We performed a deep clean on our shower this past weekend. Choosing the right soundtrack to fit a household task can be tricky...and also really embarrassing.
Jump down to see our cringe-worthy musical choice and to share your own. Just...promise not to make fun...
It's true! When the job ahead of us is tedious, one of our most reliable soundtracks is Milli Vanilli's Girl You Know It's True. Maybe the reason it keeps us working is because we know it's bad and we're not tempted to dance around instead of clean. Or perhaps it's because we get to take a mid-point break as we pause to flip the cassette (seriously!) to Side B.
Now we'll pull out the "cool" stuff too (Strictly Ballroom soundtrack, anything by Massive Attack or Sam Cooke, etc) but this album is was our secret weapon for really getting the job done.
In the spirit of sharing, tell us and the rest of this relatively anonymous community, your no-tell soundtrack. This time, we promise not to laugh...
Jonya & Brad's Modern A–Frame 
Quick Cleaning Tip: Keep Baseboards Cleaner With Fabric Softner
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Profile Chair by Ma...
Mac and Cheese: The Secret to Making It Rich and Creamy
Summer Recipe: No-Bake Strawberry Icebox Cake
Comments (59)
Barry Manilow's Greatest Hits.
It's a learned behavior from my mother, who loves him without irony. In a pinch, Neil Diamond or Tom Jones can be substituted.
James Bond theme songs. Thunderball by Tom Jones is really great for mopping.
There is nothing embarassing about Neil Diamond or Tom Jones, folks.
I always lean towards the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack.
The heat is on!
Not embarrassing, but we always clean to the two-disc set of Best of Bob Dylan.
Bad 80's music!
My mother also loves Barry Manilow without irony. And yeah, I clean to that too - those early influences are too deeply ingrained! I hang my head in shame!
Madonna's like a virgin cd.
So appropo, especially when I'm down on my knees cleaning the floors.
There's nothing embarassing or tricky about the best of ABBA.
madonna's immaculate collection!
Washing the windows to Rod Stewart's Maggie May and Hot Legs. hehe
David- you are funny.
I can clean anything to This American Life for some reason. I guess b/c I am so into the story I forget that I am doing something I hate. So- not embarrassing.
Now ask me what I listen to in the gym. That's embarrasing. :)
I too listen to Madonna's Like a Virgin. Had no idea I wasn't alone...
John Mellencamp's "Hurts So Good"
and Billy Idol's Greatest Hits while I'm sneering at the toilet and tub, scrubbing.
Cyndi Lauper (12 Deadly Cyns) and The Detroit Cobras. And really anything I can sing along (Dixie Chicks). I'm not embarrassed.
I listen to Salsa and Merengue at really high volume. That or I listen to the news and catch up on anything I may have missed during the week.
I listen to Technotronic's Pump up the Jam. Really gets me going when I'm doing work around the house.
How funny! I listen to Like A Virgin too! LOL
Not embarrassing, IMHO, but I always listen to ska while cleaning. It is upbeat and really keeps me going. Desmond Dekker, Toots and the Maytals, the Specials, the Slackers... any wave will do.
I LOVE JOCK JAMS while getting my clean on! Also Gipsy Kings!
Aerosmith - Permanent Vacation.
I'm not sure how this started, but it never fails to get me moving.
I like listening to the Blues..Like Stroking from Clarence Carter. It reminds me of the Friday night cleaning that we had to do before the weekend actually started.
Punk Rock for the win! Nothing keeps me cleaning so well as the Ramones or OpIvy.
Although, now that you mention it, Madonna works too...
I'm not embarrassed these, but Gypsy Kings or Yo-Yo Ma's Bach Suites. I'm not really a bit classical music person, but I love this.
I normally just put my ipod on shuffle...so its a mix of hard rock, jazz, vocals, techno...everything except country and rap...bleh.
Technotronic's Pump up the Jam - me too!!! hahaha
I always clean/do the dishes to Girl Talk
oh -- mine are bad!!!
Britney Spears - Greatest Hits and Shakira - Laundry Service
but the bigs jobs always require my favorite...Bonnie Raitt - Nick of Time...have fond memories dancing around the house, vacuuming and dusting with my mom when I was little
i second jesscon... love to clean to girl talk!
sometimes, though, i go for the "high school" playlist... LOTS of terrible, cheesy, whiny pop punk... love to hate it, hate to love it... doesn't matter, it's fun to clean to.
this post is **almost** making want to go home and clean the tub, which ive been neglecting for some time now! just to rock out with some great tunes :)
I clean to the old R&B and 70s soul and of course reggae & ska!
Madonna Immaculate sing-along!
nikita -- i love thunderball!!
i do abba and queen myself.
