They got spirit, how ’bout you? Students compose two very different fight songs

The College has been rocking a pair of new tunes, and they’re not your father’s fight songs. Have a listen and tell us what you think.

Words by Matt Huston '12

The College has been rocking a pair of new tunes, and they’re not your father’s fight songs.

These tracks come directly from students—one is a TCNJ-themed reworking of a popular rap song, the other a Student Government (SG) sanctioned victory march. Both are, in their own ways, unconventional.

Matt Janansky’s “Fight Song #2,” which he entered into SG’s TCNJ fight song contest last semester, puts a drum-heavy, kinetic spin on the Seminole war-chant style of Florida State’s theme. Janansky, a junior philosophy and political science double major who creates electronic music under the moniker Pumpkinhead, said his experience in the high school marching band inspired him to break with tradition.

“I would much rather have [played] something that got the crowd going,” he said. “I was in marching band, so I played fight songs in the stands, and I remember the traditional ones would just really bore people. But then we’d play ‘Roundabout’ by Yes, and everyone would freak out at the bass line.”

Janansky’s contest-winning song, composed and recorded on his computer, can be heard in its electronic form—packed with big beats and bleeping synths—on his Web site. According to SG President Olaniyi Solebo ’12, his organization has plans to rerecord the song with a marching band and distribute the “official recording” to be played at formal and athletic events.

“We wanted a Notre Dame-type fight song that people are going to be able to immediately recognize,” Solebo said.

The other song celebrating the College arose a bit more spontaneously, but with more than 2,700 listens on YouTube, it seems to have gained an audience among Lion lovers.

Christopher “C-Mart” Martin’s remix of rapper Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” isn’t shy with its TCNJ pride: “We might not be that big/But we livin’ right/I’d much rather be a Lion than a Scarlet Knight.”

Martin says he recorded the song as a potential addition to his basketball team’s warm-up CD and was surprised when it started gathering hits online. “It was actually my CA on my floor who told me that it started picking up a lot of views,” he said.

The freshman accounting major started writing original songs in high school and said he takes lyrical cues from Eminem. While his parents might be glad their son is happy at his new school, they might not be so enthusiastic about the song.

“I’m really the only one in my family that’s into that type of music,” Martin said.

Janansky said his father was even more blunt about his atypical rally song.

“My dad didn’t like it. He said he couldn’t imagine people listening to it after a touchdown,” Janansky said. “But all the younger people seem to like it.”

Ed’s note: The following song contains explicit lyrics.