A Musical Survey of Swimmers

Feature by Tyler Remmel

PHOENIX, Arizona, May 16. MUSIC and swimming have an intimate and long-standing relationship. We hum tunes in our head at practice, we hear songs pounding in warm-ups and between finals heats, and most swimmers swear by their iPods and headphones in the minutes preceding a race.

To most, it's more than just a form of entertainment or a way to pass the time. Music has the ability to convince a swimmer that it literally affects performance. In championship meets, a top qualifier can be heartbroken when meet management picks the parade song. Behind the blocks, some struggle to hear those final few seconds of "their song" before the starter calls them up. Playlists are pre-queued, and taking out the ear-buds is as habitual as putting on a cap and goggles.

Of course, music use is not universal. Everyone doesn't need it to perform at the highest level; in terms of a physical need, it could be argued that no one needs it. Yet, those who listen to music need it like a drug. They swear by it, and worry that not listening to their pre-race playlist will result in a poor swim.

The universality of music stems from the customizability that it offers, and how that can translate in music's ability to function in such a wide variety of roles. For one swimmer, a track that will get heartbeat and adrenaline levels up will suffice; another person might look for something that will calm the nerves. Some swimmers also say they need a light-hearted melody to shake the seriousness of the race, a song they can get up and dance to.

Music transcends societies, even in the swimming world. Human beings connect with music. We have favorite songs – songs that "speak" to us. We have times when we listen to a lyric and think, "Hey, that's talking about me!" or "Hey, I wish that was talking about me!"

This infatuation that a swimmer has with music is fascinating, and in an effect to quantify it, I decided to ask swimmers: What do you jam out to?

Questions in the survey included asking for the title and artist of a swimmer's "top pump-up/motivational song," why that song works and if they would select that song to walk out to in finals.

Even in a diverse survey sample (where there was an equal representation of male-to-female, and at least 10 percent of the sample hailed from another country), there was a repetitive tendency. Because an open-ended question like why a song works as motivation before a race can result in an infinite number of unique responses, I developed a list of 12 key words that attributed a song's motivational ability to its physical, emotional, and/or spiritual appeals.

Now, it is important to note that it has not been proven that music has a positive effect on physical performances in the pool. That said, the mental impact of music cannot be denied.

It seems that music affects the brain in a way similar to how tech suits did; if you believed that your suit was better than what the person standing next to you was wearing, it was an advantage. If you believe that music puts you in a better mindset, it will.

Thus, if you believe that your music is an advantage to you, then you will have that same sort of edge over your competitor that the suits gave—blissfully ignorant of the fact that your competitor probably has the same thoughts circulating through their head, but which doesn't actually matter that much.
Physical response keywords

BEAT, RHYTHM, BASS, HEARTBEAT, *BUILD (also considered emotional)
The word beat came up in the why responses almost twice as often as the next most common word, appearing in 58 percent of all responses. That said, it is apparent that the belief that music causes a physical effect could not be denied.

Swimmers believe the beat and tempo of a song has a direct effect on their heartbeat (heartbeat itself appeared in six percent of responses).

Ashland University swimmer Hueston Holder picked Hollywood Undead's "Undead" as his top pump-up song. "It's an upbeat song and is just something that will really get your blood pumping."

Bass correlated well with beat, and explains why 10 percent of the songs noted fall into the up-and-coming genre of "dubstep." Based on the concept of re-mixing songs, dubstep uses a lot of deep bass sounds and repetitive percussion phrases with a high tempo. Essentially, dubstep has all the elements that seem to be most important in a physical response to music.

For some, this physical reaction was based on more than just the beat or bass. The tendency for a song to build, especially in its introduction, was noted as a reason for high personal connection to that song–an emotional connection.

As an interesting side note, beat was not only contributed to increasing the heartbeat, but also decreasing it.

LYRICS, FOCUS, DANCE, CALM, HAPPY, BUILD (Emotional response keywords)
Developing an emotional connection to a song seems to stem primarily from the lyrics of the song. Thirty-two percent of respondents mentioned lyrics in their reasoning for selecting a particular song, the second-most popular keyword that appeared in the survey results.

This poetic connection also epitomizes the appeal that music has to a wide audience, causing reactions that make a swimmer feel like a song relates to his or her particular situation or life.

Played before every New York Yankees home game, Nelly's "Heart of a Champion" is a popular song played at sporting events of all kinds, swim meets included. Ashland University swimmer Julie Widmann picked it as her top motivational song. She said, "It only has positives to think on."

More superficially, the lyrics of a song dictate how easy it is to sing along to, which also was noted as the reason for picking songs in the survey. As the results showed, females tended to pick singable songs much more often than males. Songs that were easy to dance to were also popular among female respondents.

This ability to alter a swimmer's focus was widespread as well, being mentioned explicitly in 13 percent of responses. Interestingly, focus was used to describe a song's ability to increase focus as well as its ability to act as a distraction. This ambiguity again points to why music is so popular and listening is widespread.

DIFFERENT, MEMORY (Spiritual response keywords)
In the most rudimentary definition of the word spiritual, spiritual appeals also affected motivational song selection.

A song's tendency to be different was a draw for 10 percent of respondents. The word different has such an abstract definition, which was reflected in the ways that it was used in responses.

University of Northern Iowa swimmer Natalie Johnson picked "Machine Gun" by Noisia as her top motivational song on the basis of the superficial meaning of different.

"It's a bunch of different guns remixed with techno music," she said. "What's more [awesome] than that?"

Canadian swimmer Larissa Ruiz connects with "Chelsea Smile" (Bring Me the Horizon) on a much deeper level.

"I don't usually listen to screamo, but ["Chelsea Smile"] is something different," said Ruiz. "[It] just seems to channel an alternate self."

Then again, a spiritual connection to music can also be superstitious.

Former Ashland swimmer Allison Morgan picked Fort Minor's "Remember the Name" because of a personal superstition. "I had the meet of my life listening to it," she said.

Spirituality can even appeal to a song's ability to invoke memories. Buffalo swimmer Tracy Vogel remembers picking "Let it Rock" by Kevin Rudolf as her first finals walkout song.

"Since then, listening to [it] brings back good memories of that 200 fly," she said.

As it turns out, the ambiguity of music is its greatest strength as a motivator; in total, the songs mentioned in the survey fell into seven distinct genres. Oh, and if you're looking for a new song to put into your pre-meet playlist, here's a list of what came up in the survey:

"Amazing," Kanye West
"Blind Faith," Chase & Status
"Can't Be Touched," Roy Jones Jr.
"Chelsea Smile," Bring Me the Horizon
"Cities of the Future," Infected Mushroom
"Crazy Train," Ozzy Osbourne
"Don't Stop Me Now," Queen
"Fire Fire," Fannypack & Mr. Vegas
"Firework," Katy Perry
"Go Hard," DJ Khaled
"Heart of a Champion," Nelly
"I'm Me," Lil' Wayne
"It's My Life," Bon Jovi
"Let It Rock," Kevin Rudolf
"Lights Remix," Ellie Goulding
"Love is on Fire," ItaloBrothers
"Machine Gun," Noisia
"More," Usher
"My Girl," DJ Khaled
"My Time," Fabolous & Jeremih
"Pon de Replay," Rihanna
"Remember the Name," Fort Minor
"September," Earth, Wind and Fire
"She Takes Me High," We the Kings
"The Recluse (Nero Remix)," Plan B
"The Time (Dirty Bit)," Black Eyed Peas
"Till' I Collapse," Eminem
"Undead," Hollywood Undead
"We R Who We R," Ke$ha
"What the Hell," Avril Lavigne

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