# The cleaning "dance" poll **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 29, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977 "2003-03-29T05:18:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/1 "2003-03-29T05:18:46Z")
If[this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=152885) thread has taught me anything, it’s that some of you folks are at least as strange as I am. So… here’s the poll: Am I the _only_ person here who enjoys playing music and dancing to it while cleaning? Loud music, an empty house, a broom or mop(oh hell, even washing the counters)…it’s time to dance! Or maybe it’s just me. If you do dance while cleaning, do you have to be alone? I rarely do this when there’s an audience 🙂 Also, what do you dance to, if you’re so inclined? **Econoline Crush** ’s “Brand New History” is the most “danceable” thing I’ve been playing recently, but **Nickleback** and **Placebo** are good too. ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/2 "2003-03-29T05:26:28Z")
1812 Overture for heavy cleaning. For light housework, it’s the Supremes, and any cleaning tool can be used as a microphone. For studio cleaning (which is mainly sorting stuff), the soundtrack is either bad 70s music or 80s dance crap. Classical music goes with redecorating. Folk with rearranging. My daughter very very much wishes I would only do this without witnesses 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/3 "2003-03-29T09:23:06Z")
Either Minor Threat’s _Compleat Discography_ or Frank Black and the Catholics’ _Dog in the Sand_ is what I clean to. For housecleaning, I like something extemely high-energy, high-anger, with a side of extra thrash to it. Otherwise I’ll get all distracted when I find that New Yorker I never got around to reading (the one with the Adam Gopnik piece on Willie Nelson that looked really interesting) at the bottom of the pile of crossword puzzles, flyers for local restaurants, bills I should have paid two years ago, beer cans, remote controls (why do I have so many remote controls?), packets of photos, unanswered important correspondence, slips of paper with addresses on them, receipts from visits to the veterinarian (I hate my vet, but the mutt loves her), J. P. Donleavy novels I’ve read seven times, unidentifiable electronic things that have lots of wires that snake through the entire mess, equally unidentifiable electronic adapters which presumably adapt one unidentifiable electronic thing to another unidentifiable electronic thing, old pens that may or may not write anymore, slips of paper with strange quotes I don’t remember writing down (I got my sig from one of those), shopping lists that say things like “batteries soap Bob Log III,” phone numbers and business cards from people I don’t know from Adam (har har), and sample packets of things like ketchup and hair conditioner. This thread was about cleaning the coffee table, right? ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/4 "2003-03-29T10:28:47Z")
Silence while I do the dishes. Heavy beat while vaccuuming. High energy while dusting. Indy rock while sorting / tidying. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/5 "2003-03-29T10:39:59Z")
Whatever’s on the classic rock station playing through my walkman radio while I clean out a community hall. Easier to cart around, that way. 🙂 At home, I prefer stuff like Metallica while doing the dishes and laundry. ---
**Author:** ![burundi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ec8ea/32.png) [@burundi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burundi)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/6 "2003-03-29T12:37:57Z")
My current two cleaning favorites are Fishbone’s “Truth and Soul” and Janis Joplin’s Greatest Hits. Something I can wail along to as I scrub. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/7 "2003-03-29T13:49:56Z")
Prince is especially good – I think the booty-shaking helps get things cleaner. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/8 "2003-03-29T17:18:40Z")
Mrs. FtG likes Handel’s “Water Music”, 'cause her mother cleaned to it. Today, I cleaned to the new Ramone’s tribute album. No dancing though. There’s just something satisfying about taking out dirt to “Beat on the Brat.” ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/9 "2003-03-29T18:11:59Z")
Of all the God-forsaken things, my mom likes to clean to Abba. Please help me. I have to LIVE with this woman! ---
**Author:** ![cichlidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/10 "2003-03-29T18:45:22Z")
For some reason, I use cleaning time as an opportunity to pull out the music I listened to as a pre-teen. Usually The Romantics or Men Without Hats. I like cheery music to counterbalance the drudgery of housework I’m guessing. Early Beatles works great, too. Abba sounds like fun **whiterabbit** , my Mom used to jam to Jesus Christ Superstar and Alleluia! when I was still living at home. Sharing war stories about our parents’ cleaning music, who’da thunk it? 🙂 ::Safety Dances out of thread:: ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/11 "2003-03-29T19:04:50Z")
Well, I’ll grant that it’s FUN, but it’s also BAD. I think that’s part of what she likes about it. ---
**Author:** ![Searching\_For\_Truth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@Searching\_For\_Truth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Searching_For_Truth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/12 "2003-03-29T19:25:19Z")
Who needs the radio when the music’s all in your head?! All the better to sing to, I say!! For the record, I’m an obsessive-compulsive cleaner who can clean like a maniac with or without a radio in earshot. ---
**Author:** ![Branwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@Branwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Branwen)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/13 "2003-03-30T00:27:23Z")
I like The Offspring or Foo Fighters when I clean. For some reason they just get me moving. I dance and sing along, and my family generally thinks I’m crazy. ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/14 "2003-03-30T01:51:35Z")
When I’m doing dusting or some other kind of cleaning that involves a lot of moving about, I put in a cd of swing music, but I usually set it to only play “Sing, Sing, Sing (With A Swing)” as performed by Benny Goodman and his orchestra, on constant repeat. For washing the dishes I like to put in something with a lot of banjo. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/15 "2003-03-30T02:02:47Z")
Well, I’m trying to pack some stuff up tonight and Pantera is proving far too distracting. ---
**Author:** ![Harihat2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@Harihat2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harihat2)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/16 "2003-03-30T04:28:41Z")
Haha, Ringo. ---
**Author:** ![Einmon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Einmon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Einmon)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/17 "2003-03-30T09:13:03Z")
I need musical tunes for those extra flourishes of the mop/broom. Usually I’ll go with _Les Misérables_, mostly concentrating on the revolutionary songs while I do battle with dust. ---
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/18 "2003-03-30T11:06:17Z")
I don’t dance, per se, but if I’m going to get anything accomplished while cleaning (rather than wandering around aimlessly and maybe shuffling a bunch of papers into different piles and making the bed), I need energetic, possibly angry music (Rammstein, System of a Down, some Nine Inch Nails, and a whole crapload of other stuff), and it has to be _ **LOUD** _. This is why I rarely clean. I’m rarely home by myself at a time when I can blast music without my neighbours calling the cops. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/19 "2003-03-30T11:21:36Z")
De La Soul’s _Three Feet High and Rising_, very loud. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977/20 "2003-03-30T12:43:12Z")
See the film _East Is East_ in which they clean up while dancing (mops and buckets part of the choreography) to the tune of _Inhi Logom Ne_ sung by Lata Mangeshkar. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cleaning-dance-poll/164977.md?page=2)