Soccer culture worldwide has long been articulated musically, be it either through chants in the stands or cringeworthy pop efforts from footballers themselves. Aiming to tap into that colorful cultural tradition and to promote the sport in the US, American professional soccer league MLS' sponsor adidas has teamed up with digital agency EVB and Rock River Music to create team songs under the banner MLS Represent.

"We wanted to make something interesting that would raise awareness in the soccer target audience, as well as people outside our demographic who were interested in music," says EVB creative director Jason Zada. "What better way to do that than give them free music from artists they love?"

EVB collaborated with Rock River Music and, in liaison with the fan clubs and teams, drew up a list of bands. OK Go!, The Rapture, Bad Brains, RJD2, and The Polyphonic Spree, among others, created original songs that will play in stadiums as the teams come on the pitch, and are available on the www.adidas.com/MLS website for free. In addition, fans can download footage from the site and create video mash-ups of glory moments and rivalries.

Guidelines to the bands were simple: make something energetic, and make sure it had a chant section. Zada has high hopes for the songs' potential. "I was just looking up OK Go! on YouTube and saw that two of their videos have a total of 25 million views. If even just a few of those fans took a slight look at American soccer, we'd feel good about it all."

MLS Represent http://www.adidas.com/MLS
EVB http://www.evb.com
Rock River Music http://www.rrcmusic.com