Submitted by:  Jon Bennett

 

The sport of cheerleading is characterized by loud, pumping music that can jar the senses and certainly sets the adrenalin of the cheerleading team going. There is no comparable type of music in any physical activity, including dance and modern circuses such as Cirque du Soleil. But that is not to say that all cheerleading music is the same. In fact it varies greatly in quality, with the worst being truly deafening and the songs barely audible. A good cheer mix, on the other hand, is a pleasure to listen to and complements the physical dance, tumble and stunt moves of the squad admirably. The finest cheer music, which is generally found at competition level, has super embellishments in the form of sound effects, seamless edits, excellent themes, and will also feature a customized voice over. Good cheerleading music bears the stamp of the cheer squad. Poor cheerleading music bears the following identifiers. It will be a muddy mix so that the various songs cannot be heard properly and the transitions are rough and unpleasant to hear. The sound quality will be bad so that a wall of noise seems to be coming out of the loudspeakers and not a pleasant and uninspiring racket. The sound effects, if there are any, will be indeterminate and the voice over will merely be a bellowing sound. You will not be able to hear what the voice artist is saying, which defeats the object of the exercise. In addition, the bass is usually much to low, making the building shake and setting the nerves of the spectators on edge. This is usually an attempt by the cheer mixer to add some excitement to what is a particularly unexciting cheerleading music mix. Good cheerleading music is characterized by well-chosen and properly themed songs. That means choosing songs for their sounds and not for their titles or lyrics. The mix will be such that every element (music, sound effects and voice over) can be clearly heard. The transitions between songs will be smooth and the bass will not be excessive. While there will not be gaps and silences as there is very little time for that in a cheer mix of a few minutes, the energy of the piece will never subside. Above all the cheer mix will be inspiring to the squad and animate their performance. The spectators will be excited and spellbound.