New Season, New Soundtrack: What's Playing as Football Kicks Off
Well folks, it's that time again. The equipment's dusted off, tailgates are fired up, and stadiums across the country are cranking the volume back up for football season. Every year, right alongside the depth charts and preseason predictions, comes one of our favorite traditions to track: the music.
ESPN just dropped this year's College Football anthem, and it's a good one. Shaboozey teamed up with Gunna for “High Noon,” off Shaboozey's new album The Outlaw Cherie Lee & Other Western Tales, and it's got that gritty, cinematic, country/hip hop crossover swagger. This makes twelve straight years ESPN has partnered with an artist to soundtrack their coverage, following Jelly Roll, Machine Gun Kelly, Post Malone and Marshmello before him. It's become as much a part of kickoff week as the games themselves, and we love that a genre mashup like country and hip hop can headline something this big.
Speaking of country, we're hearing that drawl show up everywhere this season. Sportswriters are matching every NFL starting quarterback with a country song that fits their story, and NFL and college teams alike are leaning harder into country and Americana for entrance and walkout music than we've seen in years. It's a trend we called back in 2023 (go check out our Country Music post if you missed it) and it's only gotten bigger since.
On the other side of the field, teams are still leaning on their tried and true entrance anthems too. “Enter Sandman,” “Welcome To The Jungle,” and custom hip hop intros remain locker room and tunnel staples, and plenty of publications are already putting together “every team's theme song” breakdowns for the new season. There's something great about a stadium that knows exactly what should hit the speakers the second their team takes the field. That's not an accident. That's a game entertainment team that knows its audience and the sonic identity they want to exude.
We're also keeping an eye on the ripple effect from this summer's World Cup. Anthems like Shakira and Burna Boy's official track, plus fan favorites like David Guetta & Sia “Titanium (MORTEN Future Rave Remix)” turning into full stadium staples, showed the whole world what we've known for years. Music turns a crowd into a unit, a family. Hearing 60,000 fans sing John Denver's “Country Roads” was a special moment for our Men's soccer team during the World Cup. We expect to see some of that global energy trickle into US stadiums this fall as teams look for new ways to get their crowd on its feet.
As you're building out your production calendar for September, we know you will take a beat and think about your soundtrack. You'll consider what your team is walking out to, what's playing during the hype video, and you may want to start on some of those upcoming theme nights. It's not too early to consider your Halloween or Holiday music (yes, we know it's only September, but trust us on this one).
We've put together a Season Kickoff playlist with some of the tracks and trends we mentioned above. Give it a listen, and if anything catches your ear, you know where to find us. Here's to a great season, on and off the field!