Powerlifting Meet Music

Thought I’d ask for as many opinions as possible here, have you been to a successful PL meet, did they play music? what type? did it work for you? any specific songs that work good? suggestions?

Heres the situation, we’re (my team) putting on a meet (not our first), its CPU (IPF) sanctioned so a couple things must be noted, music must be fairly clean, cannot be played during the lift, only up until the lifter steps foot on the platform (during loading and between lifters). I’ve got 20,000 song’s on the HD so through anything and everything out there.

Thanks.

Here in the states at local events we direct, we tend to just keep the music at a moderate level and jam it the whole time.

Don’t know about the CPU, but to me, turning it up and down, etc. is unneeded at the local level. Kind of like the ER Rack requirement.

As long as you can hear the announcer, and the lifter and other judges can hear the head ref you are good.

I think it adds tons to the environment. It’s just like a good announcer and we get lifters coming back every year specifically to meets we direct because the atmosphere is cool.

As far as tunes, I play all kinds of shit.

When people are arriving and in between sessions, etc. I usually play a little more mellow stuff. Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Hendrix, etc.

During the meet I run mixes of standard stuff. Metallica with a bias towards Garage Inc. (really dig somoe of the merciful fate and motorhead covers) and Ride the Lightning, Priest, Megadeth, Maiden, System, Audioslave, Foo, Nirvana etc.

I don’t really play any rap or death metal because like you said you need to keep it clean and IMO you are better off staying relatively mainstream, especially if you are anticipating a big spectator turnout with families of lifters, etc.

Just some thoughts off the top of my head.

Good luck with the contest. When is it?

Thanks, APW.
You really helped me get off the fench on a couple of issues there, I wanted opinions because I knew the music we play in the gym isn’t stuff we’ll be playing at the meet, as its mostly rap and death/black metal.
I’m working on finding the line, it has to be family friendly but still hard enough to motivate a 45 year old biker/lifter.

We have three ER racks at the gym so if need be lifters can easily obtain and alert us of rack/safety rack changes pre-warm up.
The meet is Saturday, set up tomorow night.

[quote]Power GnP wrote:
Thanks, APW.
You really helped me get off the fench on a couple of issues there, I wanted opinions because I knew the music we play in the gym isn’t stuff we’ll be playing at the meet, as its mostly rap and death/black metal.
I’m working on finding the line, it has to be family friendly but still hard enough to motivate a 45 year old biker/lifter.

We have three ER racks at the gym so if need be lifters can easily obtain and alert us of rack/safety rack changes pre-warm up.
The meet is Saturday, set up tomorow night.[/quote]

Cool.

Not sure if you caught the context or not but I was using the ER Rack as an example of a rule that I don’t really think needs to be enforced at the local level. Akin to turning the music on and off.

My position has always been, for a local meet, as long as you can hear the commands and the announcer it is fine. We just let it run.

Have fun. I always enjoy putting on a meets. It’s kind of like being in the eye of the tornado. Good times.

Sorry, caught it, just forgot to elborate.

Yup, this meet will be as straight forward no-nonsense as they get, it will essentially be a qualifier for those wishing to go to Nationals in April but have yet to get a qualifying total. We are still doing the meet t-shirt/medals thing though.

As a team about 1/3 of us are competing, the rest are passing as we are on peaking cycles for Nationals or in the case of two of our lifter competing at the Arnold on March 1st.

I agree its great to see the sport from all perspectives, as a teenager still (20 on Feb.23) I have started on my judge ciriculum and intend to run for provincal VP, I also lift and help with the team.

[quote]apwsearch wrote:
I don’t really play any rap or death metal because like you said you need to keep it clean and IMO you are better off staying relatively mainstream, especially if you are anticipating a big spectator turnout with families of lifters, etc.
[/quote]

I went to an IPA meet once to spectate and was surprised to hear heavy metal the entire time and lot of explicit lyrics considering the amount of kids that were around. I’m not really a fan of that genre and it starts to hurt my ears after a while.

I’d say keep it moderate, as APW said. Plus the whole speed metal garbage is overdone. To me, if you really need some guy growling over a horrible guitar riff to get up for a big lift, it’s time to change sports.

Personally, I prefer hearing some black metal when I step on the platform- or at least something aggressive.

I hear a lot of late 80s metal at meets- old Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, Testament, Maiden, Sepultura. Occasionally, I hear newer stuff like Deicide, Marduk, Cannibal Corpse.

I have heard horribel meet music. At one meet, they played that 80s song “Sister Christiane” (I think Night Ranger did it). At another meet, i heard what sounded like a cover the Hank Jr. song “Country Boy Can Survive” covered byan unaccompanied singer and accoustic guitar. These songs do not make you want to run out the platform hungry for PRs and virgin blood.

I did a meet where they played a lot of old R&B and disco-James Brown, the Commodores, Donna Summer. I liked the music- but not to lift to.

I did a USAPL meet once where we lifted in stone fucking silence. It was like lifitng in a spelling bee.

I never hear much old punk rock or oi tunes at meets. It too bad- I love cranking that shit in the gym- Black Flag, DK, Exploited, Templars, Misfits, etc.

As a lifter and a parent, I don’t see the problem with explicit lyrics in meet music. Besides, generally, nobody has any clue what the lyrics are unless they read the liner notes. The singer could be reading out of the phone book for all I know.

Get a wanna be DJ. Go over what he has and keep it upbeat and hard, i do think explicit lyrics need to be kept to a minimum. Everything from Molly Hatchet to 50 cent to Linkin Park is fine. Not a death metal fan but at meet it works, mainly if the lifter is big, bald, tatted up and with a beard.

i pick my own psyche music for my headphones, but it is cool when a meet lets you pick what you want played when you are lifting.

Besdt announcer i have seen talks about each lifter since he goes out of his way to meet andf talk to each one. Sort of like a MNF color guy, just leading the audience to cheer on each lifter.

jack

I believe you have your choice between;

Metal

Speed metal

And black metal.