Music and Skateboarding go hand in hand. With the latest sad and shocking news of David Bowies passing I came to a realization that my memories of his music would give me flashbacks of the legendary skate video parts of past. He did more for skateboarding than he ever probably knew. For many skaters a video part is an introduction not only to skateboarders new footage but to an artist or musician as well. Bowie had so many songs in skateboarding videos and we as a skate community extend our thank you to him above for the great tunes. There is a long list of musicians that have brought our favorite skateboarders video parts to life but here are a few impactful recurring bands that have been awesome enough to lend their tunes to our pastime.
1. BUILT TO SPILL
This band is a perfect example of skateboarding introducing you to music. There was a period of time when Built to Spill lent their shoe gaze beautifully guitar driven tracks to skateboarding videos left and right. It went so perfect with video parts and instantly added an emotional feel to the part almost giving it another life. Stand outs to watch would be two Transworld classic video parts.
2. PLACEBO
I swear the first time I heard “Every You and Every me” in Mark Appleyards part in the Flip video it was embedded in my head. Even days after the part was over I kept humming it. It went so perfect with his video part. This was also one of the first times I saw the same song from a band get used twice. Their song “Bitter End” was used in both Mark Guttermans part in the 88 footwear video “Destroy Everything Now” and in Daryl Angels part in the Think skateboards video “iThink”.
3. PINBACK
The guys at Pinkback have always been awesome enough to share their music as the soundtrack of some awesome skateboard shredding! From montages to full video parts Finback has always added an authentic feel to any video part it was bestowed upon. In fact everyone I know of that has heard of Pinback references them to a skateboarding video. Which goes to show that if your an artist you should take note and lend your music to skateboarding because you will be guaranteed a ton of new fanbase that is just waiting to share your music to their friends and one of the most youthful and impactful markets in the world. After all look at how many corporate companies try to emulate what we as skateboarders to authentically. We bleed authentic and real!
4. J. MASCIS AND THE FOG / DINOSAUR JR.
J. Mascis not only provides music for skateboarding videos but he personally actually skates and has even had guest board models with different brands. He goes pretty far back into skateboarding history itself. His riffs cry out of the screen and bring you into the action. They make me want to take a guitar lesson Sometimes I envision him purposely making songs knowing they will be used in a skateboarding video. Here are a few classics.
There are so many more bands out there and musicians that have lent their music to skateboarding almost to many to list honestly. What are some of your favorites? What bands did you specifically get into because of skateboarding? I leave it to you to make your own lists. Cheers my skateboarding brothers and sisters!