Gym playlists

[HadEnufff]

Before I start I'm fully aware that I have access to headphones and this is very much a first world problem.

I attend JD Gyms and the playlist in the past was always fairly inoffensive - general up-beat dance music and some remixes that you only ever seemed to hear in the gym. It wasn't the sort of thing I would listen to in my own time but it wasn't bad enough to really take any notice of.

But in the last few months, the playlists have changed and they are now horrible! I don't know the genres but I think it might be drill. There's the cringeworthy stuff of grown men referring to themselves as gangsters, a rap which names Manchester United football players and others which refer to "roadmen" and "youngers".

But there are other unpleasant tracks where they boast about how many guns they own, brag about earning 10k per week (I think by selling drugs), being violent towards their enemies, and rate women out of 10, alongside other general misogyny.

Am I alone in really despairing that this sort of music apparently appeals to a mass market these days, finding it all quite intimdating and not recognising the culture described in the music? Has anyone else also noticed this with their gym playlist?

I yearn for the days of the Avril Lavigne remix, BZ featuring Joanne and all the other bops I'd never heard of before.

If that was me I'd probably curse silently and say nothing for want of not sounding like a 'fuddy duddy' but I don't think YABU.
I am lucky, my old school male-orientated gym doesn't play much other than heavy metal 😂

Headphones at the gym, always. I thought this was going to be about building a gym playlist!
My favourite running/cross trainer song is beat surrender by the Jam and curve ball that's not my name by the ting tings.
I need different beats for different workouts, you need to control your own soundtrack!

Having said that there is a HIIT class at my gym where the trainer has an astonishing 80s set list, the class isn't even amazing just ok, but I go for the music!

I didn't know this was a thing. Does the gym stream a playlist to everyone working out? They should keep it upbeat really.

I have a workout playlist on Spotify premium or listen to radio 1 when I exercise.

Have you actually, you know, spoken to the gym about this? Because probably somebody let a young drill enthusiast have a go on the playlist and they naively set out to "improve" it, but management is unlikely to want to alienate their customers and will probably fix it back quite quickly after they hear from you.

PS misogynistic musical posturing has been around for decades and decades. It's nothing new.