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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
GYMS SHOULD NOT PLAY MUSIC. Or have 24-hour TVs. WHY WHY WHY is this obnoxious sound and chatter imposed on us all in public places? God invented the iPod and headphones, remember? Our brains respond to music, but we're each wired and tuned differently and have had different emotional experiences with music. What is soothing or energizing for one person jangles another's nerves. Mozart's "Requiem" works to zone out one person, "Soldier's Joy" zones out someone else. A few minutes of metallic music makes me crazy, and some amplified music sits on the edge of pain. Who needs it to be held hostage to this? What's wrong with a little quiet? Bring back white noise. In a waterfall is the preservation of the world.
I once went to a gym here in NYC where not only did they play horrible techno, but some genius decided that not only did we want to hear that stuff out on the floor -- we also wanted to hear it in the locker room, at precisely the same volume as it was out on the floor. Without the sounds of machines to partially drown it out, the music in the locker rooms was defeaning. I complained to the manager about three times, to no effect. What are people thinking?
Most gyms that I have attended play a steady diet of classic rock crap...you know, ungodly shit like Journey? :P~
My iPod is heavy on bands like Ministry, Lords of Acid, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Motorhead, Rage, Sisters of Mercy, Jane's Addiction and a lot of old punk. It helps with lifting, and even makes the despised cardio time pass reasonably well.
...it is barely audible over the noise generated by the cardio machines and the fans.
I actually like listening to podcasts at the gym--Wait Wait Don't Tell me is good, it makes me laugh. This American Life is hit or miss. These seem to work for either cardio or doing weights.
When I run (outside) I like Erasure, New Order, and other 80s synth-pop. I'm also fond of The Chemical Brothers and Orbital. My very favorite running album, though, is--go ahead and laugh--Cher's Believe. The You-Go-Girl!-iness of it is perfect for when I'm having a difficult run.
It's very inspirational. I pretend I'm out in the fields, singing along, in a perfectly choreographed routine of stoop, pick, stoop, pick, stoop, pick. It makes the time go quickly. Try it, and you'll be hooked.
Any chain gym uses a music service, like restaurants and stores, they don't want to pay performance royalties. In the past the recording industry ignored independents who played their own collections, but that's changing as they are scrounging for every last cent. Watch for changes at the little coffee shop that always plays a great mix off somebody's ipod. Already music services provide their cheapest customers only remakes with semi-soundalike singers.
In a couple of years, Tony Soprano won't be able to choose the original "Don't Stop Believing" a diner. It'll be a remake with an even more annoying singer.
I prefer mindless techno over the R&B crap they play in a lot of gyms. It's not even upbeat half the time, which makes it actually a problem in working out. If I forget my iPod when I got to the gym I have a strong urge to just turn around and go home because I don't think I can make it through a whole workout without being able to drown out what they play.
My other point though is: are these lists useful to anyone?
I imagine gym music is just as personal as any other kind of music, and once again, the lack of any kind of unifying thread for music listeners on Salon makes me wonder at the point of this column. I just don't know how you can write a 'generic' popular music column and appeal to a very broad audience anymore.
Let me give an example: I like Amon Amarth's 'Cry of the Black Birds' when I'm working out, but I'm guessing that has little or no relevance to anyone else here (go ahead, it's on iTunes, try it out). It's much better for me to discuss music on message boards with those with at least somewhat like-minded musical taste, since an average cross section of listeners will be coming from such a dramatically different direction from where I come from, we'd lack any common ground.
We live in the personal player age....mp3's, ipod's, et cetera. So why on earth do I need to have blaring over the p.a. system at the gym the whole time? Fear of silence and fear of offending the two or three people there without mp3 players is what drives it.
In fact, that one thing, that one seemingly little thing has made me so nuts that I have considered starting my own gym, with a strict policy against playing music over the p.a.
I don't want to go to the gym at all because of it. I complained once and the manager said "It is more for the employees than the guests" and I said "Why can't they just have it play at the front desk then?" She looked at me like I was crazy.
You might find the folks at your gym helpful, but a lot of advice given out by gym folks is just plain dumb. Count your good fortune that motivation trumps precision.
The well-intentioned bimbos and himbos most likely to be hired by gyms will rarely evince good taste in music.
The teeny boppers organized and modern pop won. I wear an mp3 player with wireless headphones.
I play old R&B, 70s Funk (P-Funk, War, EWF, Bootsey, Dazz Band,etc), Jazz-Funk (The Urban Knights, Herbie Hancock), Jazz (Ramsey Lewis, the Crusaders, George Duke, Stanley Clark), Latin (Santana, Santamaria, etc) some Broadway, some R&B (Anita Baker is a good cooldown). I mix one player for running and one for lifting. For running, I have tempos for warmup, tempo runs, speedplay, etc and cool down on a few playlists. On the lifting one, I have moderate tempos. Lift heavy on P-Funk! Rick James, Curis Blow, etc all motivate me. Marvin Gaye is good for pilates. Stevie Wonder is good for anything (yeah, I worn out my copy of Innervisions.
My husband has metal and funk (he just spent boucou bucks on collected Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, the Who, Led Zepplin-people ask for copies of his playlists). We have friends with everything from rock to country (that Earl song seems to fire some people up).
I think the tempos are more important than the genre. I like all genres, as long as it is good. So much music seems created assembly line by corporate bean counters.
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