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Music as a Workout Motivator
It’s getting near that time of year when outdoor workouts come in from the cold. Today: how music in your health club is chosen -- and why music matters to your workout. Also: Damon Albarn, frontman of the Britpop group Blur, and graphic artist Jamie Hewlett, a comic-book artist and designer, talk about writing an opera based on a 16th-century Chinese fable. Finally: Jazz meets Indian raga in the works of saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.
Music in the health club
It’s long been known that fitness clubs use music to motivate their customers. But increasingly gyms are piping one format into the cardio room, and another into the weight area or spinning class. We look at the art and science of getting gym customers pumped up through music.
Soundcheck blog: John Schaefer asks if music can motivate you at the gym.
When Opera Meets Animation
Damon Albarn, frontman of the Britpop group Blur, and Jamie Hewlett, a comic-book artist and designer, first teamed up for the animated insanity of the “virtual band” Gorillaz. Now they’ve joined forces with actor and director Chen Shi-Zheng for “Monkey: Journey to the West,” a mash-up of opera, electronica, and animation based on a 16th-century Chinese fable. Albarn and Jamie join us to talk about the sounds behind "Monkey."
More about "Monkey: Journey to the West"
"Monkey: Journey to the West" on Amazon.com
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa has often explored the music of his parents’ country – India – in this work. But he takes a step further into that direction on his new album, Kinsmen, done in collaboration with Kadri Gopalnath, known as the Indian emperor of the saxophone. Mahanthappa joins us to talk about it.
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