#but I don’t think anyone native to the genre referring to a certain approach as elevating is questionable at all

[vi0lentquiche]

I vaguely remember reading this and watching the interview with Bryan and Hugh at some point but can’t find any traces of it here, so to commemorate the heroic sacrifices of everyone working on Season 1 and to preserve the McDonalds bit especially:

For the first season, it was interesting, 'cause I wrote the pilot and it was so closely tuned to what Thomas Harris had written, and there was so much from the books that was going into it. Then I think we had four or five scripts, and then I saw the pilot, and I saw the work that Hugh and Mads were doing, and I saw the work that David Slade was doing, and I looked at those four or five scripts that we had written, and I said that they weren't good enough, and I threw them out. And then we started over. I think we shut down for two weeks between the pilot and the rest of the show. So, after seeing the pilot and going, 'This is actually really good, and this cast is phenomenal and they deserve better material,' [we changed our approach] because the four or five scripts that we had done were very procedural, and very sort of strange.

One of the episodes was about a mass shooting in a McDonald's, and we were trying to make this commentary on fast food culture and gun culture. Now, looking back on that, I'm like, 'What the fuck were we thinking?' 'cause there's no way to skin that and not be offensive to somebody. Not that I care about offending people, but it just was sort of inelegant and cheap and not necessarily elevating the genre. I feel a deep responsibility to try to elevate the genre of whatever I'm doing. So we tossed all of those scripts out, and then it was a scramble for the rest of the season.

And it was really hard on Mads because English is his second language, and a lot of the shit that Hannibal is saying are words that I have to look up, to go like, 'Is that right? Is that a word?' So it was really difficult for him. The first season was insane, it was very depressing, and it felt very much like I was in Will Graham's head a little too far. And I remember there was one time when Hugh and Claire [Danes, Dancy's wife] and I were walking around a park and it was just nice to be with people who weren't expecting something from me that I knew I couldn't give them. To just have general support and go, like I said, when Hugh and I had our first dinner, I was like, 'Oh, this is gonna be my friend. This isn't just a working relationship, this is somebody whose company that I adore.' So those moments kind of got me through the complexities and the real hardships of season one. And then after surviving something you go, like, 'Oh, I can survive.'

bonus:

Truthfully, in the chaos that we experienced and that Bryan was kind of in the frontline of, in retrospect it didn't compromise for me the ability to submerge ourselves in it. I honestly don't know why that should be, except for the fact that... he, and we all, felt that responsibility, right? Not even to anybody else, just to ourselves, right?" Fuller finished Dancy's thought for him: "As artists."

[letterboxd]

Bong Hit!

Today Parasite overtook The Godfather as the highest-rated narrative feature film on Letterboxd. We examine what this means, and bring you the story of the birth of the #BongHive.

It’s Bong Joon-ho’s world and we’re just basement-dwelling in it. While there is still (at time of publication) just one one-thousandth of a point separating them, Bong’s Palme d’Or-winning Parasite has overtaken Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning The Godfather to become our highest-rated narrative feature.

In May, we pegged Parasite at number one in our round-up of the top ten Cannes premieres. By September, when we met up with Director Bong on the TIFF red carpet, Parasite was not only the highest-rated film of 2019, but of the decade. (“I’m very happy with that!” he told us.)

Look, art isn’t a competition—and this may be short-lived—but it’s as good a time as any to take stock of why Bong’s wild tale of the Kim and Park families is hitting so hard with film lovers worldwide. To do so, we’ve waded through your Parasite reviews (warning: mild spoilers below; further spoilers if you click the review links). And further below, member Ella Kemp recalls the very beginnings of the #BongHive.

Bong Joon-ho on set with actors Choi Woo-shik and Cho Yeo-jeong.

The Letterboxd community on Parasite

On the filmmaking technique: “Parasite is structured like a hill: the first act is an incredible trek upward toward the light, toward riches, toward reclaiming a sense of humanity as defined by financial stability and self-reliance. There is joy, there is quirk, there is enough air to breathe to allow for laughter and mischief.

“But every hill must go down, and Parasite is an incredibly balanced, plotted, and paced descent downward into darkness. The horror doesn’t rely on shock value, but rather is built upon a slow-burning dread that is rooted in the tainted soil of class, society, and duty… Bong Joon-ho dresses this disease up in beautiful sets and empathetic framing (the camera doesn’t gawk, but perceives invisible connections and overt inequalities)—only to unravel it with deft hands.” —Tay

“Bong’s use of landscape, architecture, and space is simply arresting.” —Taylor Baker

“There is a clear and forceful guiding purpose behind the camera, and it shows. The dialogue is incredibly smart and the entire ensemble is brilliant, but the most beautiful work is perhaps done through visual language. Every single frame tells you exactly what you need to know while pulling you in to look for more—the stunning production design behind the sleek, clinical nature of one home and the cramped, gritty nature of the other sets up a playpen of contrasts for the actors and the script.” —Kevin Yang

