Music. Sports. A Love Story

Advertisers couldn’t have been thrilled with Super Bowl XXXV in January, when the Baltimore Ravens landscaped Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium with the New York Giants, and ratings plunged 7 percent from the previous year.

But there was a silver — or is that platinum? — lining for the league. Thanks to state-of-the-art corporate synergy, Viacom-owned MTV Networks produced the historically vanilla halftime show for sister network CBS’s telecast, hot-wiring it with rock-star electricity. Prowling a mobile stage at the 50-yard line, MTV staples Aerosmith, Britney Spears, ’N Sync, Nelly and Mary J. Blige lent some much-needed teen spirit to the NFL’s conservative product and cemented Viacom’s reputation as an army that could conscript its platoons into one loud, sexy, pyrotechnics-filled production.

But the NFL-MTV halftime spectacular also reminded viewers — and marketers — that pro sports and pop music make a powerful, irresistible team. “Acts like Aerosmith and Britney tell advertisers that people are not going to get up during halftime,” says John Collins, senior vice president of NFL marketing and entertainment programming. “And when we approach musicians, we tell them, ‘You cannot get a bigger audience to perform in front of than at the Super Bowl.’ ”

Any fan who tuned in that weekend saw CBS’s two-day-long sports-music marathon, jammed with MTV productions including Ricky Martin’s Super Bowl Saturday Night and CBS Presents: MTV’s Super Bowl Uncensored, cohosted by MTV’s Chris Connelly and CBS’s Late Late Show host, Craig Kilborn. Game day brought analysis, team breakdowns and CBS Sports Presents: MTV’s TRL @ the Super Bowl, with Carson Daly introducing stars from MTV and the NFL. Over on MTV, Dan Marino played quarterback in the Rock ’N Jock Super Bowl XXXV (with its own halftime show).

“Integration and synergy are the two keywords in entertainment marketing, and sports marketing is now just a subset of entertainment marketing,” says Mark DiMassimo, president of DiMassimo Brand Advertising. “That’s true not just for advertisers but for the acts and their labels getting out there in front of 700 million viewers.” Howard Handler, a former NFL and MTV marketing director, notes, “Athletes and musicians are artists, and both industries are based on spectacle. Musicians and athletes have the same vibe. They always will.”

Jocks and rockers share a peculiar type of fame: Their talents are fleeting, and they rarely age gracefully; indeed, as they burn bright and fast, musicians and athletes have a mutual empathy. “They’re sort of similar,” says ESPN SportsCenter anchor Trey Wingo. “You are performing, you are playing to an audience, and it’s just a natural progression for a lot of guys who think that if they can do one thing — and it’s done with a lot of movement and a lot of grace — they can do the other.”

Witness Garth Brooks shagging fly balls with the Padres and the Mets in spring training. Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson laying down rap tracks. Rappers draped in NHL jerseys. VH1 covering the greens fees for PGA star Phil Mickelson (and Stone Temple Pilots) at the “Fairway to Heaven” pro-am. Michael Jordan backing Hidden Beach Recordings, home of R&B star Jill Scott. No Limit rap mogul Master P repping sports talent and trying his hand at pro roundball. Destiny’s Child mugging with Houston Rocket Steve Francis on the cover of ESPN The Magazine. The Insane Clown Posse’s Juggalo Championshit Wrestling Federation cash cow. The Baha Men’s radio-turned?sports stadium hit “Who Let the Dogs Out?” And the beat goes on.

But long before CBS and MTV suited up in the same uniform, there was Monica Lynch, cofounder of Tommy Boy Records, sitting at a Knicks game in 1993 with a revolutionary idea. “There was a repertoire of songs that got played at every game, and it seemed to be the same at every NBA arena around the country,” she recalls. Seeing that these songs could get everyone to put their hands in the air — and loosen their wallets like they just didn’t care — she compelled Tommy Boy to launch the landmark Jock Rock series in 1994. The blend of vintage tunes (Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 2,” the Isley Brothers’ “Shout”) and sound bites from ESPN anchors, cheerleaders and cheering crowds bridged the arena and the dance club. Tommy Boy’s 1995 Jock Jams Volume One, combining oldies such as “YMCA” with new arrivals like “Whoomp! There It Is,” sold 2.7 million albums, spawned four follow-ups and gave the label a franchise that has sold more than 7.8 million.

