They may be great songs but pair them with skydiving and your clip becomes a cliché.
Back in the day, before social media, commercial skydiving centres routinely added popular music to customer skydive videos without gaining consent from the copyright holder. If you did a tandem in the 90s or early 2000s, you'll know exactly what we're talking about.
But times have changed. It's no longer kosher to attach pop music to commercial videos without permission. That's why you'll find heaps of royalty-free music online nowadays, which is definitely the way to go. When making skydive reels for social media, you can add popular music from the platform's playlist, which is deemed safe and acceptable to use.
All that said, there are certainly songs that are overused or just plain cheesy when attached to skydiving videos. Let it be known, we love some of the following tunes, but to stay cool in The Skydive School, we don't recommend synching them to your freefly films.
So, scroll on and have a listen (and a boogie) to the most clichéd songs for skydiving. They may be cheese for vids, but hey, they may inspire you to jump.
Top 13 Songs with Extra Cheese for Skydiving Videos
1. Jump | Van Halen
David Lee Roth may have hated this song but boy oh boy, I bet he's glad they made it. Jump by Van Halen has nothing to do with skydiving, but it's classic 80s rock and we like it.
2. Free Fallin' | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
When Tom Cruise sang Free Fallin' by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers in the movie Jerry McGuire, it became the symbol song for kicking goals and going for gold. It's a perfect theme-song for skydiving, but a little too obvious. Steer clear.
3. Learning to Fly | Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Tom Petty's Learning to Fly is about rising above the crap in life. The chorus lyrics certainly seem ideal for Learning to Skydive Solo and AFF videos but again, don't go there.
4. Jump Around | House of Pain
Jump Around by House of Pain may be awful for skydiving clips but we fully support this 1992 hit at the DZ.
5. Fly Away | Lenny Kravitz
Raise your hand if you know someone with a tandem skydive video featuring Fly Away by Lenny Kravitz! T'was so overused back in the day. Catchy tune though.
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6. I Believe I Can Fly | R. Kelly
R. Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly and skydiving? No, just no.
7. Dangerzone | Kenny Loggins
If you're not a fan of Top Gun's kickass theme song Dangerzone by Kenny Loggins, you have no place in aviation or its sports. Haha, just joking. But, seriously, this is a huge fav. How can anyone resist that intro? It would be great in skydiving videos but, *sigh*.
8. Sugar (How You Get So Fly?) | Robin Schulz & Francesco Yates
Let's go straight to lyrics on Sugar by Robin Schulz, featuring Francesco Yates: Got me lifted, driftin' higher than the ceiling, oooh baby it's the ultimate feeling
You got me lifted, feeling so gifted, Sugar how you get so fly? Tell me that wasn't written for skydiving flicks. Songwriters Joe Young and George Meyer may have spent some time flying high.
9. Jump (For My Love) | The Pointer Sisters
Another classic 80s song about jumping. Maybe not skydiving but do you see what's happening here? Jump = skydive to us. Do you think there are skydive weddings with Jump (For My Love) as the theme song? We shutter.
10. Learning to Fly | Pink Floyd
Our Chief Instructor is a huge Pink Floyd fan but he'd never approve of Learning to Fly in a skydive movie. Blaring in the hanger? Absolutely.
11. Beautiful Day | U2
Another pop song that was truly exhausted in commercial skydive videos in the 2000s is U2's Beautiful Day. We cannot listen to this without re-living time in the editing booth. Gah...
12. Jump | Kriss Cross
The Mac Dad will make you....Daddy Mac will make you....How high? Real High! The 13-year-old's who were Kriss Kross killed it with their mega hit song, Jump in the early 90s. And I, the writer, have no qualms admitting that this is a longtime favourite of mine. Great for the dance floor, not so much for skydiving reels.
13. Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) | The Offspring
Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) by The Offspring is an okay tune and that baseline and riff would suit a skydive vid. If you're aiming to create a super cheesy skydiving video to take the piss out of your mates, this is the go-to.
Whether you're just thinking about learning to skydive solo or you're a fully fledged certified skydiver, The Skydive School is here to help you attain safe skydiving skills and further your progression in all disciplines all while having good times. Stay educated in what's happening at The Skydive School by subscribing to our monthly SKOOL NEWS newsletter.