Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Baseball and Indie Rock

I'm not really a sports fan, but I have to admit that I do pay attention when music is involved and was always intrigued to hear which themes songs are attached to particular players. In "The Narrowing Gap Between Indie Rock and Baseball," Bill Peters discusses how independent music is making its way into the soundtrack for Major League Baseball and baseball video games. He talks about how the indie-minded Pitchfork curated the sounds for the just-released MLB 2K8 videogame. His speculation about the implications of incorporating more and more underground music into baseball is just brilliant! He writes:

"...as the 2008 baseball season warms up, how weird and excellent would that be to see Gary Sheffield entering to Joy Division's 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'? Or if Justin Morneau approached the plate to the spooky-sounds-tape cave metal of Sunn O)))? Or if Alex Rodriguez entered to 'Negativland' by NEU! or 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails. It could spread to commentators too. Chris Berman already used the 'This will change your life!' Shins reference from Garden State years ago. Hopefully, during a Touch 'Em All home-run roundup, he'll have a chance to use 'Man... or Astro-Manny!' before Manny Ramirez retires."

Which songs would you like to hear attached to your favorite players?

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