How does music help to engross an audience during a sports telecast? How are music and sound effects used to bring spectators into an arena or stadium, and how do they simulate the “live” experience for those who watch the game at home? Why does the theme for “Sunday Night Football” sound so much like the Imperial March from Star Wars? Matthew McDonald, Associate Professor of Music, along with Alan Zaremba (Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Communication Studies), and Robert Lagueux (Dean for Faculty Development at the Berklee College of Music) are currently addressing these and other questions as part of their project, “Anthems and Explosions: the Music and Sounds of Professional Sports.” McDonald, Zaremba, and Lagueux were recently awarded a CAMD Faculty Research and Creative Activity Incentive Grant to fund the project. Sam Hanson, a Music Composition and Technology major, will also be working on the project as a research assistant. The project focuses on the functions and meanings of music and sound effects in North American professional sports, particularly as they are used during live events, televised broadcasts, and video games, and the ways in which these modes of consumption mutually influence one another.
Prof. Matthew McDonald to Receive CAMD Grant to Study Music and the Sounds of Professional Sports
