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football

Football

United Kingdom · 1960s
HappyEpicDancingSentimentalIntense

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Description

Football (soccer) music is the collective body of terrace chants, club anthems, supporter songs, and official competition themes tied to association football culture.

It is characterized by massed, unison singing; simple, instantly memorable melodies; short, repetitive phrases; and heavy call‑and‑response. Tunes are frequently adapted from hymns, marches, music‑hall standards, and contemporary pop, then refitted with lyrics about clubs, players, cities, and rivalry. Arrangements favor strong rhythmic drive (snare, bass drum, handclaps), brass or organs for fanfare impact, and chantable hooks designed to carry across open stadiums.

Beyond terraces, the genre also includes officially commissioned anthems by leagues and governing bodies, which often blend orchestral or cinematic writing with modern pop/EDM production for broadcast spectacle.


Sources: Spotify, Wikipedia, Discogs, Rate Your Music, MusicBrainz, and other online sources

History

Origins (early 20th century–1950s)

Supporters were singing at football grounds long before recordings captured it. Early club songs and terrace singing drew on the United Kingdom’s hymn tradition, brass‑band and music‑hall culture, and popular standards—easy melodies everyone knew and could sing together.

Terrace culture boom (1960s–1980s)

The 1960s saw a dramatic rise in organized chanting in British stadiums. As amplified PA systems and broadcast coverage improved, simple call‑and‑response refrains and percussion (drums, claps) became staples. Clubs adopted signature anthems, and traveling fans exported chant formulas across Europe.

From terraces to records (1980s–1990s)

Supporter choirs, club squads, and pop acts began releasing football singles tied to tournaments and cup runs. These recordings codified the terrace style on vinyl and later CD—unison choruses, marching beats, and lyrics celebrating teams, players, and national pride.

Globalization and mega‑events (1990s–2010s)

Televised international tournaments spurred officially commissioned themes and broadcast IDs. Orchestral/cinematic textures merged with pop and dance production to create competition and league anthems designed for stadium playback, TV idents, and global branding—while grass‑roots chant culture continued to adapt current pop hooks.

Digital era and transnational chant exchange (2010s–present)

Streaming and social media accelerated the spread of chants, with terrace versions of global pop hooks appearing within weeks. Professional league and federation themes now coexist with ultra groups’ percussion‑led songs, brass ensembles, and fan‑recorded chants, forming an international, fast‑evolving football soundscape.

How to make a track in this genre

Core songwriting
•   Aim for a narrow vocal range (about an octave) and stepwise melodies so large crowds can sing in unison. •   Use strong, square phrasing (most often 4 or 8 bars) with short, repeatable refrains and an easy call‑and‑response hook. •   Favor major keys and uplifting, familiar progressions (e.g., I–V–vi–IV or I–IV–V) at 90–130 BPM. Keep the chorus rhythmically obvious and syllabically clear.
Lyrics and themes
•   Celebrate identity: club, colors, city, players, managers, historic wins; include playful taunts and in‑jokes. Keep lines punchy (5–9 syllables) and rhyme simply. •   Build a chant spine: a memorable vocable ("oh, oh‑oh" / "olé, olé") that works without instruments.
Arrangement and instrumentation
•   Terrace style: snare/bass drum patterns, floor toms, handclaps on 2 and 4, and crowd gang‑vocals tracked in layers. Add brass (trumpets/trombones) or organ for fanfare weight. •   Official anthem style: blend orchestral strings/brass and large choir with modern drums, hits, and sub‑bass for broadcast impact; use big crescendos and cadential hits synced to visuals.
Production and performance
•   Record multiple takes of group vocals at varying distances to simulate terraces; compress lightly to preserve shout energy but control harshness. •   Emphasize transients (claps, snares) and midrange presence (1–3 kHz) so hooks cut through stadium noise. •   Test singability: if a chorus works a cappella with claps, it will work in the stands.

Best playlists

The Sound of Football
The Sound of Football
Every Noise at Once
Football
Football
Chosic
Football Mix
Football Mix
Spotify
Best of Football
Best of Football
volt.fm
Best user-generated playlists
Best user-generated playlists