On how to classify Parasite: “Masterfully constructed and thoroughly compelling genre piece (effortlessly transitioning between familial drama, heist movie, satirical farce, subterranean horror) about the perverse and mutating symbiotic relationship of increasingly unequal, transactional class relationships, and who can and can’t afford to be oblivious about the severe, violent material/psychic toll of capitalist accumulation.” —Josh Lewis

“This is an excellent argument for the inherent weakness of genre categories. Seriously, what genre is this movie? It’s all of them and none of them. It’s just Parasite.” —Nick Wibert

“The director refers to his furious and fiendishly well-crafted new film as a ‘family tragicomedy’, but the best thing about Parasite is that it gives us permission to stop trying to sort his movies into any sort of pre-existing taxonomy—with Parasite, Bong finally becomes a genre unto himself.” —David Ehrlich

On the duality of the plot: “There are houses on hills, and houses underground. There is plenty of sun, but it isn't for everybody. There are people grateful to be slaves, and people unhappy to be served. There are systems that we are born into, and they create these lines that cannot be crossed. And we all dream of something better, but we’ve been living with these lines for so long that we've convinced ourselves that there really isn’t anything to be done.” —Philbert Dy

“The Parks are bafflingly naive and blissfully ignorant of the fact that their success and wealth is built off the backs of the invisible working class. This obliviousness and bewilderment to social and class inequities somehow make the Parks even more despicable than if they were to be pompous and arrogant about their privilege.

“This is not to say the Kims are made to be saints by virtue of the Parks’ ignorance. The Kims are relentless and conniving as they assimilate into the Park family, leeching off their wealth and privilege. But even as the Kims become increasingly convincing in their respective roles, the film questions whether they can truly fit within this higher class.” —Ethan

On how the film leaps geographical barriers: “As a satire on social climbing and the aloofness of the upper class, it’s dead-on and has parallels to the American Dream that American viewers are unlikely to miss; as a dark comedy, it’s often laugh-aloud hilarious in its audacity; as a thriller, it has brilliantly executed moments of tension and surprises that genuinely caught me off guard; and as a drama about family dynamics, it has tender moments that stand out all the more because of how they’re juxtaposed with so much cynicism elsewhere in the film. Handling so many different tones is an immensely difficult balancing act, yet Bong handles all of it so skilfully that he makes it feel effortless.” —C. Roll

“One of the best things about it, I think, is the fact that I could honestly recommend it to anyone, even though I can't even try to describe it to someone. One may think, due to the picture’s academic praise and the general public’s misconceptions about foreign cinema, that this is some slow, artsy film for snobby cinephiles, but it’s quite the contrary: it’s entertaining, engaging and accessible from start to finish.” —Pedro Machado

On the performative nature of image: “A família pobre que se infiltra no espaço da família rica trata a encenação—a dissimulação, os novos papéis que cada um desempenha—como uma espécie de luta de classes travada no palco das aparências. Uma luta de classes que usa a potência da imagem e do drama (os personagens escrevem os seus textos e mudam a sua aparência para passar por outras pessoas) como uma forma de reapropriação da propriedade e dos valores alheios.

“A grande proposta de Parasite é reconhecer que a ideia do conhecimento, consequentemente a natureza financeira e moral desse conhecimento, não passa de uma questão de performance. No capitalismo imediatista de hoje fingir saber é mais importante do que de fato saber.” —Arthur Tuoto

(Translation: “The poor family that infiltrates the rich family space treats the performance—the concealment, the new roles each plays—as a kind of class struggle waged on the stage of appearances. A class struggle that uses the power of image and drama (characters write their stories and change their appearance to pass for other people) as a form of reappropriation of the property and values ​​of others.

“Parasite’s great proposal is to recognize that the idea of ​​knowledge, therefore the financial and moral nature of that knowledge, is a matter of performance. In today’s immediate capitalism, pretending to know is more important than actually knowing.”)

Things you’re noticing on re-watches: “Min and Mr. Park are both seen as powerful figures deserving of respect, and the way they dismissively respond to an earnest question about whether they truly care for the people they’re supposed to tells us a lot about how powerful people think about not just the people below them, but everyone in their lives.” —Demi Adejuyigbe

“When I first saw the trailer and saw Song Kang-ho in a Native American headdress I was a little taken aback. But the execution of the ideas, that these rich people will siphon off of everything, whether it’s poor people or disenfranchised cultures all the way across the world just to make their son happy, without properly taking the time to understand that culture, is pretty brilliant. I noticed a lot more subtlety with that specific example this time around.” —London

“I only noticed it on the second viewing, but the film opens and closes on the same shot. Socks are drying on a rack hanging in the semi-basement by the window. The camera pans down to a hopeful Ki-Woo sitting on his bed… if the film shows anything, it might be that the ways we usually approach ‘solving’ poverty and ‘fixing’ the class struggle often just reinforce how things have been since the beginning.” —Houston

The birth of the #BongHive

London-based writer and Letterboxd member Ella Kemp attended Cannes for Culture Whisper, and was waiting in the Parasite queue with fellow writers Karen Han and Iana Murray when the hashtag #BongHive was born. Letterboxd editor Gemma Gracewood asked her to recall that day.

