Almost everyone in the United States should know by now that the swimmer Michael Phelps won eight olympic gold medals, all in swimming events. Much has been made of the fact that he eats between 10,000 and 12,000 calories per day, which most folks would say is way too much. But that is because he uses a heck of a lot of calories due to the long and intense physical efforts that he makes while training. Such long and arduous training burns a lot of calories. Even the fact that much of the food he eats is not supposed to be “good” for you, such as eggs, meat and cheese, is often mentioned. But that does not bother me.
What does bother me about Michael Phelps is his taste in “music”. It is known that he often wears an iPod, and except when actually in the water, he seems to be wearing an iPod most of the time. This has raised the question, “What is he listening to on his iPod”? Well, while watching the olympics on television, I heard one of the announcers say that he often listened to rap “music”. And sure enough, an Internet search on this subject brings up many web sites which say that Michael Phelps usually listens to “rap” or “hip-hop” on his iPod, one site here and another one here. I find this disgusting. I personally find “rap” or “hip-hop” not even worthy of the name “music”. What, some guy loudly and quickly shouts some “verses”, with no musical notes at all, and that is supposed to be “music”? Give me a break! At most some of the verses very vaguely ressemble musical notes when the “rapper” changes the vocal register with which he shouts words. This is similar to the difference in the vocal register between words spoken by a young woman and the same words spoken by a grown man. No, that is not music, despite the background “beats”. And I have not even mentioned the contents of the verses, many of which are ridiculous at best, totally obnoxious at worst. And given one of the Internet references I made above, some of what Phelps supposedly listens to contains four-letter words. I personally am in no way a prude, but too much is too much. Shame on you Michael Phelps for listening to that garbage.