Over the years, I’ve made an observation about the music they play at my health club.
Depending on the time of day and where in the gym you’re working out, you’ll hear a different music stream running. For example, the locker rooms always seem to have the Soccer-Mom music channel on: you know, “Sunny Came Home,” “Chariot,” and Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” The Heavy-Plate-Lifting area, home of the more hard-core weight training, always has heavier fare by bands like Staind and Red Hot Chili Peppers. The main workout area, though, has different music depending on the time of day.
All that said, I’ve come to the realization that Saturday and Sunday mornings have been designated “Old Fogey Classic Rock Time.” In other words, I think they’re gearing towards my demographic.
The song list of the average Saturday morning goes as follows:
The Who – “Baba O’Riley” or “Squeeze Box”
George Thorogood – “Move it on Over”
Foreigner – “Cold As Ice”
Rolling Stones – “Street Fighting Man”
Led Zeppelin – “Immigrant Song”
Doors – “LA Woman”
ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man”
Cream – “Badge” and in fact anything Clapton did between 1969-1975
Doobie Brothers – ‘Long Train Runnin”
Phil Collins – ‘In the Air Tonight’
Jimi Hendrix – “Fire” or “Foxy Lady”
In other words, the music they play is so familiar to me that it’s almost like listening to Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, or, dare I say it, Roger Whittaker. In fact, I may go so far as to submit that Classic Rock is to my generation what “Beautiful Music” was to my parents’: something so innocuous that you don’t even realize it’s there.
I have to tell you, though, it’s not at all motivating to be doing chest presses while listening to “Brain Damage” by Pink Floyd.
The funny thing, though, is that my kids know a lot of these songs thanks to Guitar Hero. So these songs are already reeeeeeeaallly familiar to them, too.
Maybe the answer is to bring my iPod to the gym. If I’m gonna listen to music that was recorded more than 20 years ago, I’d rather it be something like “Generals and Majors.”