For football fans like me, it's the international break, which means that there was NO club football to watch this week (sadly). In order to pass the time, I decided to crunch the numbers and understand the sound of the most popular league in the world - the English Premier League. Going into Spotify, you'll find their official playlist; I tagged these tracks by searching Youtube and running the audio through our AI here.
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6188e55dd468b56ab674f61d/61c2e3b01492431f61a8c417_Screenshot-2020-11-10-at-23.26.55-1024x487.png)
Here are my findings:
Vocal Type
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6188e55dd468b56ab674f61d/61c2e3b07f5ad269bc805639_PL-Vocals-1-1024x640.png)
The playlist consists of mostly vocal tracks (96%), out of which 71% are male vocals - Liam Gallagher (known to be a Manchester City supporter), Bon Iver... just to name a few. This could be perhaps an attempt to appeal to their male-dominated demographic who loves a good sing-along.
Genre
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6188e55dd468b56ab674f61d/61c2e3b0e07f04a6364a2c78_PL-Genre-Analysis-3-1024x640.png)
In terms of genres, the playlist is generally made up of Indie (46%), Pop and Rock (both 39%) tracks. However, the playlist seems to be wide-varying too - comprising of tracks from Electronic (Ólafur Arnalds - ekki hugsa) to Folk (Charlie Cunningham - Pieces) and even Gospel (Gregory Potter - Revival).
The AI tagged a total of 32 different genres and sub-genres; While the demographic is dominated by men who love football, the wide range of genres signifies that genre isn’t a huge deciding factor on whether football fans will like a song or not. In fact, their tastes can be quite eclectic and open to new or alternative genres.
Mood
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6188e55dd468b56ab674f61d/61c2e3b0d0fe93ac4125d801_PL-Mood-Analysis-1024x640.png)
Unsurprisingly, the prevailing theme of these music such as Tom Grennan's Amen and Celeste's Stop This Flame are that of powerful (55%), romantic (36%) and largely positive in terms of emotions (41%). If you've stood in the terraces of any football game, it is an extremely powerful yet romantic atmosphere to hear a crowd of 40,000 supporters singing in unison. After all, football is an event that unites people and for many, something to look forward to after a long week at work.
In this aspect, the Premier League clearly understands this emotional connection of football fans and wanted to reflect this in the music choices. Conversely, only 11% of the tracks are tagged as negative by the AI (e.g. Lewis Capaldi - Bruises).
Energy and Tempo
![](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6188e55dd468b56ab674f61d/61c2e3b01492430d74a8c416_PL-Energy-Analysis-1024x640.png)
Speaking of which, it's also worthy to note that the playlist is on medium to high energy levels, which follows a rather balanced distribution in terms of tempo - definitely not resembling the "heavy metal football" of Liverpool's - often-described of the high pressing playing style of the reigning champions .
So what did I learn about the Premier League?
The Premier League playlist not only represents the eclectic music choices of their male-dominated demographic, it also gives us an insight to understand how music can be an extension of the brand experience - to connect with your audience on a deeper level, to create a soundtrack to their lives.
So the next time I'm tuning in to watch my team (Chelsea fan here, by the way), I'm gonna grab a beer with my buddies, put on the playlist and enjoy the big game with a soundtrack for all fans - no matter who they are supporting.
For a detailed breakdown of the findings, click here.