Pump it up

Do you remember back in 1995 when the original Jock Jams album was released? It’s the one that started out with Michael Buffer’s “Let’s get ready to rumble!” and then moved into one of the most motivational pump-up CDs of all time.\nLook at how the times have changed.\nInstead of Tag Team and the 69 Boys, we have athletes all over the world using all kinds of different artists to get their adrenaline pumping before a big game.\nThe basketball teams displayed their pump-up music choice as they entered the floor at Hoosier Hysteria, and every professional sporting team has its own set of tunes that are played during warm-ups and introductions. I hear a lot of Kayne West, Soulja Boy and other rap songs at these events.\nBut pump-up music isn’t limited to the pros. During my years of playing hockey, I used Lil Jon’s “Throw It Up” as my ultimate pump-up music. It still gets me to this day.\nBut some people take getting hyped to an extreme level.\nTake my roommate, for instance. We will call him Frank for privacy reasons. Last week he was preparing for an intramural flag football game. I walked into the room with him sitting at his desk chair, decked out in Under Armour, wearing receiver gloves on his hands, his hood over his head, swaying back and forth to his pump-up music. His playlist consisted of Michael Jordan’s theme music – which Frank won’t stop reminding me is also the Pittsburgh Steelers’ introduction song – Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and some instrumental music from “The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” \nIt was great seeing him get so pumped up for a meaningless regular season game, except that it was 11 a.m. and the game was at 8 p.m. Frank’s a funny one.\nBut Frank got me thinking. Is pump-up music limited to sports, or could we institute it across everything we do? I think we all, at some point, have thought about what it would be like having theme music to walk around to (and if you have a good theme song for me to walk around to, please let me know), but what about having music rituals to prepare you for even the smallest of tasks?\nI could listen to Coheed and Cambria’s “The Writing Writer” before I write every column. Or I could listen to “Come Clean” by Hilary Duff before I head to the shower. I could even listen to “I Ran (So Far Away)” by A Flock of Seagulls as I’m running out the door trying to catch the U bus. The possibilities are endless. But unless MTV creates a show that incorporates it into a reality TV concept, I just don’t see it happening because, in all honesty, we don’t really need that much adrenaline to go shower.\nSo let’s just stick to using pump-up music to get hyped for sports. We can all use it to get that adrenaline flowing. \nFrank can use his playlist so that the second his cleats hit the gridiron, he will be ready to bring the “Pain Train.” Toot toot!