Last week, as I've done often in the past, I attended a Turbo Kickboxing class at 24 Hour Fitness.

I almost walked out.1) The music was louder than a rock concert.
2) The music was not anywhere near as good as most rock concerts.

More specifically, the music appeared to be a highly unfortunate (and perhaps unplanned) melding of techno, heavy metal, and hip hop, but with less musicality and substantially more bass.

This did not inspire me to kick. Or box. It inspired me to think, "Who the hell picks this Godawful crap, and why aren't they here for use as a target practice?"

So of course, I complained to the kickboxing instructor. The conversation went something like this:

ME: Nitin, I generally like the class and all, but the music... uh, okay, I won't mince words. It sucks.

NITIN: Hey, I REALLY LIKE this music. What's wrong with it?

ME: [pausing briefly in shock and embarrassment, and not quite sure what to say] Um, did you pick it?

NITIN: No, it comes from corporate. But it seems really popular. I mean, they do a lot of focus groups and everything... 25-year-old demographic, you know.

ME: I guess I really am old.

Nitin just smiled back, clearly agreeing with me.

* * *

Fast forward to today, when I was reading once again about cell phone ringback tones.

I never did even understand the allure of even customized cell phone ring tones. A couple guys in my office have creative-y ring tones that are really loud, and when I hear them I'm either mildly amused or mildly annoyed, but I never think to myself, "Wow, how can *I* play a mediocre 12 second snippet of a washed-out pop tune on MY cell phone?!"

Ringback tones are even more perplexing to me. When I call someone, I don't feel like hearing a cell-phone-connection-'quality' snippet of some song that my friend happened to choose, especially if I have to hear that dang clip every time I call them.

And to think that people pay for this stuff?!

Just goes to show you, there's a few million bored suckers born every minute I'm getting really old and cranky.

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