Stuck for choice!
There are moments in time when you have all the energy in the world – well, you think you do – you’re ready to move, stretch and get on that exercise bike that’s sitting in the house gathering dust!
With my headphones on, I was ready to listen to my exercise playlist. This playlist of my own creation, was supposed to make me feel like I could do anything, float and move, stretch, and sweat it out on the bike.
Yet I couldn’t find the right music to play – nothing inspired me!
There are thousands of songs at our fingertips via the multiple streaming platforms. Was I just stuck for choice?
Trying to decide what music suits your mood can be a challenge!
Playlists and mixtapes
When streaming platforms came along I continued to do what I have always done – download new music and old favourites and create playlists. A bit like creating a mixtape – remember those?
I have playlists for all kinds of moods – there’s R&B/soul, jazz vocal and jazz instrumental, chill or ambient, a jazz and blues Christmas playlist, the exercise playlist and more.
You can share playlists now on streaming platforms. Although I am not sure that this has the same personal touch as creating a mixtape. For instance, if you had an artistic flare – you could create your own mixtape cover. The time and care it took to create a cover, affectionately record those tunes for your best friend’s Birthday or your mum and dad’s dinner party – that was me, with my DJ hat on!
My continually evolving exercise playlist!
Primal Music
It doesn’t matter if it’s Mozart, the Rolling Stones, Miles Davis or Taylor Swift. Your favourite music likely triggers a similar type of activity in your brain as other people’s favourites do in theirs. That’s one of the things Jonathan Burdette, M.D., has found in researching music’s effects on the brain.
“Music is primal. It affects all of us, but in very personal, unique ways”, said Burdette. “Your interaction with music is different than mine, but it’s still powerful”. For instance, there are some features in music that make you feel a certain way and involve different parts of the brain.
“In some cases, you might not even like a particular song, but you like the memories or feelings that you associate with it”, said Burdette (Science Daily, 2017).
The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘Primal’ as “characteristic of the earliest time in the existence of a person or a thing; and that “the appeal of music is primal”.
So when it came to my playlist, in order to tap into my internal rhythm or cadence, I figured that I needed to hear something particular – a pounding rhythm, a catchy melody – perhaps nostalgic and just downright primal!
Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances – Maya Angelou.
A perfect image by Lee Pigott – to convey those primal rhythms I was after!
The perfect playlist!
I swiped down to the end of the playlist just to check that I hadn’t exhausted all possibilities. There it was – Burning Down The House by Talking Heads, a song that originated from a jam. Originally inspired by the drummer Chris Frantz’s experience of being at a Parliament-Funkadelic live concert at Maddison Square Garden.
During the jam (with Talking Heads band members), he kept yelling ‘Burn down the house!’ which was a P-Funk audience chant, and David Byrne dug the line, changing it to the finished version, ‘Burning down the house’. (Wikipedia).
Talking Heads was one of my favourite 80s bands! Burning Down The House, followed by Swamp, also on the same Speaking Tongues (1983) studio album totally recaptured the nostalgic joy when I first heard Talking Heads.
Burning Down The House, Talking Heads – the perfect primal music to dance to!
Getting into some crazy dance moves!
I turned up the music, started to sway, float, sweat it out on my exercise bike and become one with the music. I let the music of Talking Heads take me away, totally satisfied that I had the perfect playlist.