Easy Listening

Working in a healthclub has brought me to light with a grouping of songs that have survived the test of time (many unfairly, I might add) through PA systems in gyms, grocery stores, and elevators. These are songs like John Mellencamp's almost-forgettable Wild Nights. A song that I wouldn't even call the best song on Human Wheels-one of the weaker albums
in a fairly weak career. This is a song whose lyrics go:

Well, everything looks so complete
When you're walking out on the street.
And the wind it catches your feet
And sends you flyin'.
Flyin'
Ooo ooo
Ooo Wee

The lyrics are not only questionable in regard to being piss-poor, but also for a sense of falsehood-as it's not necessarily a wild night, but a windy night. Apparently it makes for good shopping/floor transporting/bench pressing music, though.
My gym is also known for including Gary Jules' Mad World to help people pump up and run an hour and a half. Mad World may be familiar to many people as it was used in the movie Magnolia's soundtrack. It's just a bare piano and a haunting voice singing:

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad.
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had.

Now, picture forty people running on treadmills in full sprints with those words lullabying in the background. It's an interesting experience.