Runners who listen to music know its motivating power, but what exactly does a great running song sound like?
Jim Peterik still remembers the conversation. The year was 1982, and the songwriter was sitting in his Chicago home when Sylvester Stallone called with an intriguing request: "I'm making Rocky III," he said, "and I need a song for the kids." Soon thereafter, Peterik huddled with Frankie Sullivan, guitarist and fellow cofounder of the rock band Survivor, to watch a rough cut of the film. He was immediately inspired. "I started playing what became the beginning guitar riff of the song on a dead string [untuned] Les Paul," says Peterik, who runs three miles four times per week. "We added the drums, and it created a real energy. A real pulse. Then I was watching the movie and punches started being thrown. So on the keyboard I went bop, bop-bop-bop! — to emulate the punching. That created the tension."The result was the Billboard number one hit "Eye of the Tiger," an anthem that some runners love, some runners loathe, and nearly every road race from 5-K to ultramarathon blasts at ear-splitting decibels along the course.
Even those who consider "Eye of the Tiger" the nadir of '80s pop acknowledge that it holds all the key elements of a standout running tune. "I understand the greatness of it," says Kenny Laguna, Joan Jett's longtime producer (and recreational runner). "In working out, there is nothing more dramatic, more intense than what a fighter does. So when you're running to it, you can picture Rocky Balboa waking up at 4 a.m. and taking a run and pounding the steps in Philadelphia. It's a simple, powerful message."
Maybe so — but let's be up-front for a moment. If you take the sport seriously, there's a 50-50 chance you consider the phrase "truly great running song" as disconcerting as coworkers who talk to you from the next bathroom stall. For many runners, bringing an iPod along for a jog is sacrilege. Running, they say, is about tuning in to your body; about living the moment; about not drowning out a trot through the woods with that 12,471st helping of Aretha Franklin's "Respect."
Fair enough.
But for the millions of us out there who enjoy training and even racing with music, the quest for ideal running songs is an endlessly fascinating pursuit. Hundreds of blogs and Web sites debate the subject. An ongoing Internet dispute — "Eye of the Tiger" versus Eminem's "Lose Yourself" — may well never be settled. Whereas many runners opt for the hip-hop sounds of a Talib Kweli or Public Enemy, an equal number seem drawn to rockers like Lenny Kravitz, Metallica, and Velvet Revolver; country crooners, such as Clint Black or Tanya Tucker; or even the latest techno beats.
Given such variety, does the perfect running music exist?
Definitely. So says Dr. Costas Karageorghis, a professor of psychology at West London's Brunel University. Based out of Brunel's School of Sport and Education, Karageorghis is a former collegiate sprinter who has spent two decades researching the correlation between music and athletic output. Not surprisingly, he discounts the impact music has on top-flight distance runners. "The elite choose to focus on regulating their bodies and efficiency," he says. "They focus inwardly, not on music." Yet for the rest of us, he sings a different tune. "With nonelite athletes, I've found that listening to the right songs before and during exercise will not simply reduce feelings of tiredness, it will also increase performance levels by up to 20 percent," he says. "That means the rhythmic component of music is almost an analog for movement and decreased energy expenditure. If runners pick the right songs, they can improve their efficiency."
So what are the right songs? Through research pinpointing the relationship between heart rate and musical preference, Karageorghis has found that fast-tempo songs — exceeding 120 beats per minute (BPM) — yield peak performance at high exercise intensities of 75 percent maximum heart rate (with slower music working better during recovery periods). Though Karageorghis has studied the impact of literally thousands of songs, he lists four that, because of the up-tempo arrangement, feisty lyrics, and speedy BPM, induce particularly powerful results for runners performing near maximum heart rate. Keep in mind, this list is from a guy who works in a laboratory, not a record store:
1. "The Heat Is On," by Glenn Frey
2. "Reach," by S Club 7
3. "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," by The Blues Brothers
4. "William Tell Overture," by Rossini
"Our research has shown that you can select one musical track for a number of people from similar upbringings, and the impact will be profound," says Karageorghis, who is helping organize the Run to the Beat, an October 5 half-marathon in the London Borough of Greenwich that will be accompanied by meticulously selected musical acts. "There are some songs that serve as near-universal motivators. It's a proven fact."
Maybe. But "The Heat Is On"? The Blues Brothers featuring Dan Aykroyd?
"You've gotta be kidding," says Bev Oden, a former U.S. Olympic volleyball player who now runs four times a week. "Those songs don't psych people up to run. They psych people up to sleep."
Translation: Surely, we can do better.
If rocker-runners like Peterik and Laguna agree on one thing, it's that the effective workout songs — ranging from Kanye West's "Stronger" to AC/DC's "Back in Black" — share a common trait of simplicity. Simple beats, simple chords, simple messages. During a break in the filming of 8 Mile in 2001, Eminem revisited a song he had been working on for over a year. He wanted the track to capture the theme of the movie — the fight for respect and a better life. In less than two hours, he completed "Lose Yourself," which pairs a relatively basic beat with potent words of inspiration.
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment/You own it, you better never let it go/You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow/This opportunity comes once in a lifetime...
"It's just a perfect song for getting amped up to run," says Dan Browne, a member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon team. "There's nothing confusing about it — just a plain ol' go-get-'em message that you have to respond to."
Many runners, even those with exquisitely hip taste in music, seem to prefer working out to less sophisticated fare. For all their obvious gifts, performers like Bob Dylan, Billie Holliday, and Van Morrison appear on precious few running mixes — while across America thousands of pavement pounders bob up and down to the upbeat sounds of Madonna and the Black-Eyed Peas. "I just want something that's fast," says Brad Hudson, the former 2:13 marathoner who now coaches Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein. "It doesn't have to be deep."
Along with simplicity, an informal poll of runners and musicians shows that the best workout songs draw upon at least a few of the following five attributes.
A Relentless Rhythm
"When I'm exercising, I want to feel sort of angry and intense," says David Hodo, a recreational runner and a longtime member of the Village People (he's the construction worker). "I actually listen to a lot of Joan Jett, because there's a real emphasis in her music on the bam! bam! bam! bam! bam! power that gets you going. Joan's not messing around."
Equally important, the hard-driving sounds of artists from Led Zeppelin and The Strokes to Outkast and Queens of the Stone Age serve as a sort of heart-pumping metronome. Though one can surely knock out intervals to Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were," there's a physical reaction to a pounding drum, a fierce guitar riff, a big-voiced singer screaming at the top of his lungs (wince and picture David Lee Roth here). There's a reason so many runners seem smitten by the relentless intensity of alt-rockers Rage Against the Machine eight years after the band's break-up: Drummer Brad Wilk's unparalleled speed behind the skins. "They make me want to run every time I hear 'em," says DJ Aaron (White Owl) Handelman, former MC of Bad Ronald, a 1990s hip-hop group. "Some beats you just can't stop."
Powerful Themes
"That's what I like about 'Lose Yourself,'" says country star Carolyn Dawn Johnson, who has run three half-marathons. "The song is about falling down and getting right back up off your butt. I can't imagine a runner not relating to it."
Most beloved running songs feature lyrics that inspire or inflame passions. "Eye of the Tiger" concerns getting tough in the face of despair. AC/DC's "Back in Black" is about returning from the dead stronger than ever (the song is a tribute to Scott, the band's lead singer who had died a few months earlier). Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" is an angry proclamation for social change. "The songs that get me angry get me pumped up," says Handelman. "And the songs that get me pumped up make me want to run faster."
A Trancelike Quality
Though Steve Boyett is loathe to admit it, he knows one of the reasons people listen to his running mixes is to forget they're listening to his running mixes. Boyett is the creator of and DJ for podrunner.com, a Web site and popular podcast of electronic dance music. Sure, he likes to think people will hear the different sounds blended together and conclude, "Wow, this guy's a genius." Yet he knows how runners think.
"At its best, the music acts as a mediator between the body and the mind," says Boyett. "It gives a runner something to focus on and occupies enough concentration that the athlete isn't bombarded by 'Jeez, just let this race be over.'"
Jen Rhines, a former Villanova standout who placed third in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, agrees. A favorite for long runs: "Freefall," a techno track by the Dutch duo Jeckyll & Hyde. The song offers no lyrics, no stirring message, and no diversity of sound. "I don't need someone telling me I can do it," Rhines says. "I just like a repetitive sound that I can focus on."
An Aggressive Pace
Often without knowing it, runners use music as a pacer, timing their strides with a song's beats per minute. While this works wonders with a tune like White Zombie's fast-and-furious "More Human Than Human," it doesn't exactly lend itself to a day of up-tempo training with the airy melodies of the Carpenters.
"That's what's great about running to electronica — the BPM is almost always perfect for runners," says Boyett, whose site offers an array of mixes at various BPMs. "Musicians and producers don't go into a studio and think, 'Let's make a slow, laid-back electronica song. It's always fast and powerful — just what runners want. So when you're running and the music is coming at the perfect speed, you're on another level."
And yet, a high BPM does more than just pace. According to Boyett, it subliminally coerces a runner to literally speed up and make an effort to stay with the beat. While a five-hour marathoner can't keep time with the beats of, say, The Crystal Method's "Bad Stone," the music can push a runner, causing him to churn his arms a little more and lengthen his stride a bit as the impossibly fast beats infiltrate his eardrums.
Uplifting Arrangements
For every 10 runners craving the pace-pushing drive of The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army," there will always be a few looking for expansive melodies and sweeping soundscapes that just hold them up for a while. Take Misha Dichter, the renowned classical pianist, who would sooner listen to a wood chipper than a Pantera album.
"Of all the things to exercise to, my favorite are Bruckner symphonies. They help me almost forget I'm doing something strenuous." This is also why so many races play Bill Conti's original Rocky theme near the finish line. The soaring optimism of the horn section combined with the chorus's cheesy chant of "gonna fly now," has an almost universal effect of sustaining the runners' energy when it's flagging the most.
Olympic marathoner Deena Kastor uses trance DJ Matt Darey's up-tempo remake of U2's "Beautiful Day" to a similar effect for her tempo runs. "My husband Andrew plays it from the car alongside me during the final mile of these hard-effort days," she says. Inspiring tunes like these can keep elites and midpackers going when a more fast and furious tune would beat them down. In other words, they run happy. "I'm slow enough that I'm not looking for music to give me a better time," says Dichter, a self-professed New York City plodder. "I'm listening to music to give me a pleasurable 45-minute experience."
For links to all the songs featured in this story and a collection of great running playlists, go to runnersworld.com/music.
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