I don't understand people who listen to smooth jazz, elevator music, or R&B while working out. I have a hard enough time getting moving and motivated without having soothing, mellow music lulling me to sleep.
I personally prefer something loud and fast to get me energized. If the music inspires dancing, boosts my energy, or increases my intensity then it seems logical to me that it would translate to more motivation for muscular movement in the gym (or running, etc). Even if they don't like rock, there is still rap, techno, and numerous other faster-paced options to utilize. Wouldn't you think at least one of them would be more enjoyable for exercising?
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Another musical mystery is people who solely listen to classic rock. There are only two causes for this phenomenon that I can conjure. One theory is that listening to the songs of yesteryear brings the individual back to days of their life that they would prefer to still be living in, maybe when they were happier and more content, maybe freer of responsibility or whatever. So they are basically living their lives in the past as best as they can.
The other is that they are mentally too old to "get into" new music. Even if it sounds strikingly similar to the stuff they grew up with, their brain is past the point of absorbing the speed and intensity of it. But since they already learned to appreciate the oldies (their brains were in the right "mode" back then) they can still enjoy it. Does anyone else have a theory or explanation for it?
7 comments:
Sheesh, maybe they like it, ok. I happen to dig The Rolling Stones myself. Probably both of your theories are correct.
I still certainly like my growing up groups like Guns 'N Roses, Beastie Boys and probably always will. I do find that I like less and less of todays music, too. So much of it is crap.
Just watch...you will be an old school music listener in a few years. Rod Stewart here you come;-).
You forgot to mention the mysterious phenomenon of all those people who are stuck in the 90s and still listen to bands like Cake.
:)
That's pretty observant and rather funny anonymous, but I think you're both missing the point of the question.
Listening to oldies or 90's music or even 80's pop junk (yes, I still like it once in a while) is all part of a healthy musical diet. I'm just trying to figure out the people who don't like anything except for one style, particularly classic rock.
And to add further clarification, I'm not at all trying to criticize people who do, I'm just trying to understand the mentality of it.
I wouldn't go as far as saying that there is similar music today like Classic Rock.
My husband is a huge classic rock fan and will listen to other music to appease me, but I know if he could he would listen to Classic Rock all the time.
He pointed out to me that the music that you and I might think is similar is really not. Classic Rock has a distinct chord structure. Really it is the way the notes are played that determine what genre music falls into. It is not the year or decade that it was necessarily created in.
Since I really don't know a ton about this I will let you defer to Hudson for more information.
Great thread of discussion!
Ok, lets see... I love classic rock, and feel that largely it is the best genre of music ever created... HOWEVER, I am SOOOOO stinking tired of it that I can't listen to much of it anymore.
Ok, so that makes me different from the classic rock junky. They seem to be comforted in the fact that they are listening to a song they have heard 16-gazillion times in 40 different keys by 30 artists in 69 langauges, on 600 channels daily across the globe. I myself have only a limited number of times I can listen to something, and still get the emotional response that makes me like something. I can think of very few songs that I don't tire of, and even these are diminished in their effect.
As far as music today being "crap" compared to yester-year, this simply isn't so. This is the universal interpretation of the majority of people as they age, which I feel lends to Mike's theory about the brain cells weakening. Music today is so much more diverse and playing music is so much more accessible to the masses. It will only become moreso as peeps are able to publish their own music with the industry behemoths wreaking their standard havoc on all things music. What may be true is that what is played on the radio is crap. 98% of all music made is NOT played on the radio, so our basis for judgment is only a small fraction of the whole.
For example, I currently listen to mostly "techno" music, and for many that has a "pump up the jam" sort of connotation, however I HATE that gay-ass song. There are over 100 acknowledged categories of techno today, and they themselves are about as diverse as Tupac to Laurence Welk. 96% of the music I listen to, most of the population has not heard of (yes, I measured it!).
Some amendments...
"Crap" there has always been a lot of crappy music, and there still is today, and since there are more artists, that means more crap. I think you must look at music by the decade. See my blog.
Cake sucks. I tried to like cake, but they started to suck more as I tried. Sorry Mike! I tried!
MIKE-yes, I can send you a link and you can listen to my pandora station. I will need your email address for that...
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