In the world of entertainment, there is a divide in opinion about what constitutes high-energy and low-energy events. Fans of high-octane, big-performance activities like basketball or raves often say that the excitement and adrenaline-driven by music and performances are what they find so appealing.
On the other side, activities that are slower-paced tend to have fans that appreciate that side of it for a more relaxed feel. With that said, the event organizers themselves are always looking to get more fans involved as viewing numbers are often skewed towards the more spectacular displays. Here are some great examples of music playing a key role in transforming slower-paced activities.
Bingo
While bingo still has that relaxed, low-key feel in most of the world, in the UK it is in something of a renaissance at the moment. While the game was always popular amongst the British, today’s bingo hall is a spectacle to challenge even Vegas although with a lot less neon.
One big feature is the music being piped in throughout play with special tracks played to build up hype for wins. It isn’t just in bingo halls either. Providers of online live bingo have also started integrating music and special sound design to spice up their own games, and then there’s the case of Hijingo in London which takes the whole experience to unusual new places.
Cricket
Sticking with the Brits for another one, the ancient game of cricket has something of a reputation for being slow to watch, although in part that’s by design. Taking place sometimes over multiple days for a single match with long periods of downtime, it’s intended to be refined and high-class.
However, to maintain the interest of the younger generation a new image was needed, which led to the invention of the T20 system. Taking inspiration from systems like the NFL, games feature intro music for players, tracks that play for outs or big hits and overall a much higher tempo to everything. Players even get to pick their own music, WWE style, and there’s almost no downtime where something isn’t playing.
Figure Skating
For the longest time, figure skating was seen as one of the most high-end of all sports out there, complete with classical scores to all the performances to accentuate that high-culture, artistic feel. That atmosphere, however, didn’t give it the most fashionable feel, and for a long time, figure skating was seeing dropping numbers everywhere.
That’s when in 2014, the rules of music choice were relaxed. Since then, everything from AC/DC to Snow Patrol to Despacito has appeared in top-level events including all the future Olympics. Somehow, even the Game of Thrones theme has made an appearance, and the overall effect on the sport from all of this has been dramatic. In fact, the rate of young people taking it up has shot up in recent years.
There are more examples but hopefully, everything here has shown just how adding or even just updating the music behind something can completely shift how the world sees it.