Main artists

Related labels

Where to Now? Records
Where to Now? Records

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Influenced by
Music Hall
Music hall is a 19th- and early-20th-century British form of popular entertainment centered on comic songs, patter, novelty acts, and audience participation. It grew out of pub concert rooms and purpose-built halls where singers and comedians performed short, catchy numbers with memorable choruses. Its songs typically feature everyday themes, double entendre, and local dialects, supported by piano or small ensemble accompaniment. The style blends sentimental ballads with jaunty patter songs and marches, designed for communal singing and lively theatrical showmanship.
Hymns
Hymns are strophic, text-driven songs of praise, devotion, or instruction intended for congregational or communal singing, most closely associated with Christian worship. They typically use clear, memorable melodies, regular poetic meters, and straightforward harmonies so that large groups can sing together with ease. While the concept of a hymn as a sacred song predates Christianity (e.g., in Ancient Greek and Jewish traditions), Christian hymnody coalesced late in the 4th century with Ambrosian practice in Milan and then expanded through Latin and Greek liturgical cultures. Over time, hymn singing moved from monastic and cathedral settings into congregational life, especially after the Protestant Reformation, where metrical psalms and vernacular hymns became a defining feature of worship. Modern hymnody ranges from chant-like, modal melodies without accompaniment to robust, four-part chorale harmonizations with organ, and even contemporary arrangements that adapt classic hymn texts and tunes to newer popular styles.
Choral
Choral refers to music written for and performed by a choir—an ensemble of voices organized into sections such as soprano, alto, tenor, and bass (SATB), or same-voice groupings (SSA, TTBB). It encompasses both sacred and secular repertoire and may be sung a cappella or with accompaniment by organ, piano, or full orchestra. Stylistically, choral music ranges from chant-like monophony to intricate polyphony and rich homophonic textures. Texts are drawn from liturgy, scripture, poetry, and vernacular sources, and are set in many languages. Performance contexts include church services, concert halls, and community events, making choral one of the most socially embedded and widely practiced forms of ensemble music. Across history, choral music has served as a laboratory for vocal counterpoint, word painting, and text-driven form, while functioning as a cultural bridge among religious rites, national traditions, and contemporary concert practice.
March
A march is a musical genre and form designed to accompany orderly movement, most commonly military processions, parades, and ceremonial events. It is typically in duple meter (2/4 or 4/4) or compound duple (6/8), with a steady tempo that supports synchronized stepping. Classical and concert marches evolved a characteristic multi-strain structure: an introduction, two strains, a key-changing trio, a break strain ("dogfight"), and a final strain, often with a strong cadential "stinger." Instrumentation centers on winds and percussion—brass, woodwinds, snare and bass drums, and cymbals—producing a bright, projecting sonority suitable for outdoor performance. While the style is pan-European in origin, the late-19th- and early-20th-century "golden age" of the American march, led by John Philip Sousa, codified the concert march’s form, orchestration, and performance practice, influencing wind band music worldwide.
Sea Shanty
Sea shanty is a maritime work song that developed aboard sailing ships to coordinate group labor. It uses a strong, steady pulse and a call-and-response structure in which a lead singer (the shantyman) calls the verse and the crew responds in chorus to time their pulls, pushes, or turns together. Historically unaccompanied and sung in unison, shanties are tailored to specific tasks: short-drag (brief, forceful pulls), halyard/long-drag (heavier, fewer pulls per line), capstan/windlass (continuous, walking rhythm), and pumping shanties (repetitive, machine-like pulse). Lyrics mix practical timing cues with humor, bravado, longing, and port lore, and often use nonsense vocables (“way, hey,” “haul away”) to accent the work strokes. While closely related to broader “sea songs” and forebitters (off-duty songs), shanties are distinct in purpose: they are functional music designed to synchronize labor. The style flourished in the 19th century among English-speaking merchant navies, absorbing influences from British and Irish folk traditions and African-American and Afro-Caribbean work-song practices.
Brass Band
Brass band refers to ensemble-driven music performed primarily by brass instruments and percussion, with a sound characterized by powerful, blended timbres, antiphonal choirs, and a strong emphasis on melody and counter-melody. In its most codified form (the British-style brass band), the ensemble uses cornets, flugelhorn, tenor horns, baritones, euphoniums, trombones, tubas, and percussion, all written in transposed parts to create a homogenous, organ-like sonority. Repertoire spans marches, hymn tune settings, operatic and orchestral transcriptions, original contest works, and light music. Globally, the term also encompasses regional traditions such as New Orleans parade/second-line bands (merging ragtime, early jazz, and funk), and Balkan Romani brass bands (fast dance meters and virtuosic ornamentation), showing the format’s adaptability across cultures and celebrations.
Anthem
In its original and most precise musical sense, an anthem is a short sacred choral composition in the English language, created for use in the liturgy of the Church of England during and after the Reformation. Functionally akin to the Latin motet but texted in English, early anthems are typically polyphonic, devotional settings drawn from Scripture or the Book of Common Prayer. Over time, the term broadened beyond church use to mean an elevated song of celebration and collective identity. In the modern sense, “anthem” often refers to national or civic songs used as symbols of states, institutions, and teams—works designed for public ritual, commemoration, and ceremonial display.
Work Song
Work song is a functional vocal music tradition created to coordinate physical labor, set a steady pace, and build solidarity among workers. It typically features call-and-response structures, short improvised verses, and a strong, repetitive pulse aligned to the motions of the task (hammering, rowing, hauling, chopping). While versions exist in many cultures, the most documented stream is the African American work song in the United States—heard in fields, on railroads and levees, in lumber camps, and on prison farms. Closely related practices include maritime shanties, fishing chanteys, and industrial worksongs, all of which use rhythm and group participation to ease strenuous or monotonous work. Musically, work songs are commonly unaccompanied (a cappella) or use body percussion and tools as instruments. Lyrics often reference the job at hand, hardship and hope, local news, humor, or moral commentary, with leaders improvising lines answered by a chorus.
Military Cadence
Military cadence (also called a cadence call or “jody call”) is a traditional call-and-response work song used by military personnel while marching or running. It is designed to synchronize footfalls and breathing, reinforce unit cohesion, and maintain a steady training pace. Cadences typically feature a single leader (caller) who improvises or selects verses, with the group responding in a fixed refrain or echoed phrase, often over a simple, repetitive rhythmic pattern aligned to the movement.
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