Take us back to the day that #BongHive sprang into life. Ella Kemp: I’m so glad you asked. Picture the scene: we were in the queue to watch the world premiere of Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite at Cannes. It was toward the end of the festival; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood had already screened…

Can you describe for our members what those film festival queues are like? The queues in Cannes are very precise, and very strict and categorized. When you’re attending the festival as press, there are a number of different tiers that you can be assigned—white tier, pink tier, blue tier or yellow tier—and that’s the queue you have to stay in. And depending on which tier you’re in, a certain number of tiers will get into the film before you, no matter how late they arrive. Now, yellow is the lowest tier and it is the tier I was in this year. But, you know, I didn’t get shut out of any films I tried to go into, so I don’t want to speak ill of being yellow!

So, spirits are still high in the yellow queue before going to see Parasite. I was with friends and colleagues Iana Murray [writer for GQ, i-D, Much Ado About Cinema, Little White Lies], Karen Han [New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The Atlantic] and Jake Cunningham [of the Curzon and Ghibliotheque podcasts] who were also very excited for the film. We queued quite early, because obviously if you’re at the start of a queue and only two yellow tier people get in, you want that to be you.

So we had some time to spare, and we’re all very ‘online’ people and the 45 minutes in that queue was no different. So we just started tweeting, as you do. We thought, ‘Oh we’re just gonna tweet some stuff and see if it catches on.’ It might not, but at least we could kill some time.

So we just started tweeting #BongHive. And not explaining it too much.

#BongHive

— karen han (@karenyhan)

May 21, 2019

Within the realms of stan culture, I would argue that hashtags are more applicable to actors and musicians. Ariana Grande has her army of fans and they have their own hashtag. Justin Bieber has his, One Direction, all of them. But we thought, ‘You know who needs one and doesn’t have one right now? Bong Joon-ho.’

And so, you know, we tweeted it a couple of times, but I think what mattered the most was that there was no context, there was no logic, but there was consistency and insistence. So we tweeted it two or three times, and then the film started and we thought right, let’s see if this pays off. Because it could have been disappointing and we could have not wanted to be part of, you know, any kind of hype.

SMILE PRESIDENT @karenyhan #BongHive pic.twitter.com/Dk7T8bFYtv

— Ella Kemp (@ella_kemp)

May 21, 2019

But, Parasite was Parasite. So we walked out of it and thought, ‘Oh yes, the #BongHive is alive and kicking.’

I think what was interesting was that it came at that point in the festival when enthusiasm dipped. Everyone was very tired, and we were really tired, which is why we were tweeting illogical things. It was late at night by the time we came out of that film. It was close to midnight and we should have gone to bed, probably.

Because, first world problems, it is exhausting watching five, six, seven films a day at a film festival, trying to find sustenance that’s not popcorn, and form logical thoughts around these works of art. Yes! It was nice to have fun with something. But what happened next was [Parasite distributor] Neon clocked it and went, ‘Oh wait, there’s something we can do there’. And then they took it, and it flew into the world, and now the #BongHive is worldwide.

I love the formality of Korean language and the way that South Koreans speak of their elders with such respect. I enjoyed being on the red carpet at TIFF hearing the Korean media refer to Bong Joon-ho as ‘Director Bong’. It’s what he deserves!

I like to imagine a world where it’s ‘Director Gerwig’, ‘Director Campion’, ‘Director Sciamma’… Exactly.

Related content:

Ella Kemp’s review of Parasite for Culture Whisper.

Letterboxd list: The directors Bong Joon-ho would like you to watch next.

Our interview with Director Bong, in which he reveals just how many times he’s watched Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

“I’m very awkward.” Bong Joon-ho’s first words following the standing ovation at Cannes for Parasite’s world premiere.

Karen Han interviews Director Bong for Polygon, with a particular interest in how he translated the film for non-Korean audiences. (Here’s Han’s original Parasite review out of Cannes; and here’s what happened when a translator asked her “Are you bong hive?” in front of the director.)

Haven’t seen Parasite yet? Here are the films recommended by Bong Joon-ho for you to watch in preparation.

With thanks to Matt Singer for the headline.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

“After the disappointment of the Andrew Garfield-led Amazing Spider-Man movies, everyone’s favorite wallcrawler has been having a renaissance. Entering the Marvel cinematic universe in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, the webslinger fully redeemed himself with well-crafted live-action film in Spider-Man: Homecoming.”

 Yes...okay...that was definitely what Homecoming was....

 “and a wildly successful spin-off film Venom, ”

 I mean financially successful sure...

 “In the midst of all his success, Spider-Man has quietly become one of the most inclusive and socially conscious superheroes of today.”

*raises eyebrow*

 Okay...go on...

 “Last week, it was announced that Spider-Man: Far From Home would feature two out transgender actors playing trans characters, the first big-budget superhero film to do so. Spider-Man: Homecoming also featured a queer character, as well as numerous people of color.”