“Like sports, music’s about expression, and now it’s getting more attention as part of the sports culture,” says motocrosser Travis Pas-trana, 17. “That’s not going to change.”


Action Sports

Surf, skate, rock — it’s one for the money

“We’re going where we’re not supposed to be,” said Metallica frontman James Hetfield after arriving at the inaugural ESPN Action Sports and Music Awards, an event where motocross superstar Jeremy McGrath and surf legend Kelly Slater engaged in a little extreme sports?and-music mutual admiration with rock & rollers Ben Harper and Black Sabbath. “It all started with the board culture, when they were making skating movies and putting a lot of punk in,” notes Jack Johnson, a pro surfer?turned?filmmaker-musician who will tour with Harper later this month. “We caught onto it a little later, and then all the movies started using punk.” Last summer, the sixth annual ESPN X Games, with their ever-present musical bed of SoCal punk and rap-rock, drew 27.8 million households; more important for advertisers and musicians, 6.3 million of them earn at least $75,000 annually. Seems like a good bet that these upscale households buy CDs from time to time…


NASCAR

Good ol’ sport goes countrypolitan

Even if NASCAR’s mid-’90s compilations Runnin’ Wide Open and Hotter Than Asphalt reflect an audience of Tanya Tucker and Jeff Foxworthy fans, Celine Dion and U2 fans aren’t far behind. NASCAR is second to the NFL in TV ratings and merchandise sales, and its soundtrack, like its audience, is diversifying beyond its southern base. In 1999, the NASCAR Rocks tour, headlined by the Allman Brothers, traveled to places like New York, Seattle and Denver. This summer, MTV will air a True Life segment on the sport’s young pedal-to-the-metal?heads such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., 26, and Matt Kenseth, 29, to prove that the drivers aren’t all good ol’ boys pumping Bocephus in their pickups. “Metallica’s my favorite band, and I listen to them quite a bit,” says Kenseth. “The new 3 Doors Down CD’s pretty cool. And the Godsmack CD.” NASCAR, eager for a new crossover crowd, couldn’t agree more.


Pro Wrestling

Fans smack down cash for tunes

In 1985, when World Wrestling Federation guru Vince McMahon booked the Junk Yard Dog and Captain Lou Albano to grunt on The Wrestling Album, music wasn’t part of pro wrestling. Today, The Rock shares the mic with Wyclef Jean, and the WWF’s hard-rock label, SmackDown!, recently released Vol. 5 of its million-selling collection of wrestlers’ entrance themes. “We connect directly to an active music-buying demographic,” says Ron McCarrell, president of SmackDown! Records. “Twelve- to 20-year-old males — we own ’em.”

Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling have also released headbanging compilations. The WCW even added a rock legend to its scriptwriting team: former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould, who says pro wrestling, with its pyrotechnics, “is not too different from a Limp Bizkit show.” In the other corner: Insane Clown Posse, whose Championshit Wrestling is the nation’s third-highest-grossing wrestling organization. And if you don’t like it, says ICP’s Shaggy, “Eat a bowl of dicks.”


Basketball

NBA stars get their rhyme on

They’ve got the Cristal, they’ve got the jewelry — but the young stars of the NBA are still chasing hip-hop careers like errant rebounds. Big ballers “Shaq-Fu” O’Neal and Kobe Bryant spit soft rhymes, but Allen “The Answer” Iverson’s Misunderstood got blasted for derogatory lyrics when the single “40 Bars” hit Philadelphia airwaves last October. “He has done a disservice to himself, the Philadelphia 76ers, his teammates and perhaps all NBA players,” said NBA commissioner David Stern, while acknowledging the album’s “wide popularity.”

“Basketball and music are the social currency of today’s youth,” says Charlie Rosenzweig, director of NBA Entertainment and Player Marketing. With NBA attendance and ratings down from last year, off-court appeal is crucial. The NBA Store in New York has hosted live shows by Destiny’s Child, O-Town and rapper Shaggy; compilation albums and videos such as NBA Live 2001, featuring tracks edited with game footage and hosted by the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Kevin Garnett and music producer Jimmy Jam, add a similar vibe. “If we get music fans coming to the NBA and basketball fans getting into the music,” says Rosenzweig, “everybody wins.”