"The riff has been deracinated and transformed into this instantly translatable chant." Within a few years, the song had entered the pantheon of stadium jams, alongside Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger." But Sloan says "Seven Nation Army" has something that those anthems lack: singability. And music publishers sold thousands of arrangements for marching bands. NBA and NHL teams blared the recording during games. (Siegel says it was introduced by an executive in the school's athletic department who had heard fans singing it during Italy's championship run.) From there, other universities picked it up. Within a year, the song had made its way from European soccer to American football, starting with fans of Penn State's Nittany Lions. "At that point, it sort of becomes the anthem of the Italian national team - and Italy wins the World Cup," Siegel says. That summer, Italian fans made the "Seven Nation Army" riff their own in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup, where they would score again. Roma, and the tables turned the other way: The Romans headed home with a 2-1 victory - and a brand-new stadium anthem that they'd learned from the Belgians. Three years later, Club Brugge played host to another Italian team, A.S. "And then Brugge, which is not a traditional power, ended up upsetting Milan." The Belgians sang the riff as their team eked out a 1-0 victory, then brought it home as an unofficial club anthem. "Some supporter groups were having some drinks before the match, and 'Seven Nation Army' was playing," Siegel says. Its life as a sports anthem began six months later, when fans of the Belgian soccer team Club Brugge KV traveled to Italy for a UEFA Champions League match against one of the giants of European football, A.C. 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 after its release in March 2003 (though it did top the Alternative Songs chart). "Seven Nation Army" didn't catch on right away: The song only made it to No. The riff has been deracinated and transformed into this instantly translatable chant. That gives the riff an urgency that makes it much more memorable." Then you get the almost machine-gun rapid fire of the next four notes, and they're syncopated, on the off-beats. The rhythm compounds that feeling: "By holding on to that first note, it generates a feeling of suspense. You hear them a lot in laments, which form a genre going back to the baroque," Sloan says. "Those last two notes - from the flat six to the five - have a lot of weight in musical history. The minor key gives it an intimidating ring. "It's very egalitarian, the kind of riff that's the first thing you figure out when you're learning how to play guitar." "And with the exception of the second note, the notes are all in sequence in the scale - like consecutive steps on a ladder," explains Nate Sloan, co-host of the podcast Switched On Pop. It's a simple musical phrase: just five different pitches, spread out over less than an octave. "It's just, 'Ohh, oh-OH-oh-oh ohhhh, ohhh,' and that's it, just over and over and over. Siegel says that the first thing you'll notice hearing the song at a sporting event is that instead of Jack White's impassioned vocal line, fans sing the song's central guitar riff. "It's simple, catchy and aggressive, so it's perfect for a sports anthem," says Alan Siegel, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who reported on how "Seven Nation Army" found a home in stadiums around the world for the sports website Deadspin.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |