - Ghostbusters
Blue Öyster Cult - (Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Queen - We Will Rock You
Queen - Another One Bites the Dust
Bobby (Boris) Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers - Monster Mash
Dick Dale - Misirlou
: White Stripes - My Doorbell (video) :
: Fresh Air Interview :
cute video. not having (m)tv i miss the opportunity to not see things like that all the time. the ending feels a bit cocky, no? like making fun of their fans?
I made reference to your post, indirectly in my comment of Topomodesto’s Shopgirl post.