Songs weave the fabric of every pregame warm-up and team ritual. And in the TikTok era, music has never been more important or prevalent in high school sports. Every athlete has individual tastes, yes, but spend enough time inside gyms or out at fields across Los Angeles and you’ll get a feel for the kind of music that paints the backdrop of any given season.
A collection of songs dominated the Southland preps scene across the 2022-23 season. Here are the 15 most popular tracks:
“About Damn Time,” Lizzo
Lizzo’s triumphant 2022 anthem makes the list almost single-handedly thanks to Mira Costa girls’ volleyball, who huddled together and scream-sang “About Damn Time” after every win in the fall.
They won 38 games. Needless to say, it was played in quite a few gyms.
The Mira Costa girls’ volleyball team celebrates its five-set win over Redondo Union on Sept. 27.
(Luca Evans / Los Angeles Times)
“As It Was,” Harry Styles
Need a safe, inoffensive, clean bop for the parents that got a little groove going regardless of the sport? “As It Was” was on a slew of team playlists this past year, a tune that is the musical equivalent of a really well made grilled cheese sandwich and will therefore probably live forever.
“Freestyle,” Lil Baby
A rare song here that isn’t as recent, but will live — along with Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares” — for approximately 356 years as an iconic, surefire candidate for future versions of this list. Sports teams on TikTok even turned Lil Baby’s breakout hit into a new version of the national anthem.
“Hotel Lobby,” Quavo + Takeoff
A thumper across gyms and football fields made even more poignant by its status as the last iconic Takeoff verse. The album “Only Built for Infinity Links” was released less than a month before the 28-year-old rapper’s death.
“In Ha Mood,” Ice Spice
Ice Spice stole the hearts and ears this past year, and “In Ha Mood” was a particularly simplistic smash that spawned a goofy dance popular on TikTok.
“Just Wanna Rock,” Lil Uzi Vert
Without any doubt, the most popular track in high school sports the past year. You simply couldn’t go to any basketball game without hearing Lil Uzi Vert’s infectiously-autotuned vocal cords and cascading synths of MCVertt’s production. It was the pregame hype video soundtrack for Division I boys basketball state-champ Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and was featured in Sierra Canyon locker room viral dances.
Sierra Canyon’s Bronny James and his teammates posted clips of themselves dancing to “Just Wanna Rock” in the team’s locker room.
(Gregory Payan / Associated Press)
“Pour it Up,” Rihanna
Rihanna is too influential to high school sports pregame and warm-up dance culture to not be included, and to the Santa Margarita girls’ soccer team, “Pour it Up” was the most essential track from the 2023 Super Bowl halftime performer.
“Pump it Up,” Endor
“Pump it Up” was a pregame staple of Birmingham’s volleyball and City Open Division champ baseball teams. Not the type of song you listen to on your own time, but definitely the type of song you form a team ritual around.
“Rich Flex,” Drake and 21 Savage
“Rich Flex” appealed to a particularly niche demographic of athletes: if you wore the number 21, this was your song. Walk-up music? Tribute-video backing track? Just throw the part of “Rich Flex” where Drake goes, “21, can you do somethin’ for me” and it was instantly cool.
“Ski,” YSL
Nobody actually knows any of the lyrics in this song because Young Thug has invented his own language. However, one need not understand Thuganese to appreciate the strings and yelps that gave “Ski” multiple viral TikTok moments that persisted well into 2023.
“Superhero,” Metro Boomin
Easily the coolest song of the year in preps. Off superstar producer Metro Boomin’s “Heroes and Villains” album, “Superhero” sounds like scenes in superhero movies where either the main character or villain gains their powers and levitates in the air for a few seconds. It was the most popular pregame song in Los Angeles high school basketball for at least two months.
“Super Gremlin,” Kodak Black
You know that little high-pitched part at the beginning of “Super Gremlin” that sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks dropping bars? It was the most-used snippet for walk-up songs in high school baseball and softball this spring. Seemingly at least one person in every lineup had it. Can’t explain that one.
Birmingham Charter celebrates teammate Ernesto Martinez scoring on a hit by Edgar Leon during a CIF LA City Section Open Division baseball championship game at Dodger Stadium. Birmingham Charter won 3-1.
(Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
“Talk,” Yeat
Listen to Yeat for the first time and you may end up bewildered, with a splitting headache and the nihilistic view that modern hit music as we know it is ruined. Listen to Yeat a few more times, and your body could begin a series of unconscious, coordinated movements to strange melodies accompanied by mumbled attempts at lip-syncing gibberish.
“Tití Me Preguntó,” Bad Bunny
Universally played and particularly beloved in Los Angeles’ many Latino-majority communities, “Tití Me Preguntó” was a staple in the stands of high school football games this fall, invigorating a rollicking crowd at the triumphant East L.A. Classic at the Coliseum.
“Tomorrow 2,” GloRilla and Cardi B
This song is one extended vent for three minutes and 29 seconds and it rocks. Popular pregame confidence-booster, because of the universal and devastatingly empowering message: “Every day the sun won’t shine, but that’s why I love tomorrows.”
Check out the following Spotify playlist featuring all the 2022-23 high school sports songs.
