NewYork-Presbyterian hospital makes life-saving Spotify playlist to help you perform CPR

"Learning CPR was such a waste of time," said no one ever. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), immediate CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, can double or triple a person's chances of survival after cardiac arrest as it helps maintain blood flow to the brain and other vital organs until the heart is shocked back into a normal rhythm by emergency medical responders or with an automatic defibrillator (AED). In other words, acting swiftly and knowledgeably is key. Unfortunately, not many are trained in conventional CPR, which involves chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breaths given at a ratio of 30:2, respectively. However, there is still something all of us can do as a bystander to help save someone's life: hands-only CPR, which involves giving chest compressions alone.

The first step to administering hands-only CPR if someone collapses suddenly is to call 911 and then check to see whether the individual is responsive and breathing. Then, place your hands, one over the other, on the center of their chest and push hard and fast at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute at a depth of at least 2 inches. Although getting the tempo right can be a bit tricky, there's an easy hack to help with this. Match your compressions to the tempo of a song that's 100 to 120 beats per minute; songs like "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees or "Work It" by Missy Elliott.

There are many more hits—both old and new—that fall in the same beat range. From "Dancing Queen" by ABBA and "MMMBop" by Hanson to "Sorry" by Justin Bieber and even "Baby Shark." Since people are more likely to remember the correct pace when trained to give compressions to the beat of a familiar song, a few years ago, the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital decided to use this nifty little trick to curate an entire Spotify playlist of other hot jams to help music lovers successfully perform CPR.

"I learned how to do CPR today so now I know how to save your life but more importantly I found out New York Presbyterian Hospital maintains a Spotify playlist of songs that are the right beat to time CPR compressions to and it is on point," BuzzFeed News reporter Julia Reinstein tweeted in 2018. "Someone: oh no Jim is dying oh god please help, Me: [rolling up my sleeves] Alexa, play 'Gives You Hell' by The All-American Rejects." NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital's collection of 47 CPR-friendly music includes of a wide variety of genres, artists and even some absolutely hilarious throwbacks.

"All of these songs are 100 BPM—the right beat to perform CPR. Pick one to remember in case you need to save a life," the hospital wrote in the playlist's description. The creator of the playlist also linked the description to the hospital's CPR training video for those looking to perfect their technique. You can check it out here: