Allison Hagendorf holds arguably the coolest adult job ever. The Los Angeles resident is the global head of Rock at Spotify, which means she's responsible for curating all of the rock and alternative playlists on the streaming platform.
“I’m in charge of making sure that we understand what rock culture is in 2018,” says 38-year-old Hagendorf. “I also make sure we have playlists that cater to every single rock fan.”
The lifelong rock lover broke into the music industry directly after college, working for Columbia Records before becoming a TV music journalist.
“Music is my grounding force,” says Hagendorf. “The only thing that parallels that is fitness—specifically, running.”
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As a teen in New York’s Rockland County (yes, this rock lover grew up in Rockland), Hagendorf played field hockey and lacrosse, two cardio-intensive sports that she says inspired her love of running.
When she moved to Manhattan at age 21, as her music career took off, Hagendorf also took her running to a competitive level. She raced 5Ks at first and gradually upped the mileage to 10Ks, 15Ks, halfs, and eventually, marathons, including the New York City Marathon in 2008 and 2010. “I love to challenge myself,” she says.
Together, running and music are the “pillars that have formed my entire life,” Hagendorf says. “They’re both a religion for me,” she adds—two religions that rely heavily on each other for inspiration and even existence.
“I can’t run without my music,” says Hagendorf. She logs a 5K about once a week along the beach in Los Angeles or sometimes on the Sunset Strip on a quiet Saturday or Sunday morning. “I don’t look at it as fitness,” she says of these jaunts. “It’s more medicinal."
It’s also her chance to connect with music on a deeper level. “Sometimes I run just to hear music in a very specific way,” Hagendorf says. Because running is probably “the only time I’m actually alone,” says the self-described “total extrovert,” the activity is both “very grounding and very intimate.”
"Sound mind and sound body are essential for self love and self care,” she continues. "Running just gets me into this zone that really optimizes my creativity."
She depends on two different types of music to soundtrack her workouts. The first is “aggressive, angsty rock,” she says, describing songs with high BPMs (beats per minute) from bands and artists like Rock Me Up (a “modern day Rage Against The Machine,”), YUNGBLUD, grandson, Health - Injuries, and Beartooth. These songs encourage a no-holds-barred mentality that help her push through the physical pain of running. During the last mile of the New York City Marathon, for example, Hagendorf found strength in listening to the heavy metal band Lamb of God.
In contrast, the second type of tunage is “clear-your-mind, cruise control music,”she says. With this music, which includes a mix of alternative, pop, and throwback songs from bands and artists like Flume, Joywave, Nothing But Thieves, Sundara Karma, and Night Riots, “I’m thinking about the run and my mind can just wander,” she says. “It’s a creative outlet for me.”
She uses this more decidedly low-key type of running to discover and test new playlists. “It’s a way to focus on new music and artist discovery,” Hagendorf says. The uninterrupted space of a run helps her better listen to the flow, sequence, and tones of music. The global Spotify playlist “Rock Me Up!,” which to date has nearly 500,000 followers, was the product of a run.
In thinking back to the New York City Marathon, Hagendorf remembers running the final stretch through Central Park alongside a stranger draped in an Italian flag. “We happened to cross the finish line at the same time and fell into each other’s arms without communicating,” she says. “It was a surreal, beautiful moment of two humans side-by-side.”
Though the man didn’t speak English, and Hagendorf didn’t speak Italian, running was “the universal language that connected us,” she says, a parallel she also draws to music.
"You can’t have one without the other,” she says of her two lifelong passions. “They form a beautiful symbiotic relationship. Sometimes I’ll hear music and think, I need to run to this, and other times, when I’m running, I’ll think, I want to hear this type of music now,” she says. “They really go hand in hand.”