  Wait who was the queer character in Homecoming?

 “It’s also worth mentioning that Spiderverse included a Jewish version of Peter Parker, who is typically portrayed as either secular or Christian.”

 ....ehhhhhhhhh....yes and no.

 In media adaptations barring maybe one (the 1994 show cos I do not remember where he got married) Spider-Man is portrayed as...I guess secular but really it’s more that they just don’t say anything.

 It’s not that the character is not a believer in a faith per se, especially if you go by older adaptations during times when hardly anyone was secular. It’s just that they, understandably, aren’t saying anything.

 In the comics Peter is some kind of Christian but probably a Protestant (unless you go by Amazing Grace where he is an atheist but that’s hot trash we don’t talk about) but we don’t really talk about it that specifically.

 We just know that he and his family celebrate Christmas and very, very occasionally Aunt May references going to church and that she, Peter and MJ believe in a monothetistic deity they refer to as ‘God’.

 And really apart from the Church thing there is no clue to Peter’s religion and Marvel probably (wisely) would rather keep it that way. He even got married in a civil ceremony!

 However in the SUBTEXT...he’s Jewish. And it’s basically an open secret that he is and always has been Jewish.

 “The Spider-Man video game also featured a wonderful easter egg for queer fans by having a giant rainbow flag, as well as several smaller ones, scattered around the game’s fictionalized New York City map. ”

 I mean that’s wonderful but I wouldn’t call that an Easter Egg so much as...it’s just what you’d find in modern NYC.

 “Even the Venom film got in on the fun, with fans shipping Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and the titular male alien-symbiote after the two kissed in the film. Sony even encouraged the pairing, releasing a romantic comedy-esque trailer for the film to promote the home release. While some complained of queer-baiting, most felt that it was all in good fun and included queer people in on the joke, instead of making us the target.”

 Again, good for them but I don’t think that was the movie actively trying to be positive towards queer people.

 Brock and Venom kissed when Venom was bonded to Brock’s ex-fiance and had a pronounced female form, being an adaptation of a character literally called She-Venom.

 And it was based upon a script written in the 1990s so really it was more the movie did it and then people took it as a thing that was shipping Venom and Brock (even though Venom is sexless). Brock and the symbiote have been shipped numerous times in the comics but the subtext has always been that the symbiote, if any sex, is female. In the Spec cartoon it is referred to as Symbi (a pun on Cyndi) and in the Spider-Girl comics it is marked out as female (granted this happens after it’s bonded to a woman).

 And again, headcanon away but like...that probably wasn’t intentional at all Sony were just being goofy or unintionally made something people took a certain way.

 “Indeed, even in the comics, Spider-Man has always been a fairly inclusive hero. Miles Morales was introduced in the early-2000s, taking over the mantel from Peter Parker for several years. ”

 Okay, this is so weird for me to be correcting such a praising point but lets really look at this.

 First of all Miles didn’t take over Peter’s role for several years he did it permanently.

 Second of all Miles is from 2011 so that’s not the early 2000s, that’s the early 2010s, but okay maybe that was a typo.

 Third of all, is it really all that logical to say this franchise that began in 1962 has always been fairly inclusive and then cite a character from 2011 as proof of this? Wouldn’t examples from during the FIRST quarter century have been more apt?

 Fourth of all...eh. Has Spider-Man been fairly inclusive from the start? Yes, no, its complicated.

 Look there were exactly 0 LGBTQ+ characters in Spider-Man until maybe the 1990s and even then I couldn’t off my head tell you who they were. Felicia Hardy is bisexual but we didn’t find out until the 2000s and it was most prominent in an AU. Really the most significant LGBTQ+ character who’s had the fact that they are queer be more than a one off reference was Max Modell and he debuted 2011 and IIRC wasn’t established as queer until 2012. In defence of Spider-Man the Comics Code literally FORBID any character be anything other than straight until the 1990s and even then it was relatively rare, even in X-Men which you’d think it wouldn’t be.

 If we’re talking POC again this one is a bit complicated Glori Grant, Joe Robertson, Randy Robertson are frequently appearing POC characters but not in every run and they aren’t usually as prominent as like Jameson, Aunt May, Harry Osborn, MJ, etc. Characters of other ethnicities are even less frequent and I don’t even know what we should make of Puma/Thomas Fireheart. I mean A for effort, they wanted a Native American character who wasn’t really a villain and wasn’t exactly a sterotype so there is that I guess.

 Again though...most other Marvel franchises decade by decade weren’t much better with this and we should give credit where credit is due to the same guy who created Black Panther writing a nuanced scene where 2 black people in the 60s separated by age discuss different approaches to civil rights with neither being proven right or wrong.

 When it comes to disabled people, outside of evil insane villains, forget it, there is nothing before Flash Thompson in 2008 unless you count Aunt May’s chronically poor health.

