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This Playlist Could Literally Save Your Life–Or the Life of Someone Else. Behold the CPR Jam.

Imagine this: You’re at a gig and everything is going great. Then suddenly the guy next to you collapses. He’s unconscious and has stopped breathing. What do you do?

Everyone should know how to do basic CPR but not enough people take any kind of training. We’ve all seen someone pumping on a downed person’s chest, but how do you do it properly? The rule is to administer two-inch sternum compressions right between the nipples at a rate of about 100 pumps per minute. That’s almost twice a second. How do you approximate that?

This is the thinking behind a new playlist issued by New York Presbyterian Hospital. It features forty songs–think of it as an 2 hours and 28 minutes CPR jam–that can provide a proper BPM pace for chest compressions. Should the situation arise, you could call up this playlist on your phone, jam in your earbuds and get to work.

You might not like most the music contained herein–Bee Gees? Hanson? That goodness for some Ramones, though–but that’s not the point. Your job is to keep that guy on the floor from dying.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38031 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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