I totally listen to ABBA. Especially "Dancing Queen", it gets me dancing and cleaning at the same time. I have a weak spot for disco.
I clean to my euro trash dance music. The only problem is that I often stop to dance and it just prolongs the time I spend cleaning.
Soo glad I'm not the only one who puts ABBA on! I also will put on 1950's Do-Wop. Now that's fun!
Less embarrassing, more like clockwork: The Doors. Sometimes I would put the movie on just because I knew it would get me in the kitchen washing dishes, cleaning up. I should really try that now since I've got to pack house AND clean.
I've been howling along with Judas Iscariot on the Jesus Christ Superstar cast album for years. On vinyl. Time to flip the record affords me a little break, and I'm always done before the album. Amen!
My brother's choice is Squeeze's 45's Singles and Under. For some reason. Though he'd never admit that today.
Today I'm packing up my apt. to Motown and it's a little too sentimental, distracting me!
Madonna's Like a Virgin, Britney Spears Greatest Hits and the classic: Spice Girls. It's been working since I was back in my first apartment at 18.
80s music all the way, though there's nothing embarrassing about that. Bryan Adams, Rick James' Superfreak, Duran Duran, of course Thriller...
I love to clean to Check Your Head by The Beastie Boys.
my bf cleans the apartment to my lisa loeb cd's.
Let it Bleed by the Rolling Stones. Usually I start it off by listening to "Gimme Shelter" about 5 times and then by the end of my big clean I'm usually singing along to "You Can't Always Get what You Want" at the top of my lungs.
Also, for some inexplicable reason I usually end up scrubbing the tub while singing "Our Love Is Here To Stay" (sans accompaniment) by Gershwin. I have no idea how that started but I have been doing it since my very first apartment.
But Bond themes???!!! I've got to start that!
oooo, forgot about the Beastie Boys (Ch-Check it Out) and Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue). Sinatra's live CDs make the cut. Elton John.
Never embarassing. Always eclectic. The Loft on XM.
I just turn on my tvs around the house and I am surrounded by great music which miraculously elevates my mood while tending to the laundry, battling dust bunnies and cleaning the kitchen.
I sing along obnoxiously to Depeche Mode while I clean. I swear Dave Gahan can hit higher notes in the register than I can.
"You know how HAAAAAARD it is for me to shake the disease..."
(I'm 23, by the way. Depeche Mode has been a band longer than I've been alive! I do love them so.)
Added note: My mother would always clean the house listening to Eddy Arnold's "Cattle Call." I vow never to do that.
my mum and i have been known to get the dirty business done with old madonna songs, bon jovi, def leppard 80s centric some days while others is the horrible late 90s music! spice girls, and all those "bands" with like 8 people in them, ect.
although during the moving out clean out phase at the dorms one year I went through some metal- Opeth and Dream Theater blasting! (not embarrassing though) It was a long, tough job and I needed some TOUGH music... i'm so corny! lol
ABBA and Ace of Base all the way. All though I don't really find those too embarrassing. Whats horrifying is the Lindsay Lohan I also find helps me clean. I'm not sure how I even ended up with her album. Now that is embarrassing.
I'd listen to ABBA if I had some on CD, but I don't.
These days it's been Bob Marley and Rob Zombie. Sometimes the Ramones.
Sometimes "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris.
I must admit that standards and classics are the way for me... Think Peggy Lee's Greatest Hits, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Pearl Bailey. A little soul makes things move along much easier...
i proudly listen to hall & oates. rich girl - a classic. hate that it's so short.
Glad to see I'm not the only person who matches music to cleaning tasks.
For the record, it's Beastie Boys for cleaning the kitchen, Aretha Franklin for doing dishes, Liz Phair for folding laundry, and anything danceable for general cleaning. I also like Wilco, the Rolling Stones, and various soundtracks. I think I pick these because I can put on the whole CD without skipping too many songs.
The soundtrack to "Boogie Nights." I have no idea why. But I have seen the neighbor who was gardening dancing along to it, so I know I am not alone.
80's new wave dance music 2 hrs remixes, you know the stuff, "two by two", dead or alive, bananarama, madonna, new order, pet shop boys, information society... oh I'm old!!!
Footloose. ;)
The Beatles and Prince!
Cheesy pop--Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera, etc.
Yes, _Immaculate Collection_ all the way...
The soundtrack to _A Chorus Line_.
I often wonder what the Ukrainian guys living above me think about my musical tastes...
this is why i love Pandora...
i put in artists that i love, and they play similar artists that I like and it's a decent shuffle of music. Win win!
If it gets you to do cleaning its a good thing!
vileda-music has put together a list of Britains' favourite tacks to do everyone's least favourite task: cleaning...
Check out the full list to see if your picks made it to the top and get your choice in with a shout!
www.vileda-music.com