Sports Stars Who Have Turned to Music
During the 1990s, the connection between X sports and music seemed to be inherent – as the genre of punk and pop-punk was gaining popularity at the same time as the sports discipline of skating, snowboarding, surfing, or BMX biking. And for some reason, both trends seemed to gather the same profile of people – in some cases, it even gathered the exact same people.
Whereas many X sports stars made a name for themselves in various creative disciplines – their participation in the domain of visual and graphic arts seemed to be quite different from their musical output.
In a way, it makes perfect sense that X sports stars have a distinct creative side, as their sports discipline heavily depends on the ability to be creative in the approach to tricks, training, and overall success. On top of that, many of them are forced to end their careers early due to a career-ending injury – and are left with an outstandingly large need to express themselves, a strong personal brand, and enough financial capital to be their own primary investors.
The X Sports trajectory
Extreme sports started gaining popularity in the 90s, when the trends of overall popularization of television, the so-called “MTV youth”, and video-based entertainment started emerging. The amount of risk, excitement, and creativity that was an essential part of the sports was strongly appealing to younger audiences – and soon enough, skateboarders, snowboarders, surfers, and similar became the superstars of a new generation.
Despite initially entering the scene and gaining a tremendous amount of support in the 90s, it took X sports over 30 years to become partially accredited on a global level. A vastly important step forward for the discipline was the inclusion into the world of sports betting. Still, not all X sports are available in this realm, but certain platforms – like sports betting Tanzania platform 10Bet – offer the option to bet on certain X sports, helping the discipline become more widely accepted, and recognised. This is quite important, as the discipline bases its success on excitement, adrenaline, and a shared audience experience, that necessarily has to vary from traditional sports (primarily because of the conditions within which X sports take place). With that in mind, betting has a great potential to unify X sports audiences, and offer a shared platform for watching the sports, and supporting its athletes.
Another tremendously important recognition for X sports was the introduction of various X sports disciplines to the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. Whereas the decision to include several X sports disciplines does not guarantee that all disciplines will eventually be welcomed to the Olympic Games, it is still an incredible victory for the discipline. In simplest terms, as soon as the said decision was announced in 2016, it opened doors to so many sponsorship’s, training opportunities, formal recognition, and much more.
X Sports Musicians
The inherent connection between music and X sports is best exemplified by the fact that the golden boy of both disciplines is Shaun White – the world record holder for the most X Games gold medals and most Olympic gold medals in X sports disciplines. White is a professional snowboarder and skateboarder that performed at the Olympic Games five times – winning gold in 2006, 2010, and 2018.
On top of his sporting success, White is one of the founding members of the band Bad Things – a band signed to Warner Bros. Records, that managed to get a slot at Lollapalooza less than a year after they were initially formed.
Whereas White is likely the most successful representative of both categories, he is by no means the only representative, nor is he a pioneer of overlapping music and X sports.
Tony Alva, often referred to as the father of skateboarding, and one of the most influential skateboarders of all time, is also a frontman of G.F.P. – a supergroup consisting of himself, Greg Hetson of Bad Religion, and Amery Smith of Suicidal Tendencies.
Moreover, the overlap between music and X Sports is not necessarily composed of people who are primarily known for their athleticism – Matt Hensley of Flogging Molly spent a decent portion of the 80s and 90s as a professional skater, before he joined the band, and left the sport.
Hensley, Alva and White are just three examples of incredibly famous men who have found success in both X Sports and music – however, they are not outliers of the story, but rather instances of an overwhelmingly large trend – including a multitude of other athletes like Seth Kimbrough, Duane Peters, Tommy Guerrero, Donovan Frankenreiter and many, many more.
