Music to run to

Nicked from http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/02/08/these-are-like-photoshop-popcorn/

In my last post I mentioned that I had a playlist on my iPod that was of music with 180 bpm. On the off chance that someone reading this blog is interested, here's how I did it... I used a program on the Mac called BPMer, which goes through your iTunes library and automatically computes the bpm (beats per minute) of each song. It does a surprisingly good job. Then in iTunes, you set up a "smart playlist" with the criteria that the bpm should be between 175 and 180 bpm, for example. Many songs are actually strictly speaking 90 bpm but, for the purposes of running, they are just as good, if not better. Here's a top ten of songs from my playlist, aall at exactly 180 bpm:

1. Sweet Soca Music - Sugar Daddy
2. Thief's Hour - Raw Deal
3. Hit The Road Jack (Pena Estrada) - Mo' Horizons
4. Take Me Back To Piaui (Dubben mix) - Juca Chaves
5. Friendly Pressure - Jhelisa
6. Night Night Theme - The Infesticons
7. You Know My Steez - Gang Starr
8. Straight To Hell - The Clash
9. Nothing Else - Ben Westbeech
10. Move On Featuring Paul MacInnes - The Bamboos

Even better if you have a fairly recent generation iPod Touch or iPhone (with iOS 4.0) - there is an amazing little app called "djay" which makes a heroic attempt at the ancient art of beatmatching (speeding up or slowing down songs in order to synchronize the beats). I've tried several different similar apps and this is hands-down the best of the bunch.