“Awful” of course is my opinion, but every gym that I have been a member of (5 in total) plays the latest pop/hip hop/rnb music, or Top 40 music. Why do gyms play this music? The obvious answer of course is to appeal to the most people possible that are members. I personally can’t handle it, and have to bring my own headphones, but when I look around I see a lot of people that I suspect also don’t care for the music.
Has anyone worked at a gym? Are there any reasons why they play this music, or is it just assumed that it will appeal to the most people? I suppose they assume anyone who doesn’t like it will bring their own, which is what I do, but I thought I’d check to see if there was more to it.
Above all it’s probably the “appeal to the most people” answer. There’s a reason, after all, that it is “Top 40”.
Beyond that, the music is generally selected as being “exercise music” in the sense that it has a strong beat and high BPM. There’s a reason you don’t see aerobics classes working out to Freebird.
I had to cancel my membership of a gym beacuse they played horrible music very loudly. The staff did nothing when I complained. One time I was there with only three others. I complained directly to the manager who replied other gym users liked the very loud awful music. I went to the other three users. 2 had similar complaints as mine and the third did not care. Went back to the manager and told him. He still refused to turn down the volume.
I agree completely! Well, almost. I like lifting to Disturbed, Trapped, and those types of bands. What are those considered, btw? I consider heavy metal to be Metallica. But Disturbed, Trapped, and Zombie seem like alternative metal, but not at all gay.
My gym actually plays a lot of mid-'90s alternative music in addition to the Top 40 stuff. I figure they’re trying to provoke nostalgia among their twentysomething clients. I generally just listen to my iPod though.
I really must say I have no idea what you mean by this. Alternative metal is mostly gay???
To answer the OP: dunno, I like either nothing, or metal, or techno, when working out, but R+B and Top 40 are at their least objectionable when working out and I want to be pumped (clap) up. Perhaps most people don’t really care when they just went there for a strong workout?
A large athletic club chain I used to work at played no music at all. When a new regional manager got into position the first thing he decided was “gosh our clubs are glum. We need some more pep” and had all the clubs play typical top 40 music.
I guess a whole lot of members complained enough about it that within a week they went back to having no music at all.
This isn’t always true. My gym, a Gold’s Gym franchise, has a music service which hosts a web page where you can go to vote for your “favorite songs”. We almost ALWAYS end up with crap. Sometimes its good work out music (upbeat, reasonable tempo), most of the time it’s terrible work out music (downbeat, slow tempo and/or depressing). The last thing I need to hear at the gym is some 45 bpm R&B song with some woman whaling on about how she’s so sad because she lost her man; it sucks the energy right out of me. On a rare occassion, they’ll even play stuff I actually like but still makes terrible work out music
I don’t care if the music is crap, that’s why I have headphones, but PLEASE at least play crap that I can work out to: hard rock, metal, industrial. I generally cannot workout to the following genres (all of which I’ve heard at my gym): R&B, ambient, soft rock, adult contemporary, euro-techno (yes, its upbeat, but the sounds are too distracting). I normally bring my own music (lots of industrial, power metal, death metal, black metal, trash and doom), but sometimes I forget, or the battery dies, or I turn it off because I’m having a conversation between sets. So please, play real workout music, even if its popular crap.
As for volume, I’ve had the same problem… the volume has actually been SO loud I can’t hear the music on my own headphones without turning it up so loud that it hurts my ears. A few times the gym music was so loud it actually hurt my ears all on its own. Fine, keep it loud enough so people can hear it over their heavy breathing and clanging, but not so loud I can hear it over what’s playing on my headphones.
I think that it’s a self-perpetuating phenomenom. “This is a gym, and gyms play Top 40 music, so . . . we’re going to play Top 40 music!”
I also think some of the “older” people at the gym, who are not in tune with pop culture at all, are filled with youthful vigor when working out with young people and listening to “their” music, even if it’s not their preference. After all, gyms are pretty hip places to be . . .
The Gold’s I used to lift at had absolutely terrible music played at a very high volume. We’re talking a mix of dance music, love songs and top 40 hip-hop. They also played ads to go with it. One explained that the music was specially prepared to get people to stay at the gym longer and hear more ads.
The gym that I currently lift at plays one of a few XM stations. It’s mostly the classic rock station or the XM equivalent of your local “the best mix of the 80s, 90s and today” station, but every once in a while they’ll turn it to the alternative station. That’s mostly good, except that I now know exactly how inappropriate “Mr. Roboto” and “The Safety Dance” are as workout music.
When I first started teaching step aerobics, I thought I’d finally have the chance to put together a mix of decent music for the classes. I was wrong. I’m a rock/alternative fan, and almost all the music I really like is too slow for my classes. Not only that, but I discovered that it’s really, really difficult to compile a mix CD that flows properly for an exercise class. I gave up and just bought a variety of the most palatable standard commercially available exercise music I could find. I’ve discovered that about an same number of people in any given class will hate the music I have as those who like (or at least tolerate) it, so I try to rotate the CDs. Nowadays, I teach strength training classes in addition to aerobics, and I’ve discovered a number of upbeat jazz and swing CDs that work really well for lifting. Since my classes are composed of older women (the program is geared towards osteoporosis prevention), many of them really like that option a lot more than the standard music.
The dynamics of a weight/exercise room are quite different than those of a group class, but the same principles apply. Some of the people will like any music that’s played, some will hate it, and most will just put up with it. At our gym, we try to please the greatest number of people most of the time, and we keep the volume as low as we can without losing the sound altogether (if you think Top 40 is bad, try working out to just the sound of grunting and clanging).
Two play “FM 105 Home of light rock and more talk”. In the workout area and in the locker room. It’s pretty hard to get psyched for a workout listening to Whitney Houston. One of these days I’m going to bend a coat hanger and use the end to punch holes in the speakers.
The other club is in an old building and has FM 105 on the lookout floor. If I ask, they turn it down. Some staff even switch it to other stations.
Here’s a lovely thought to prepare for: Christmas Music. FM 105 starts playing it the day after Thanksgiving, so I have to prepare for a workout listening to, “The Little Drummer Boy.”
When the Revolution comes, people who play Christmas Music in health clubs will be first against the wall.
Ours plays mostly 80’s and 90’s stuff–usually pretty good to work out to. Sometimes it’s something awful, but it’s not loud enough to really bother me–I kind of have to be listening to really hear it over the equipment. In the locker rooms it really varies, from New Agey to classical to utterly random, but it’s mostly supposed to be relaxing stuff–the same music is piped out to the jacuzzis.
Whoah, that’s not what I was trying to say at all. I’m probably going to just dig myself a deeper hole, but I was trying to describe the music that came out in the early and mid '90s, that was kinda emo, and described as alternative, that is the antithesis of working out. I’m not to sure, I never was good at knowing exactly what subset of a genre a particular band was in. I wasn’t trying to be insensitive, either, I just couldn’t figure out how to say what I was going for.
My old gym used to play top-40, mostly blecch. I go to several branches of my new one; at one they play 70s boomer music (i.e. classic rock)–hey, I’m from that era and I’ve even gotten sick of it. But in the men’s locker room, they’ve been playing classical or jazz lately which is an unexpected pleasure.
I honestly can’t remember what they play at the other two branches I frequent. When doing cardio I have headphones and make sure to get one of the machines with its own TV, so I don’t hear what the background music is.
Mine almost consistently plays whining r’n’b stuff from one of the cable channels. Thank goth for MP3s, that’s all I can say. Luckily I often go when there aren’t many people about so I can turn the volume down…background whining isn’t quite so bad.
Alternative metal is mostly gay???