While the bleachers are still empty and before the students arrive, you'll want to be prepared with a nice selection of pep rally songs to give the team and students that fighting spirit.
Pep Rally Preparation
Remember that the purpose of the pep rally is to get fans excited and give the team some motivation to try their best and please those fans. In order to get the crowd revved up to the level you'll need to encourage your ball team, you'll want to have a nice selection of pep rally songs picked out that can be easily sung by you and repeated by the crowd. These tend to be songs that are either common enough that people have heard them elsewhere or that you've played at other games.
In addition to having songs and chants prepared, you'll also want to think about things such as the school mascot being there to get fans excited, grabbing their attention from the first moment and keeping their attention. Are there any moves or dance moves you want to do with the song? If so, try to keep moves simple, so fans can cheer along.
As a cheerleader, your fellow students are most likely teens or young adults, unless you cheer for a professional team. This means you are competing with cell phones, texting, conversations with other students, boyfriend/girlfriend drama, worries over classes and a dozen other things. This is why you'll want to choose the best possible songs to hook them into cheering along with you.
Best Pep Rally Songs
The best songs are often the most well known songs. If the crowd knows your chosen songs well, they will repeat after you, sing with you and increase your volume level by a hundredfold or more. Your school fight song is a great place to start and many cheer squads choose to open a pep rally with this song as well as close with it. A good fight song can set the whole tone of the pep rally and by simply repeating this song at the game, you can grab that good feeling of camaraderie and determination quickly and easily.
Some of the more common pep rally songs you'll hear include:
- "Whoomp There it Is" by Tag Team
- "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor
- "We Will Rock You" by Queen
- "Boom Boom Pow" by Black Eyed Peas
- "Get Ready for This" 2 Unlimited
- "Who Let the Dogs Out" by Baha Men
- "Rock and Roll" by Gary Glitter
- "Zombie Nation" by Kernkraft 400
- "Pump Up the Volume" by M/A/R/R/S
- "Power" by Snap
- "Unbelievable" by EMF
Make Up Your Own Song
Making up your own pep rally song is also a really good option. By making up your own, you can choose one that suits your school best. One option is to work with your school's music department to develop a song. The cheer squad should write the lyrics, but can then collaborate with the musicians in school to come up with a peppy beat that works well. Remember that simple is often best and most easily remembered. If you need the song to be longer, you can always repeat.
With so many good songs from which to choose, you're certain to find the one that really gets your school excited about the upcoming game. Remember that you'll want to pick a song that can be played at the beginning of the ball game as well to recreate that excitement and get the fans and team ready to win the game or at least have a lot of fun trying.
