MUSIC IN FOOTBALL: A STUDY OF THE MUSICAL CHAPTER ‘O’ OF ACCRAHEARTS OF OAK SPORTING CLUB

ABSTRACT Since its inception in 1863, association football has seen tremendous improvement and is currently one of the most patronized sports in the world. It is intriguing the manner in which football has been associated with music, evident by the national anthems, official world cup songs, football club songs, cheer songs, sports music concerts and brass band music that are performed in football. This study discusses how Musical Chapter ‘O’ uses music to support Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club in three different contexts of time in football – ‘pre-match’, ‘during-match’ and ‘post-match. It also examines the origin and formation of Musical Chapter ‘O’ and the history of Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club, as well as the instrumental setup, performance practice and performance venue and occasions of Musical Chapter ‘O’. This study is rooted on Merriam’s (1964) concept of uses and functions of music. It also examines the classification, shape, playing technique, sound quality and functions of musical instruments used by Musical Chapter ‘O’ based on Hornbostel and Sach’s (1961) classification of instruments and Nketia’s (1964) categorization and description of African instruments. This study is a basic research and a case study research based on the qualitative mode of inquiry. It examines how Musical Chapter ‘O’ uses music in football, through conclusions drawn from narrative and descriptive approaches of data collection including interviews, observations, field notes, and audio and video recordings. It largely makes use of nonprobability sampling techniques. The data analysis of this study is based on the qualitative approach as discussed by Merriam (1998) and Bernard (2000). It is also guided by LeCompte and Schensul’s (1999) suggestions for strategies of analysing data in qualitative research. The findings of this study present the functional applications of music by Musical Chapter ‘O’ in the three contexts of time in football. The findings reveal that in the pre-match context, Musical Chapter ‘O’ uses music to create awareness of their existence and up-coming Hearts of Oak Sporting Club matches, and identity for themselves; create a platform for sharing in creative experience; and uses music as pre-task music for the Heart of Oak team. In the during-match context, this study reveals that Musical Chapter ‘O’ uses music as asynchronous music, and as entertainment; and to ridicule opponent teams and to encourage collective behaviour. In the post-match context, this study reveals that Musical Chapter ‘O’ expresses their group sentiments through music in three situations – a Heart of Oak win, draw or loss. Also, this study presents the origin of the name of Musical Chapter ‘O’, the formation of the group and the administrative structure and history of Accra Hearts of Oak Sporting Club. This study also illustrates vividly the instrumental set up as well as the costumes of Musical Chapter ‘O’. This study concludes that the functional applications of music by Musical chapter ‘O’ in the three contexts of time in football support the idea that the uses and functions of music are not exhaustive and that new functions may as well be identified. It adds that the functional applications of music by Musical Chapter ‘O’ goes beyond Bateman and Bale’s (2009) model of the three ways of using music in sports as asynchronous, synchronous and pre-task music and identifies new ways of viewing the use of music in football and sports in general.