 “Spider-Gwen quickly became one of the highest-selling female superhero comics. Spider-Woman was a prominently featured bisexual character, and the female Asian-American hero Silk also had LGBT supporting characters, Rafferty and Lola, who were in a healthy relationship. Additionally, many view vampire villain Morbius, who is getting a spin-off film starring Jared Leto next year, as a metaphor for those suffering during the HIV crisis of the '80s. ”

 Again...Spider-Gwen and Silk are 2010s characters so that’s not ‘always fairly inclusive’.

 I don’t even know if Jessica Drew is bisexual, I’ve never heard that but I don’t think she is.

 Morbius as a metaphor for HIV...MIGHT be true if we are specifically talking about his 1990s solo-book which I’ve never read. But the character as originally created 100% was never about that because he was created in the 1970s before HIV was known about.

 “Unlike his Marvel counterparts Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, Spider-Man’s world has accurately reflected real world diversity for years.”

 ....Not really.

 I’m not even saying Spidey maybe haven’t been comparatively better at it than those guys but he’s deffo not been accurate.

 Plus to be fair to the other guys, Captain America and Iron Man have had at least one major black supporting cast member and in Cap’s case he was fairly candid about social strife and issues.

 And with Thor it’s not that fair to throw shade at him for not reflecting the real world given that 90% of this characters and stories are literally pulled from fantasy and myth. I don’t even know if there are any queer figures in Norse myth let alone poc.

 “While it’s a seemingly simple idea that any of us can be a superhero, it’s sadly still a radical concept in a endlessly growing film genre that has predominetly centers straight cisgender white men. ”

 Well that’s mostly because the comics the movies adapt are about those types of people.

 “That is because relatability and inclusion has always been core to Spider-Man’s appeal and message. It’s why the late Stan Lee decided that, unlike other superheroes who expose parts of their faces, Spider-Man had to wear a full-face mask.”

  Stan Lee only speculated that that was part of Spider-Man’s appeal, he never had any input on that design choice it was all Steve Ditko...who frankly was unlikely to have been thinking about that...

 “Even further, Spider-Man isn’t the king of a country, a billionaire, a woman out of a Greek myth, or a brilliant scientist. He’s just an average high-school kid from Brooklyn who always strives to do the right thing even while struggling to balance his everyday life and hiding a secret identity.”

 WHOA there buddy...Spider-Man isn’t routinely ‘a kid’ nor is he from Brooklyn.

 MILES is from Brooklyn but Peter, as evidenced by that great big caption in Captain America: Civil War, is from QUEENS.

 “And it’s the idea of balancing a secret identity with everyday life that has always allowed Spider-Man to connect with queer audiences long before comic writers were allowed to explicitly include LGBT characters.”

 ...I’m not denying this necesarrilly but whilst i’ve heard stories from poc who connected with Spider-Man I’ve never heard this about LGBTQ+ fans of Spider-Man.

“Indeed, perhaps the strongest part of Spider-Man’s inclusivity is the subtlety to which it has been done. While Black Panther, Black Lightning, and Wonder Woman rightly put issues of identity front and center, Spider-Man’s quiet diversity allows audiences who typically cry “SJWs are ruining my favorite characters” to actually see diversity showcased without it being overt.”

 Errrrrrr...sure....*represses memories of when Miles Morales was first announced*

 Lets um...wait and see what happens when those trans characters show up in the movie this year okay.

[junker-town]

The 25 biggest game-day bangers of the decade, ranked

We asked 27 arena and stadium DJs around the country which songs defined the decade.

When you reflect on your favorite sports moments of the decade, your first thought probably isn’t about what song was playing when they happened. After all, “jock jams” (which are a specific ESPN-branded thing, and thus not a wholly effective universal term) are corny and dated, right?

Obviously the answer to that question is subjective, but there are plenty of DJs working overtime to try to get you pumped AND jacked — whether you’re a fan or an athlete yourself. SB Nation polled 27 of them from universities and clubs around the country to try to get a sense of which tracks released from 2010-19 were making the biggest impact in arenas and stadiums. Not the best songs, mind you, but the ones they played the most often.

Some of them were unimpressed by the options. “We have played all these songs a lot of times in the past, but we rarely play any of these in ATL now (they’re all old),” wrote legendary Hawks organist and DJ Sir Foster. “Now we play ‘Hot’ by Young Thug.” It’s tricky for anyone trying to chronicle the genre to pin down one set of criteria for a jock jam: some are upbeat and danceable, or well suited for kids of all ages (think “Jump Around”), and then some that are aggressive and intense and make you want to run headfirst into a brick wall. Plus, there’s just about everything in between — as hip-hop has gotten more laidback, so have the songs deemed pump-up worthy by players and fans. How can you separate the trends from the songs that will still be played in 20 years?

The DJs gave their takes, and with some editorializing (the list does not exactly reflect the poll results, but overall it tracks and aberrations are noted) SB Nation has narrowed down the field to 25 essentials.

25. “Timber” by Pitbull featuring Ke$ha (2013)

Pitbull singing about do-si-dos is an admittedly odd formula for a pop song, but it worked — and teams latched on to the upbeat pace and promises that lay in “It’s going down” (“it” being, probably, a victory).

