30 Day Song Challenge, Day 3: A Song That Makes You Happy
I’m going to pick a song and a DJ mix.
First, the song: KMDFM’s Drug Against War (Overdose Mix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Tf7cmON2Y
Few things make me happier than running, and this is my favorite song to run to. It’s really fast, and it’s really aggro, and it builds to a few solid climaxes, so, the perfect running song. I listen to this during the fastest part of my run, and you can bet I lip-synch along to the “K-M-F-D-M!” every time.
The DJ Mix: Jacques Lu Cont, BBC Essential Mix (2012)
If the KMFDM track is something that accompanies and facilitates something that makes me happy, then this mix is a piece of music that makes me feel good just by listening to it. This is my favorite DJ mix. I heard it live in 2012 while I was walking the dogs, and I listen to it at least once a week still. It’s SO GOOD. The remix of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” (around 8:00) is genius: it takes the energy of the arpeggiated guitar riff and makes it light, airy, shimmery–decidedly not like a steamtrain barrelling at you. And then the big climax that takes “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” (around 1:09:30) and puts it over what sounds like the combination of a drum corps-style company front and an EDM soar? Woah. (For the record, Stuart Price/Thin White Duke/Jacques Lu Cont/Tracques is probably my favorite DJ/producer. The records he produced for Madonna & Pet Shop Boys are also fantastic.)
Runners up: Nicki Minaj feat. Drake, Lil Wayne, & Chris Brown, “Only” (bc the whole song is a joke, mainly on Chris Brown); Au Pairs, “Come Again” (misandry! pointing out shallow men’s feminisms!); Happy Mondays, “Wrote For Luck” (it’s stupid fun).
You have a fastest part of your run? How do you plan for such things? Or does the song produce the fastest part of your run — that is, whenever this song is on becomes the fastest part of your run?
I love the idea that the music that makes us good at doing what makes us happy makes us happy.
Adriel, I run on a treadmill. I get faster and faster and faster so that the last part is a full-on sprint as fast as I can till I’m exhausted. My playlists also get harder and faster over the course of the run.