Why does Steamboat have a music album on Spotify?
Gregg Blanchard /
I got hooked on the sport of skiing through the Ski Utah TV show. These 30-minute episodes hosted every Saturday by Mark White opened a portal between where I was and a magical sport I wished I could be part of.
My brother and I watched this show faithfully, even taping a bunch so we could rewatch them during the warmer months.
What’s interesting about this series is what sticks in my mind as I think back on all those episodes and stories about Utah skiing in the early 90s. Yes, there were a lot of visuals that stand out. But of all the things we reminisce on from those dozens of episodes we enjoyed, one of the common topics is theme song from the Steep Thrills segment.
Those perfectly 90s sounds are so deep in my head and so closely tied to this era of my life, listening to them now I still get chills.
There’s something about our brains and sounds that makes the things we hear sometimes a more powerful tool of nostalgia that what we see or taste or small. I don’t totally understand why, but I’ve seen it play out enough times in my life that it’s become something I’ve started to notice in ways I never expected.
Which is exactly why I love that Steamboat has an Album on Spotify.
Back in the day, Steamboat had a bunch of songs written for their ad campaigns. These spots tried to convince folks to make the trek to this little gem of a town that happened to also have incredible skiing.
Like the Ski Utah TV show, these songs are probably buried deep in the brains of a lot of folks across the country and world. And even if they’re not, nostalgic sounds like these are fun for anyone who happens to hear them and takes us back to a simpler era of skiing and mountain life. So, according to Morgan Bast, they worked with a local band to have them “reinvigorated for the modern era.“
Modern music distribution looks a little different than it did in the 70s, but Steamboat, smartly, went beyond the usual resort marketing channels.
And, thus, we have a Steamboat album on Spotify.
The creativity, the nostalgia, the scrappy ability to tap into a big distribution channel that has only seen the occasional podcast? I love all of it.