Angela van Baal is an ICA member from the Netherlands. She is planning on playing some of the old classic songs first used in the early days of Spinning® for her International Indoor Cycling Day ride this weekend.
WHAT A FABULOUS IDEA!!
Johnny G and his early Spinning master instructor team introduced the fitness world to incredible electronic beats, including trance, dance, down-tempo, world beat, and chill music that you were more likely to hear on the beaches of Ibiza. What better way to celebrate this activity we love so much than to honor some of the great music from back then?
Angela contacted me today and asked if I had any recommendations.
Oh, boy, do I! Most of you who know me know I started teaching Spinning 21 years ago and that I became a Spinning master instructor in 1997. The photo above is of me and master instructors Michael Ferrante and Josh Taylor from WSSC 2008.
This music populated most of my playlists back in the early days. While I have become much more diverse the past decade and use songs from almost every genre (well, maybe not country!), I still often gravitate toward many of these longer electronic tracks, especially for more mind-body and mental strength profiles that work best with songs that have fewer lyrics or a mesmerizing rhythm to them.
At ICA, we have had a bi-weekly music series since 2011 called Wednesday Timeless Classics. This series contains song suggestions from the early days of Spinning. I curate this series along with Bryon Black, an instructor with over 20 years of experience who worked with Johnny G back in the day. Bryon and I have hundreds of classic “Spinning” songs from this era that we love to share with other instructors. In each of our posts, we give you the bpm and explain how to optimally use the energy, emotion, and rhythm of the song to match the message of your profile or of your cueing. We also often explore the history of the songs.
MY FAVORITE CLASSIC SPINNING SONGS
Fun article. This would be fun to hear from all the music editors on ICA what their top 5 or 10 tracks and why. Always interesting what a particular instructor finds interesting inside of each track. Here’s one of mine, you never heard it before.
Tibet 1933 / Aritist / Album unknown – Played by JG only at WSSC 2000. It took me 3 years to find the song on an obscure FTP server in Italy and I had to trade 30 ripped songs to get a copy. I became a song hunter tracking this song down. 🙂
I wish I could hear that song! I can only image how good it must be—you know I love your music choices…and Johnny’s of course!
Good idea…maybe I’ll ask all the music contributors for ICA their top 5 songs of all time for the beginning of 2017!
Another classic that I didn’t include in this list but meant to is “Drifting Away” by Faithless.
I first heard it in 1999. I was traveling around Europe and knew Johnny G was going to be in Interlaken Switzerland. My friend and I left Italy that morning where we were camping, got to the park where I thought the event would be but wasn’t 100% sure (this was before smart phone GPS!). We heard loud music in the distance and said, “yup, I think this is it!”
Just as we walked up and saw Johnny G up on stage in front of a group of well over 100 bikes, the song “Drifting Away” began, and I was instantly entranced by the opera singer. No Shazam either—it took me a long time to find out what the song was. I purchased the CD as soon as I found out.
I have way to many favorites but Armin Van Burrenn is on my top list of an Artist. C’est Musquical is an 11 minute song in which I hold them at a Flat Road for the first 3 1/2 minutes. Focusing on breathing, and pedal technique incorporating speed. From there its a mixed terrain Ride. I incorporate runs and Hills, back down to a flat. I take them to the summit with a strong fast Climb using the driving beat!
yes, another great one! Thanks for sharing.