The Jock series is a superseries of sports anthem music albums started by Tommy Boy Records and ESPN in 1994.
The Jock series consists of the Jock Rock, the Jock Jams and the Slam Jams series.
The Jock Rock series of albums consisted of alternative and classic rock songs. Some tracks on the Jock Rock albums were dubbed into the "Jock Jam Megamix".
| Year | Album | U.S. peak |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Jock Rock, Volume 1 | 79 |
| 1995 | Jock Rock, Volume 2 | 121 |
| 1999 | Jock Rock 2000 | 78 |
Albums in the Jock Jams series mainly consist of 1980s and 1990s dance and house music, as well as hip hop, classic disco, mashups, and cheerleaders and other sports figures saying phrases. When some of the songs and quotes became popular, they were incorporated into a mash-up entitled "The Jock Jam".
| Year | Album | U.S. peak |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Jock Jams, Volume 1 | 30 |
| 1996 | Jock Jams, Volume 2 | 10 |
| 1997 | Jock Jams, Volume 3 | 23 |
| 1998 | Jock Jams, Volume 4 | 20 |
| 1999 | Jock Jams, Volume 5 | 51 |
| 2001 | Jock Jams: The All-Star Jock Jams[1] | 188 |
| Jock Jams: The All-Star Jock Jams | |
| Type: | compilation |
| Artist: | Various Artists |
| Cover: | Jock Jams 6.jpg |
| Alt: | Football Stadium Field with the words "The All Star Jock Jams" imprinted on the field |
| Released: | November 6, 2001 |
| Genre: |
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| Label: | Tommy Boy |
| Producer: | ESPN |
| Prev Title: | Jock Jams, Volume 5 |
| Prev Year: | 1999 |
| Chronology: | Jock Jams series |
Jock Jams: The All-Star Jock Jams is the sixth album in the series, released on November 6, 2001.[2] This album release was the last album released under the Jock series name.
Tracks were:
As the final Jock compilation album was released in 2001, Tommy Boy Records faced low critical reception, low sales, stiff competition from competitor Now That's What I Call Music! U.S. series, and loss of song rights from record labels as a result of Now Music.[3] [4] Tommy Boys CEO Tom Silverman has been quoted saying that "labels wouldn't license their songs to us when the NOW compilations started coming out under a collective revenue-sharing agreement",[5] in regard to why the label stopped releasing new compilation albums. He noted that it "It really pissed me off..." because, to him, "...it felt like an anti-trust thing. How can four labels make a decision to do that?"
Jock Jams also experienced a decline in 'anthems' that were available to use to justify a new album every year. The slow-to-adapt sporting industry had a limited number of songs that were recognizable or actively being used by a sporting team. Tom says that "It got harder toward the end to find songs, yeah. We would use old songs because there was not enough new stuff to justify an album. We couldn't find 15 songs every year that were the new anthems."
Napster, and the wave of piracy it introduced in the early 2000s, affected the music industry in huge ways. With Napster, anyone could illegally download any Jock series compilation without paying for a physical copy. This "free" method of downloading music allowed anyone to create their own CD mixes, without the need of the music industry, record labels, or special permission to mix songs from, for example, Jock Jams, Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 4.
Jock Jams legacy is defined by Volume 1 going Platinum in under a year and peaking at No. 30 on the Billboard charts.[6] Following its commercial success over 6 albums, its downfall is marked by the rise of Napster, the slow adaptation of the sporting industry, and loss of song rights controlled by 4 big labels in the late 90s/early 2000s.
Volume 6, the All-Star Jock Jams, reached No. 188 on the Billboard 200 for the week of November 24, 2001. It remained at that position for one week, falling from chart the following week.
Despite no further releases, Jock Jams has had a lasting impact on sporting events and venues, as well as being credited for paving the way for modern bands to get their music into stadiums and integrated into sporting culture. In the words of Tom Silverman, "...if you look now, they still play the Village People everywhere. There are songs that we used on that series that are still 80 percent of what you hear at games today. Fall Out Boy is one of the 20 percent of new stuff you hear, along with Pitbull, maybe Flo Rida and Pharrell."