Threadlines: FIFA's Innovative, Culture-Defining Music

FIFA Soundtracks

One of the most recognizable brands in the world is the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, which is French for "International Association Football Federation" - or as you probably know it, FIFA. This organization is the governing body for international soccer (football), as well as beach soccer and futsal, and is the primary organizer and overseer of the top-level international competition of the Beautiful Game.

Most notably, FIFA hosts The World Cup - the biggest and most widely viewed single sporting event in the world. The most recent World Cup in 2022 was estimated to be viewed by 5 billion people, more than half of the entire global population.

On top of this, FIFA is also the namesake of the massive soccer video game, the titular FIFA series, a football simulation video game series, published by EA Sports. FIFA video games held the same worldwide success and appeal as the World Cup, with it being listed by Guinness World Records as the best-selling sports video game franchise in the world, selling over 325 million copies as of 2021.

It's worth mentioning that as of 2023 FIFA has ended their partnership with this video game, and going forward, these games will not have the FIFA branding, instead being titled EA Sports FC 24, to carry the namesake of their publisher.
I'm just going to refer to it as the FIFA series, both for ease of writing and to eliminate any confusion when referring to past games.

Whatever the case, through the World Cup and the FIFA video game series, FIFA has become one of the biggest brands in the world. Today, I want to talk about one of the most underappreciated and unlikely reasons for FIFA's success - their focus on creating exciting and innovative video game soundtracks that have transformed from being a mere soundtrack to being a living, independent part of broader music culture.

Early FIFA Games

Starting with the first FIFA game in 1993, FIFA International Soccer was pretty bare-bones. The game had only international teams, no club teams, and had some well-publicized bugs in how the game's goalkeepers worked.

Also, all players in the game were given fake names due to not having the license to use real players' names. Amusingly, some of the game's developers took this chance to put their names in the game for some of the players. That's why you see Tim Ansell playing for England and Joe Della-Savia¹ playing for Italy.

Finally, FIFA International Soccer also didn't feature a soundtrack, instead relying solely on sound effects.

With all this said, the game was still revolutionary for its decision to put the player at an isometric viewpoint² and was one of the first soccer games to incorporate fully-fledged modes like a league simulation. Due to this, the game was a commercial and critical success and spurred both EA Sports and FIFA to create more games.

Importantly, FIFA was so happy with the game they granted EA Sports a full license to their players and teams, meaning future games could actually use real names. I imagine some of the developers were sad to see their own names not be included in the next editions, but I'm sure they understood.

FIFA Gets a Soundtrack

Jumping forward a few years, the 1998 version of FIFA was released, titled Road to World Cup 98. This game was the first in the series to include a soundtrack created by external artists. Headlined by Blur's soon-to-be massive hit, Song 2, the soundtrack featured 6 songs, split across 3 artists that made up the backing music for FIFA 98.

This music quickly became a central part of the game's success. Hugh Morris writes, "The history of FIFA’s soundtrack is a study in ambiance turned active. Twenty-three years since... FIFA: Road to World Cup 1998, the background music that accompanies the in-game menus has slowly blossomed into one of the title’s key selling points."

The music of FIFA became such a big deal because… when you imagine playing a soccer video game, you're probably imagining controlling a team of players actively playing a soccer game against another team.
As you play, the main thing you're probably imagining yourself hearing are the noises of the virtual stadium, the roars of the game's crowd, and the sound effects of the players kicking a ball, yelling at each other, and so on.

None of this is off-base - that's all part of the key gameplay of the FIFA series - the gameplay is meant to mimic a real soccer game, noises and all. However, it's not the primary way that FIFA players spend their time playing the game.

Instead, FIFA players found themselves spending lots of time in menus, whether it was looking at player stats and attributes, switching game modes, choosing the team they wanted to play with, or just pausing the game.

While they aren't flashy and they're easy to gloss over, these in-between spaces make up a majority of the time that players spend interacting with the soccer game. We remember the goals and gameplay, but we actually spend our time navigating between game menus to get ourselves to be able to play.

Luke Saward explains in a piece published by ScreenRant, "FIFA players spend a huge proportion of their time in the menus, whether that’s succumbing to Ultimate Team’s microtransactions, fiddling about with player instructions in Kick-Off mode, or haggling for Cambridge United’s latest recruit as they’re guided to Champions League glory in Career Mode."

With that said, a captivating soundtrack to accompany players' time spent in-game menus made every minute spent smoother and more exciting and became an integral part of the FIFA gaming experience.

Then, as players heard some of these songs over and over, they began to develop an appreciation for the upbeat, rhythmic songs chosen for the game's soundtrack.
Soon enough, you had hordes of FIFA players who were enjoying the game's music, seeking out those songs to listen to in real life, and even spending more time playing FIFA just to hear their new favorite songs play.

EA Sports thankfully quickly understood that the game's music was a big deal following the success of FIFA 98, and by FIFA 2000, just two games later, the backing music included songs from recognizable artists such as Robbie Williams and Reel Big Fish.

