Pop Culture Recap: Cheerleading In Songs And Music Videos

Cheerleaders and the cheerleading uniform are one of the most icon images across all forms of pop culture. One place where cheerleading is often mention and used as a visual is in music. In songs, the “cheerleader’ is sometimes the villain – a girl that is “perfect’, shallow, materialistic or snobby. This isn’t always the case though! Cheerleading is used in music videos to represent great dance and cheer choreography, and even to represent a large social group. Here is a list of some of the most recent, and some of our favorite, cheerleading references in music: Cheerleading in Music Gwen Stefani, “Hollaback Girl”, 2005 This video has a high school theme – and even includes cameos from several local (Orange County, CA) cheerleading, marching band, pep flag and drill teams! In the video, Gwen and her dancers wear cheerleading uniforms and even perform some cheerleading stunts. They even use cheerleading signs to spell out the word “bananas”. Gwen’s video was nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards, and took home the honors for Best Choreography. Toni Basil, “Hey, Mickey”, 1982 The video features Toni Basil and some dancers performing in cheerleading uniforms and is one of the most iconic in music history! It is spoofed, sampled and referenced across all pop culture outlets – from television shows to movies to other music. Taylor Swift, “You Belong With Me”, 2009 In this video, Taylor Swift plays two high-school aged characters: the shy girl and the popular cheerleader. The popular cheerleader character is represented as a popular, and mean, girl that does not appreciate her boyfriend. Taylor also references the difference of high school social circles with the lyrics: she’s cheer captain I’m on the bleacher. The song was nominated for several Grammy awards, Kid’s Choice awards and Country Music Awards. Madonna, “Give Me All Your Luvin'”, 2012 Madonna performed at the 2012 Superbowl, and the (then-upcoming) gig inspired the video for this song! The video features M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj dressed up as cheerleaders and leading a group bazaar, mask-wearing cheerleaders…we’re guessing this was just an artistic choice! Madonna’s Superbowl performance also featured cheerleaders! What did we leave out? Which songs and music videos that feature cheerleading are your favorite?