The Rinks Are Alive...

...with the sound of music. Be warned-this is something of an opinion post rather than anything else, and there is a good chance you may not have heard of some of the bands I'm about to go on about-but have a listen to 'em either way...

There is a plague appearing in rinks around the country...it's called "bad music". As clubs try and appeal to the casual fan more and more, the hockey culture which has thrived for years (of fan friendliness, spontaneous support, and a soundtrack of good old fashioned proper rock music) is being diluted in favour of choreographed chants, inane between-period competitions and inoffensiveness. Sure, the product on the ice is just as fast and hard as ever, but the passion off the ice isn't being shown or even kindled anywhere near as much as team owners try to make their product as inoffensive and its appeal as wide as possible.

At this point the keyboards are no doubt smoking as you fire up a blistering "teams need fans to survive and this sport can't be picky and choosy" email. But every sport needs a unique selling point, and hockey's is its whole culture, and the drive and power of the game kind of loses its impact when Girls Aloud is thudding through the system, even if everyone under the age of twelve is happy because they think they're at a kids party. However, give the same break in play a burst of Metallica (Seek and Destroy) or Led Zeppelin (Immigrant Song) and you can't help but feel sucked along with the game and well and truly hyped up (if nothing else, there won't be a drowsy eye in the building when the guitars kick in).

Look at the videos on Youtube. Listen to the soundtracks of the games in the US and Canada. Not a cheesy pop song in sight. The guitars are up loud, the drums are thumping and the pace is fast. So why, in the UK, do we feel the need to dilute hockey's unique culture to make it just like any other kid's party/club-night/generic sporting event? Rock music and hockey go together, and when you try and bring anything else into it it either sounds wrong or just plain silly...Watch this clip, even the first four minutes, and then pick any chart song (I always find that bloody annoying "Beautiful Girls" song is funniest) and imagine that over the top instead. See my point?

I'm ashamed to admit that my home-town team are probably the worst offenders at this-at some Skydome games you'd be forgiven for thinking you're at a kid's party rather than a sporting event. This is not to slag off the guy playing the music-I recommended him to replace me because I knew he thought the same as I did as far as music goes-but if the owners of teams are saying on the one hand that they want to get people hooked on the unique culture of hockey and then telling those responsible for matchnight entertainment to dilute it to the point where the crowd (many of whom like rock anyway and aren't shy in saying that the uniqueness of the soundtrack is one of the things that makes hockey stand out for them) are wincing as their ears are assaulted by another burst of Shane Ward or the Spice Girls purely in order to attract some demographic dreamed up in a marketing room, then there's something slightly off.

Hockey is unique among sports in the UK in the wit and spontaneity of the banter between fans, the speed and controlled aggression of the game itself, and the culture surrounding it. Let's use these as selling points, rather than trying to stifle them with "organised" chanting, owners aiming for casual fans' money at the expense of the passion of those who've been watching a while (and indeed are a far more likely way to attract new fans through word of mouth), and corporate cookie-cutter entertainment packages, and get the game back to a state where the hits are hard, the fans roar and, most of all, every break in play is the signal for a full-on rocking night out...

Keep keeping your eye on the puck...