By FIFA 2006, the soundtrack had ballooned to 39 songs, with a mix of big names and newer, indie artists.

The FIFA Soundtrack Stands Alone

Since then, the FIFA video games have only focused more and more on their music, with most recent games' soundtracks breaking 100 songs and being widely anticipated with millions of gamers relying on the tracklist to provide them hours of music to listen to and enjoy.

The announcement of the FIFA 22 tracklist came with this bold declaration:

"For 20+ years, the FIFA soundtrack has acted as a cultural mirror, elevating the game for millions of our players." Moreover, they describe the soundtrack as "a soundtrack with a soul.
Designed to trigger emotion through a fearless blend of genres. It breaks ground every year and drives worldwide culture... it is a collective energy that ignites the year to come...
Fans know it too, as every annual soundtrack is as anticipated as the game release itself. It has an immediate impact on the world around them. If music is a feeling, then FIFA is our one true globally shared celebration. At its very best it can be life-changing."

The FIFA track list has clearly evolved far past mere backing music for a video game. Gamers and non-gamers alike love the music chosen for the games, and it has become an international event. As North Edinburg News puts it, "with every new game comes a new, almost equally anticipated, soundtrack."

And how could these lists not be anticipated? With songs like Heat Waves by Glass Animals, Love Me Again by John Newman, and The Nights by Avicii, FIFA soundtracks are a fantastic listen.

Listeners around the world can count on a new list each year packed with energetic tunes, high-quality songs, and a diverse set of artists.

The FIFA Soundtrack Gains a Voice

Moreover, the FIFA soundtrack has developed a voice of its own, standing alone as more than just backing music for the game, and becoming its own sub-genre, known as ‘FIFA Songs.’

FIFA songs are identified by being rhythmic, dancey, upbeat, and groovy. The songs span traditional genres across EDM, grime, pop, alternative, rock, and much more. Hugh Morris writes, "But despite the wide-ranging mix of styles, the game’s fans have turned it into a subgenre of itself, known simply as ​‘FIFA Songs’."

If you search Spotify or Apple Music for 'FIFA Songs' you're going to find hundreds of playlists that listeners have curated simply because they love how these songs sound.³

These playlists are on the face, pretty eclectic, with rap and rock occupying spots right next to each other on the list, but if you listen further you'll start to hear the similarities between the songs. These subtle similarities are what make up this niche subgenre.

An International Soundtrack

On top of all this acclaim, the yearly FIFA playlist becoming a full-fledged force in the music industry. The FIFA soundtrack has developed into being a major driver of getting new artists recognized and has helped launch the careers of many aspiring musicians.

Consider the story of Deptford jazz collective, Steam Down, whose song Etcetera appeared in FIFA. The group's founder Ahnansé recalls “We played Green Man earlier this year, and there were some really young kids with their parents, like ten years old or whatever... They were like​ ‘Yeah, we really love your song from FIFA’, they wanted to take pictures of us and all." Etcetera was the first of Steam Down's tracks to hit a million Spotify streams.

This is by design.

The FIFA music team curates a list of songs that is comprised of some hits from superstar artists but also lots and lots of new faces.

Cybele Pettus, Senior Music Supervisor at EA Sports, notes that "whenever we would announce the bands that were going on FIFA, the most common feedback from users, games, and kids was ​‘I’ve never heard of a single one of these bands,’ We’re like,​ ‘well, that’s kind of the point'."

The development team takes some of the biggest names on the planet together, as well as emerging artists from all over the musical map, and brings them together into one big production with a FIFA stamp of approval and a legacy of high quality.

Through this, FIFA games have developed truly international tracklists. FIFA 22's soundtrack features artists from Sweden, France, Australia, Brazil, Israel, South Africa, the UK, US, just to name a few. This amalgamation of music from across the industry and the world is an apt soundtrack for the worldwide game of soccer, which is enjoyed by billions across every country, every walk of life, and every social status.

In FIFA, Music Matters

The FIFA soundtrack is one of the most striking examples of the gaming industry starting from humble beginnings - the 6 song list that made up FIFA 98's soundtrack - and growing into a massive phenomenon, so big that it spills over into affecting popular culture. The FIFA soundtracks have launched the careers of small artists, brought people together from across the world, and even developed a music sub-genre of its own. And of course, they have contributed to the widespread achievement of its game series. Sayward declares that the FIFA series "owes just as much of its success to its audio as it does to its visuals."

For the world's greatest sport, it's fitting that there would be such an incredible soundtrack released each year celebrating The Beautiful Game.

¹ Joe Della-Savia was a member of the original development team of FIFA International Soccer. He died in a car accident on the way to the Electronic Arts office in 1994 while the team was working on FIFA Soccer 95. Rest in Peace, Joe.

² The isometric viewpoint is a method for visually representing two-dimensional objects with a certain camera perspective that makes the objects look three-dimensional.

³ FIFA Songs Playlist Example 1, FIFA Songs Playlist Example 2, FIFA Songs Playlist Example 3