The Affect of Baseball

I've been thinking a lot about affect lately and right now, while I'm not in school and am simply reading for pleasure, I have some distance from theoretical material.  And yet, one of the reasons I love theory is NOT because it abstracts things, but because some theories examine the quotidien in a way that makes us understand the depths of the somewhat mundane and routine things that occur in everyday life. 

Today, I was thinking about the affective experience of baseball and the role of pop music at the game, in particular. The music cues up to tell the fans that it's time for BASEBALL by blaring songs like "I don't wanna lose your love tonight" and "My Sherona" to get people feeling good and in a festive spirit.  What is it about the power of pop music to do that?  It seems to me that even if you hate pop, you might get annoyed at best, but the music doesn't actually seem to generate a feeling dread from someone who just isn't into it.  That person may feel something more like disdain, but that is not as pervasive as feeling just plain horrible.  Sports and music certainly go hand in hand -- after all, pop stars know they've made it big when they play in athletic arenas and singers and athletes are known for hooking up, right?  David and Victoria Beckham are my example.  And now it seems like a common thing to host a concert after a baseball game included in the baseball ticket. 

Music has a unique power to convey emotion just like rhyme in poetry is used to make a poem expressive.  The German composer, Felix Mendelssohn said "even if, in one or other of them, I had a particular word or words in mind, I would not tell anyone, because the same word means different things to different people.  Only the song says the same thing, arouses the same feeling, in everyone -- a feeling that can't be expressed in words."  I find it fascinating to see this at play in a baseball stadium where up to 40,000 or so fans can be infused with a certain celebratory, festive spirit that flows forward onto the field that they are facing (while in the stands).  I also really enjoy that festive mood and it makes the baseball game far more enjoyable than if I didn't get to hear my standby favorites, of which, this still remains one of my favorites...(and doesn't this guy look a LOT like the guys from Tears for Fears????):