Seven Nation Army chant

Submitted by Buzz Your Girlfriend on

The 2009 season was the last year I was able to enjoy the student section due to this silly thing called graduation. One of the biggest reasons I love this university and its sports is due to our unique tradition. We are second to NONE in that department. From the best fight song in the nation:

to our helmets, to our stadium, to our history, and of course, to this guy:

During the Notre Dame game, the piped in music played "Seven Nation Army" by the White Stripes who are originally of Detroit. I absolutely love the song and I, along with 25,000 of my closest friends went crazy. And then I started to hear the chant:

Don't get me wrong, it is a super hype and great "war" chant. But it is not ours. For all intents and purposes, PSU was the first fan base to take it as their own:

I either stood in the student section or on the field for the next 5 home games having to hear the chant, and everytime it really annoyed me. We were the ones who taught OSU's band how to spell Ohio, and I LOVE the fact that we invented one of their "best" traditions. The last thing I want to do (I can't speak for our whole fan base) is to involve myself in some other team's tradition, even though it has been short lived so far. I may be completely off based with this, but I compare this to adding "Jump Around" to our 3rd - 4th quarter intermission mixtape.

Gold_Rush

July 19th, 2010 at 2:39 PM ^

I think we should quit using this song at football AND basketball games. But i do love when they play "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. Eminem is a local guy and to my knowledge no other school currently  has  a tradition of playing that song.

jmblue

July 19th, 2010 at 2:46 PM ^

OSU beat us to the punch there.  They started piping in "Lose Yourself" a few years ago (and yes, their students do the same hand gesture).  Not to mention that dozens of pro sports teams use it. 

We really need to find a way to get the band to be heard all over the stadium, because relying on jock jams is costing us a lot of our uniqueness.

dahblue

July 19th, 2010 at 3:41 PM ^

Does "no other school" include a large portion of high schools and colleges around the country?  Does it include nearly every NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB arena/stadium?

Want to use something local?  Iggy Pop.  

Want to be original?  Drop the Jock Jamz.  These new "traditions" like piped-in music and losing need to go asap.

jmblue

July 19th, 2010 at 2:41 PM ^

It's not even unique to PSU.  They ripped it off from an Italian soccer team. 

Personally, I don't get it.  I like the White Stripes, but that song doesn't seem well-suited for that kind of audience participation.  Those notes are supposed to be quietly played on a bass, not shouted out. 

Between this and the way the "Temptation" teaser has been defaced by "You Suck," I feel like our students are falling short in the creativity department right now.

Mr. Robot

July 19th, 2010 at 3:27 PM ^

At least we didn't use the song when Penn State came last year. I was kind of wondering if we'd be ripping off what they're known for while they were visiting, but if I recall properly, we never used Zombie Nation or Seventh Nation Army Chant against them.

That being said, I'm kind of on the fence with stuff that's used by other schools already. I'm cool with the not-band music as long as its reasonably done (Happened too often last year IMO. It needs to be kept to the most oppurtune moments such as getting maximum crowd pump-up on an important third down), but when it specifically involves stuff other schools are known for, I'm just not sure. My initial instinct is that we don't need to take stuff from anybody else to be awesome, but then I remember that other people rip our stuff from time to time as well, and all of a sudden I'm not caring as much anymore.

dahblue

July 19th, 2010 at 3:35 PM ^

You said, 

I'm kind of on the fence with stuff that's used by other schools already.

So...name one song...just one piped-in song that hasn't been played over 1000 times previously at other colleges, high schools and minor league stadiums across the country. Ripping off the game experience from lesser organizations is below us.

Bodogblog

July 19th, 2010 at 2:55 PM ^

it should be "Ten Thousand Fists (in the Air)".  One Hundred and Ten Thousand.  The marching band drummers could join in the opening, stay through the song

Unless, you know... somebody already does that

Maizeforlife

July 19th, 2010 at 3:03 PM ^

Get rid fo the piped in music altogether.  not only is it all unoriginal, it takes away from the traditions of the entire event.  I'm usually all for progress and finding new and different ways to enjoy games, but playing overly hyped, terrible sounding music over and over just doesn't do it for me.  When I see the student section doing the "war chant" or when i hear Eminem come on for the 5th time in the same game i get pissed.  The student section is turning into a bunch of poser-frat boys and sorostitutes who care more about being seen rather than seeing the game.

dahblue

July 19th, 2010 at 3:32 PM ^

We have the Michigan Marching Band.  We also have lots of talented musicians who can create crowd-pumping beats.  Why not use them?  We can record those songs which can't be live mic'ed on the field.  Why not be the leaders and best?  This piped-in garbage, almost as much as the losing, is the most shameful byproduct of the RR era.

Hell, Boom Boom Clap, is a huge stadium cheer.  We can do better, and we don't have to copy minor league baseball to do so.

Kal

July 19th, 2010 at 5:42 PM ^

Way to stereotype. Isn't it sad that so called "poser" frat boys make more noise than any of the alums? See what I did there - I made an assumption about an entire group of people without really thinking that it probably isn't true for the entirety, hell even the majority of them. Also do you really think the student section had anything to do with the choice of piped in music? If so, I missed the memo on that one.

Siiiiingler

July 20th, 2010 at 8:04 PM ^

Eminem gets the students fired up.  The band has great traditional value, but the students above it can't hear it.  Do you want the students to be loud and in the game or not?

Generalizing 20,000 people in the student section as poser-frat boys who don't care  about the game is not a good idea, either.  Most care vehemently.

dahblue

July 19th, 2010 at 6:39 PM ^

Yeah, I guess I am angry. We have only won 8 games over 2 years and we now pipe in pop radio hits that have been in heavy rotation in every minor league stadium around the country. We don't play em and white stripes because they are local. They're played because they appeal to the mass market just like ac dc and g n r.

TXWolverine44

July 19th, 2010 at 3:13 PM ^

I think this is a great pump up song especially for a footbal format especially when the singer comes in with "Can I scream?!?!"

I think it came out near the end of Friday Night Lights (the movie) and it fit so perfectly

Kal

July 19th, 2010 at 5:55 PM ^

The atmosphere at Yost is so close-knit, everyone can hear one another clearly and even if the entire crowd doesn't get in to it, the students are pretty easy to understand. At the Big House, it is really difficult to get a unique chant started ( e.g. you can only get the people that attend hockey games in on a "Ref You Suck" at a football game - and with B10 refs there are like 10 opportunities a game).