24. “Big Rings” by Drake and Future (2015)

What A Time To Be Alive, the messy, bombastic joint mixtape that Drake and Future released in 2015, was essentially designed as a sports soundtrack. It’s not making a dent on any critics’ end-of-decade lists, but the message — “I got a really big team, they need some really big rings” — endures, as does the hard-edged, shimmering beat, perfectly suited for highlight reels of more literal ring-chasers.

23. “Hard In Da Paint” by Waka Flocka Flame (2010)

It might seem overly literal, but just listen to the first 30 seconds of “Hard In Da Paint” and try to do anything but go ... well, hard in the paint. Lex Luger has a doctorate in turning orchestral might into unfriendly, relentless and yet entirely undeniable beats; Flocka balances the impulse to yell over the beat’s perfect chaos with swaggy nonchalance. Who would ever want to hear anything else as they walk on the court?

22. “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” by Silentó (2015)

The viral dance craze was an integral part of arena and stadium soundtracks in the 2010s, and Silentó created something of the viral dance crazy with “Watch Me” — simultaneously, he created fodder for in-game fan participation for years to come. (I am intentionally ignoring Katy Perry’s “Swish Swish” in hopes that it goes away.)

21. “Work (Remix)” by A$AP Ferg (2013)

This is the rare tune that is as serviceable as a turn-up anthem as it is a pregame pump-up jam (or fodder for postgame celebration). Its central theme — the titular “work” — is obviously relevant to sports, especially when delivered in Ferg’s trademark growl. But it’s more about getting hyped up in the grand scheme than keeping one’s nose to the grindstone, the perfect reminder to athletes that this is supposed to be fun. Plus they’re playing basketball in the video ...

20. “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake (2016)/”Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (2014)

Both of these songs exist in the jock jams twilight zone: they’re upbeat and inoffensive enough to get regular spins inside arenas and stadiums, but don’t exactly convey beatdown-level intensity or walking-out-to-the-hardwood swagger. Also, they are functionally the same (and not particularly memorable as a result).

19. “We Dem Boyz” by Wiz Khalifa (2014)

“I like ‘We Dem Boyz’ as the first single because of the energy,” Khalifa told Billboard in 2014. “It reaches so many audiences other than just a rap audience. It’s kind of like how ‘Black and Yellow’ was — a big sports song to get everybody riled. It’s more of an anthem.” “Black and Yellow,” of course, is the Pittsburgh native’s Steelers-themed hit; with “Dem Boyz,” Khalifa found a team-agnostic expression of the same sentiment. “Hold up, we dem boyz/hold up, we makin’ noise” — if you read “boyz” as not being gender-specific (it is 2019 after all), it’s about as universal a sports fan sentiment as exists.

18. “Jumpman” by Drake and Future (2015)

Essentially a lesser “March Madness” knock-off, the undeniably sporty WATTBA track nevertheless endures in arenas and basketball mixtapes everywhere.

17. “March Madness” by Future (2015)

Built atop one of the single best beats of the decade, “March Madness” doesn’t really feel like a typical jock jam — but that’s what makes it so special. The practically baroque combination of strings and keyboards is propulsive and fresh, and Future drops the requisite sports references to pay off the title (“We’re ballin’ like March Madness”/“Livin’ lavish, like I’m playing for the Mavericks”). “On behalf of the Dallas Mavericks, I would just like to thank Future so much for the mention in ‘March Madness,’” says the Mavericks’ DJ Poison Ivy. “I know not too many things rhyme with Mavericks!”

16. “Let’s Go” by Calvin Harris featuring Ne-Yo (2012)

“Let’s go, make no excuses now” — OK, we get it, this song was built to be played on the treadmill. Amongst the pinnacles of the EDM-fueled pregame pump-up genre, “Let’s Go” is aggressively generic in ways that are pitch-perfect for the purposes of sports and exercising. As such, it still gets played a lot — after all, who among us can resist a good drop?

15. “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton (2011)

Do I want this to be on the list? Not particularly. But the DJs have spoken (12 of them) and so I begrudgingly acknowledge Macklemore’s early-decade pop-rap dominance. People still play this song frequently, and though I understand why in theory, I still can’t in good conscience support it. Are we sure we can’t listen to Waka Flocka instead?

14. “Going Bad” by Meek Mill featuring Drake (2018)

I mean, the album is called Championships — though in Meek’s case, it was more about his long-overdue release from prison than a title (even though the Eagles had chosen his music as their official soundtrack en route to winning the Super Bowl). There’s a bit of recency bias with this one, but the irresistible beat and (again) requisite sports references (shout out to Seattle’s own Jason Terry) make it seem like it will last in arenas even once the sheen wears off. “There was a Lakers game the day or two after Meek Mill released the Championships album, and it was such a moment that I played at least three songs from the album during warmups,” says the Lakers’ DJ Roueche. “‘Going Bad’ is still, and probably always will be, in heavy rotation in my DJ sets.”

