In late 1992, when he was asked to submit samples of a new theme song for CBS’s coverage of the show NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, Bob Christianson did what he usually does. He paced around his small basement studio. He washed dishes and scrubbed the floor. He ironed clothes.
His best melodies have often crystallized better away from the piano. “If I write on the piano,” he says, “my fingers tend to go where they are used to going. »
This time, his fingers wouldn’t reach the eight notes that would define March Madness for nearly a quarter century until he formulated the right groove – a groove inspired by the percussive heartbeat of the tournament itself. same: a dribbling basketball.
In the original CBS version of Christianson’s iconic theme, one could still make out a subtle hardwood rhythm in the distance. Then the sweeping melody hits, a simple ascending structure of notes that dips quickly before ending with a bang, like a ball suspended in the air before being slammed like an alley-oop.
The humable pattern – da-da-da-dat-dat-da-da-da – is now familiar to almost anyone remotely close to a television set in March. The ubiquity of CBS television broadcasts, now airing in combination with Turner Sports, and the popularity of the NCAA Tournament have made its theme song one of the most recognizable and enduring songs in television history athletic. CBS started airing it in 1993 and has no plans to stop.
Credit goes to Christianson, a veteran composer who, when he began writing 25 years ago, had no idea that his version would be so ingrained in the aural cortex of American culture, or even that his version would be selected. But he liked the way it sounded.
“I have no idea where that came from,” Christianson said. “For me, writing is being able to sit down, be quiet and listen. And when you’re lucky, it happens.
In 2010, when CBS and Turner Sports teamed up to produce the television broadcasts, they looked at every detail of tournament production. But the theme song, slightly modernized, remained faithful to its original form.
“It really revs your engine when you hear it,” said Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports. “It has the power to make your heart beat a little faster in anticipation of another great college basketball.”
Christianson, now 66, with soft brown hair and a feathery mustache, still lives above the studio in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood where he wrote the NCAA Tournament theme and hundreds of other jingles, including those for ESPN’s NHL telecasts and “Sunday Night Baseball.” and CBS’ coverage of the NFL and Olympics.
Many of them have long been forgotten. Harder, heavier pieces (think Fox’s blaring NFL themewith his armored robot) have replaced the more rhythmic and synthesized selections of the past, which were generally lighter on drums and guitar.
“It wasn’t Metallica,” Christianson said.
But when a former CBS executive, Doug Towey, asked him to submit samples for a new college basketball theme, Christianson knew he needed something with energy. Something in a major key. Something that immediately suggested the fast pace of a match.
“The melody couldn’t be so fast that it would rush by and you wouldn’t get it,” Christianson said. “It had to be a simple melody, but have enough energy to reflect the sport.”
James Kellaris, a composer and marketing professor at the University of Cincinnati who studies the influence of music on consumers, noted that the presto tempo of 168 beats per minute in Christianson’s tune is consistent with the human heart rate during exercise. The percussive groove also gives a sense of forward movement.
“The theme clearly evokes excitement and movement, like a person running,” Kellaris wrote in an email.
What makes the theme unique, however, is actually a small incongruity in the harmonic structure of the melody. Instead of being based on a normal C scale, the chords conform to F major, Kellaris said, a technique also used in the famous “Give me a break” jingle for Kit Kat bars. The note pattern – EEFGCAGG – also contains a significant interval jump from C to A, which is rare in melodies.
Such violations of aurally pleasant expectations, along with the simplicity and repetition of the theme, are what create what Kellaris likes to call an earworm. The melody sinks into your head and can stay there for days, often leaving only one recourse: you have to listen again. Exactly what CBS wants.
“It’s a little masterpiece of hearing branding genius,” Kellaris said.
Twenty-three years after his career at Duke ended, Grant Hill said he still imagines running onto the field at the NCAA Tournament every time he hears the theme song. “It certainly brings up a lot of good memories,” said Hill, now a broadcaster for CBS and Turner. “You’re excited and ready to go.” It’s a great feeling.
Indeed, the influence of the theme does not only come from its catchiness. Its psychological influence extends beyond that. Matthew Mihalka, a musicologist and ethnomusicologist at the University of Arkansas who studies connections between music and sports, said the jingle produced a “sonic marker” in the minds of many fans, viscerally transplanting them into a happy (or upsetting) moment. .
“It can serve as a bit of nostalgia,” Mihalka said. “If they have a good memory from listening to that song, then it’s going to bring back what they were feeling at that moment.”
Gonzaga or South Carolina fans, who may not have appreciated the tune much before, might now be hooked, as their teams are playing in the Final Four for the first time this weekend. And CBS does a good job reinforcing those Pavlovian triggers: A spokesperson estimated that CBS and Turner played the theme song more than 1,000 times during the 67 television and studio broadcasts that accompanied it during the tournament each year .
The modern version was arranged by Trevor Rabin – a former Yes guitarist – who also composed the NBA theme on the TNT broadcasts. But Christianson, who still collects 85 percent of the writer’s royalties, said only 7 percent of the new version was actually new. The rest is as he wrote it, using a Linn 9000 in his basement, although infused with more sounds from a live orchestra.
Christianson, who also composed music for TV shows such as “Sex and the City,” said it was the little jingle he came up with 25 years ago that would most likely define his career.
“It will probably be engraved on my tombstone, no matter what else I did,” he said. “And you know something?” It is very good.”
