A good walkout song is hard to find.
Why? I’d say the cause is multivariate. Part of the underlying issue, if I may, is that pro fighters have a different set of objectives when selecting entrance music than you and I do when we’re browsing iTunes. They’re looking for something to adrenalize themselves and the crowd. For many fighters, that means a song they can smack their head to as they make their way to the cage. Hey, nothing wrong with that. It’s just that on more than a few occasions, the song makes me smack my head, too, though for different reasons.
But there’s also the fact that a lot of today’s music is very, very bad. Hey, I’m no snob. I listen to Kenny Loggins. I’m in no position to judge. But you know what? The sun rises in the east, water is wet, and there’s a lot of really bad music out there right now. A LOT. And you know what else? It’s OK to say that. We, the people, don’t have to pretend to like everything ironically if we don’t want to. We don’t have to shrug our shoulders and mumble something about how it’s all subjective while yet another jabroni in a faux hawk relieves himself in our ear canals. There is bad music out there. Lots of it. And it’s hurting our MMA walkout music culture. THERE. I said it.
That felt good. I was saying something. So the bad walkout music situation, it’s a heady brew of functioning in a world with a high demand for fist pumping, jokes that fell flat or just didn’t make sense, and that aforementioned bad sample pool. It’s a very rich tapestry. And it is a tapestry that tells the tale of the Misadventures of Walkout Music, 2012 edition. More than a slideshow. A case study, of our lives and times.