13. “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock (2011)

Any song that features someone named GoonRock demands a certain degree of respect, just for its sheer audacity. In this case, Mr. Rock helped produce one of the most enduring artifacts of the EDM era — a song that only those with truly blackened hearts would profess not to find at least a little tiny bit festive. It’s a “Sandstorm” for the next generation, absurd and corny and yet extremely hard to ignore.

12. “Mo Bamba” by Sheck Wes (2017)

A song about a top-tier — but not ubiquitous — NBA Draft pick that is more than a little rough around the edges might not be the most obvious choice for one of the decade’s top jock jams. But the doomy track has become a cathartic favorite in locker rooms and on fields alike — its mosh-pit vibes make it good for celebratory thrashing. “I’ll never forget the first time I played ‘Mo Bamba’ at a Steelers game,” says DJ Digital Dave, who DJs for the Steelers as well as Pitt football and basketball games. “I approached my producer the week before the 2018 Patriots game and said ‘I know this song will probably sound awful to you but it’s huge right now.’ He gave me the green light, and we played it as our defense walked onto the field to shut down Tom Brady’s final drive of the game. The stadium just erupted.”

11. “HUMBLE.” by Kendrick Lamar (2017)

Being humble is a classic sports cliche — demanding the same of your opponents, not so much. But that’s one of the reasons this variation on a classic theme works, as is its 2K-ready beat. Kendrick doesn’t really do arena-sized as a rule, so it seems like sports DJs tend to grade his music on a curve as far as its in-game usefulness given his massive popularity.

10. “Levels” by Avicii (2011)

When you have one song to get an entire stadium on its feet, it’s hard to to imagine a better pick than “Levels.” Arguably the biggest hits of the EDM era, it’s straightforward and to the point: move your person. Handclaps, synths, an Etta James sample and (obviously) a litany of drops make it perfect for pushing people to the next level (get it!?) of playing or cheering or celebrating or whatever it is they’re doing. “The EDM bubble of the early to mid 2010’s was the closest thing to commercial Jocks Jams in the past 20 years,” says Andrew Rivas, DJ for the San Jose Sharks. “‘Levels’ is this decade’s ‘Get Ready For This.’” RIP Tim Bergling.

9. “All The Way Up” by Fat Joe and Remy Ma featuring French Montana and InfaRed (2016)

The Remy Ma freedom tour was a great moment for popular rap, mostly thanks to this track — the ultimate soundtrack to any dunk. New York is back baby! (Kidding, kidding ...) Centering a slick sax hook and an easily sung hook, the song was more or less money in the bank.

8. “Win” by Jay Rock (2018)

This is the rare jock jam that should get played more than it is: aesthetically, the prepares-you-to-run-through-a-wall quotient is through the roof (pun intended), and thematically it’s centered on winning which is ... fairly central to sports. Whether you’re struggling to get off your couch or getting ready for the game of your life, this song feels pitch-perfect.

7. “Boneless” by Steve Aoki, Chris Lake and Tujamo (2013)

Not the kind of song you’ve probably sought out for casual listening, but perhaps one that makes it onto your gym playlist if you’re very hardcore. It has become an in-game go-to, though, with its pump-it-up ready synth riff and background “hey-hey-heys” well-suited to getting the people going, to paraphrase Blades Of Glory. (Oh, hey, sports again!) It’s also relatively big in gymnastics, apparently:

6. “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott featuring Drake (2018)

Here is where the “rap that people like” and “jock jam” categories truly get blurred: “SICKO MODE” was mostly just a massive song, without many specific characteristics that make it uniquely suited to soundtracking sporting events. BUT it was one of the most popular tracks among our DJs, and is more or less inescapable among athletes — so who’s to say taking half the recommended dose of a prescription medication isn’t motivational? Also there’s the pick and roll line, and the Liz Cambage reference (!)...

5. “Dreams & Nightmares (Intro)” by Meek Mill (2012)

Calling an audible on this one: it was not among the top picks by our DJs (a paltry six votes), but there is no way to listen to this song without feeling ready to hit something or run really fast or just yell. Not since the “Rocky” theme has Philly spawned such a transcendent us-against-the-world anthem — and better yet, the song itself is an underdog. It wasn’t a single, and it doesn’t sound like one. But the number of people — Meek Mill fans and otherwise — who know every word to the emotional, vivid, often tragic song speaks to its impact. “I had to grind like that to shine like this” is the ethos of just about every athlete from high school to the pros (much like “It was time to marry the game and I said, “Yeah, I do”). Then, the beat drops — it’s Meek in all his yelling glory, personally goading you to get on his level.

It’s no wonder that the Eagles adopted it as their own during their Super Bowl run, as have athletes of all stripes. “Meek Mill’s ‘Dreams & Nightmares’ will always remind me of the Mystics’ championship run,” says DJ Heat, who spins for the Mystics and the Wizards. “Natasha Cloud wanted to hear it every game. There were times where she sent one of the ball girls up to me to let me know to play it while the team was warming up — and of course I played it while the team was celebrating their championship win on the court.”

