We are the Champions

Sports and popular music are synergistic agents in the construction of identity and community. Posing unique challenges to notions of mind - body dualities, nationalism, class, gender, and racial codes and sexual orientation, Ken McLeod illuminates the paradoxical and often conflicting relationships associated with these modes of leisure and entertainment and demonstrates that they are not culturally or ideologically distinct but are interconnected modes of contemporary social practice.

Ken McLeod, Assistant Professor of Music History and Culture, Department of Humanities, University of Toronto, Canada

Contents: Introduction: warming up; 'Take me out to the ball game': a brief history of music, sports, and competition; 'Let's get physical': female identity, music and the fitness industry; 'Who let the dogs out?': sports music, marketing crossover, and the business of performance enhancement; 'We will rock you': sports anthems and hypermasculinity; 'It's a man's, man's, man's world': constructing male identity in African American music and sports; 'Go West': the integration of sports and music in constructing national and transnational identities; 'Gonna fly now': visual media and the soundtrack of sports; 'Na na hey hey kiss him goodbye': codas and overtimes; Bibliography; Index.