Graham Reid | | 1 min read
One of the reasons for joining a gym is to listen to the relentless beat-driven, repetitive banger pop they play by people you've never heard of. The musical standard is so low that anything you choose to play at home, no matter how appalling your taste, will be far superior.
Most of what I hear at the gym is music where the singer finally gets the pleading faux-sensitive line right (helped along by AutoTune) and then that is looped and repeated through the song which is mostly just a beat to go with your jogging.
I think “gym music” is a genre in itself.
It explains why so many people there wear headphones, but I like to know what my enemy is thinking (and “singing”) so I tune in.
Recently I heard a terrible thing which conformed to all those cliched elements but had the nerve to appropriate a line – not even the melody -- from the Beach Boys beautiful Wouldn't It Be Nice?
It was so awful I decided to find out who it was (the why? would be beyond me) and it was by a Seattle guy Powell Aguirre who goes by the moniker Surf Mesa. The song was Another Life and had racked up more than 40 million Spotify plays.
The news got worse, this song ily by him with singer Emilee has had about 920 million plays.
As you may hear Emilee sings a snatch from the Frankie Valli's 1967 Can't Take My Eyes Off You.
So Surf Mesa's contribution here was to use a sample from a cover and add his sonic backdrop of beats and such.
It was TikTok hit and then charted in many countries and Powell was signed by a major label.
It was probably champagne and coke in the boardroom.
But sad to report Surf Mesa's subsequent singles have done nothing on the charts, not even Carried Away with Madison Beer (about whom we previously took passing interest in). That has had only 61 million Spotify streams.
To really appreciate his music you need to join a gym.
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For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.
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I tried to do the gym thing previously and wrote about that here. I'm giving it a decent go at the moment and am actually enjoying it. But the music? Not at all.
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