4. “POWER” by Kanye West (2012)

It’s become increasingly easy to forget that there was a point at which Kanye had hits — but he did, obviously, and “POWER” is is one product of what might in retrospect be seen as his zenith (though I’m a Yeezus girl myself — “Black Skinhead,” or at least the beat, is also still in heavy rotation). There’s something about leaving a little space at the beginning of a song that just builds anticipation — who has ever heard more than the first 30 seconds of “Crazy Train” at a sporting event? — and the intro to “POWER” follows this rule to a T. After the first 30 seconds it loses much of its heft, but does that even matter when you start that strong?

3. “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars (2016)

This falls into the “family-friendly dance music” category of in-game songs. Is it getting anyone particularly pumped? Probably not, but it’s also not not getting them pumped. If anything, the endurance of this particular track on in-game playlists (it got the highest number of votes) speaks to its overall impact — you’re as likely to hear it at a wedding, which can’t necessarily be said for most of the songs on this list. Also trophies and rings are often gold, so that is something!

2. “All I Do Is Win” - DJ Khaled featuring T-Pain, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg and Rick Ross (2010)

Did you just win? Better yet, is your team undefeated? More trivially, did your team just win a challenge? Boom, DJ Khaled has a song for you. What for some of us might be indelibly linked to tragic college parties has become a stadium staple for obvious reasons: who among us does not want to exclusively win? It’s a holdover from the gaudy, gloriously Autotuned rap of the late aughts and early 2010s, built for sports primarily by T-Pain and his remarkable gift for hooks. There’s prompts for audience participation, Snoop repping the U — basically if Shakira and J.Lo don’t bring the whole crew out for halftime, it will be a serious lost opportunity to rep Florida.

1. “Turn Down For What” by DJ Snake and Lil Jon (2013)

It’s the pinnacle of pump-up music in the 2010s: EDM and party rap, combined. You just cannot listen to this song without losing your mind — it’s science. The build, the Lil Jon, the drops. So many drops. Mechanized handclaps, distorted hooks, the “ays,” and still more drops. Under “getting hype” in the dictionary (work with me here), there’s a copy of this song. I’m sure that the New York Seahawks bar is one of about five zillion places that played this song after every touchdown, and somehow the impact of all those drops never dulled. Look at how excited these figure skating fans are. “‘Turn Down For What’ is so perfect for arena use that it’s almost too easy,” says Grubes, DJ for the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers. “When deployed at the proper moment (typically after a scoring run that puts the game away), it has never failed to get everyone going nuts!”

Editor’s pick:

“Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)” by Rich Homie Quan

Flexing is a thing athletes do, this song is great, and as a bonus I heard it once at Seahawks training camp right before I interviewed Christine Michael — it was a very special moment.

Many thanks to all the DJs who participated:

Andrew Rivas (@andrewrivasdj): San Jose Sharks, US Open, Santa Cruz Warriors, San Jose Barracuda

Ben Bruud (@benbruud): Auburn University football and basketball

DJ Cmix (@DJCmix_): LSU

DJ Digital Dave (@djdigitaldave1): Pittsburgh Steelers, Pitt Panthers football and basketball

DJ Dior (@_djdior): George Washington University basketball (men’s and women’s)

DJ EJ (@itsDJEJ): Dallas Cowboys, among others

DJ Flipside (djflipside33): Chicago Bulls

DJ Heat (@djheatdc): Washington Mystics and Washington Wizards

DJ Hek Yeh (@DJHekYeh): Wake Forest University football and basketball

DJ Kay Cali (@DJKayCali): Austin Spurs

DJ Mad Mardigan (@DJMadMardigan): Timberwolves, Lynx, Vikings, United, Gophers

DJ Mel (@djmel): University of Texas football and men’s basketball

DJ Poizon Ivy (@poizonivythedj): Dallas Mavericks

DJ Premonition (Djpremonition): Washington Redskins

DJ Questionmark (Djquestionmark1): University of North Texas Athletics

DJ Roueche (DJRoueche): Los Angeles Lakers and AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour

DJ SupaSam (@djsupasam): Seattle Seahawks, UW Huskies football

DJ Triple T (@theDJtripleT): Denver Broncos and Colorado Avalanche

DJ Yoshi (djyoshi): B1G Ten Football

DJ Zimbo (@zimbothedj): Colorado State University, Air Force Academy, University of Wyoming athletics

DJay Jung (@_djayjung_): Brooklyn Nets

DJSC (@DJSCMUSIC): Dallas Cowboys and Pro Football Hall of Fame

DJ Dudley D (@nomusicnoparty): Minnesota Timberwolves, Lynx, Gophers men’s basketball, and United FC

GLOtron (@theglotron): Mississippi State men’s and women’s basketball

Grubes (@tweetgrubes): Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers

PJ Krolak (DJPJ) (@pjkrolak5): Toledo Mud Hens, Toledo Walleye, University of Toledo

Sir Foster (@sirfoster): Atlanta Hawks and Georgia Bulldogs