The music at 24 Hour Fitness

For my morning workout, I switch between two different 24 Hour Fitness locations. One is right by where I live, in Irvine, California, where people tend to be either white or some kind of Asian. The other gym, near Long Beach in the city of Carson, is on my way to work. Most of the customers I see there are either black or Filipino.

Each location plays different kinds of music.

At my neighborhood 24 Hour Fitness, the music that's played is the angst-ridden punk and alternative that people have come to expect out of Orange County. (To be fair, I like a lot of the songs they play.)

In Carson, it's a bigger gym with some sort of Magic Johnson approval. They make a big deal of being tied in with Magic Johnson, and his pictures are plastered over all four of the walls, on both floors. If I were Magic Johnson, I would be a little embarrassed to have so many pictures of me smiling statically at people as they work out. The music is hip hop and R&B. As both workout and leisure music, it works for me. (In fact, it recently helped me rediscover the genius of Usher.)

Noticing the difference, I got to wondering who makes the music selections. If it's an official policy that the music fit the ethnic demographics of the community where the physical gym is located, then I'm pleasantly surprised that they took a factor like that into consideration.

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