91–100 of 185 posts
Jan Jelinek's music is great for programming. At least for me. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jKqVswlAZ0&feature=relat...
Make sure to check out his LP under the name Gramm. first track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kHEu50uq3w
I was recently pointed to http://block.fm/ as I like to go with some beats to work with and they have some great Dnb and electronica shows. Usually I can't cope with any words, lyrics in the song or presenters on a show, but if I can't understand the words, in this case because I speak no Japanese, it's not a problem and sometimes it's nice to have voices (outside my head) as part of the white noise.
Indeed, the presenters on DnB shows are usually really hard to understand. "Big ups to cheesy grifter in tha gleebow huppa dig walla shim bam to ya fo keepin it real ya". I have no idea what they are saying. Since it's supposedly English, my mind has to try and parse it. Very distracting.
- Classical: sometimes pleasant, but can be too dramatic. - Hard electronic (dance, club, dubstep): too distracting
Minimal or ambient techno tends to be way to go when I'm trying to focus on something, but need something to keep that part of my mind occupied. Soma.FM and Digitally Imported have the best streaming stations for that, IMHO.
http://somafm.com/spacestation/ http://somafm.com/dronezone/ http://www.di.fm/minimal http://www.di.fm/chillout
The site is unresponsive, but I wanted to recommend: Philip Glass symphonies Wagner's The Ring ( unless you speak German ) Slayer
Music possessing these qualities can often provide just the right amount of interest to occupy the parts of your brain that would otherwise be left free to wander and lead to distraction during your work. Finally - someone who recognizes that there's a curious & busy part of the brain which must be kept preoccupied during complex tasks, and mixes music just for that purpose. "Trance" music podcasts are a great approx…
Trance/Ambient stuff drives me nuts. For the longest time it jaded my view of electronic music because I thought it defined it. I prefer faster beats, well structured complex melodies a la Skrillex http://soundcloud.com/skrillex/sets . The first few listens might be a little distracting but once I know the songs I find myself typing like I'm playing the song with my keyboard.
Take a sample playlist of mine http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Trance/63694608
Endtroducing by DJ Shadow is also worth a listen, as although there's vocals, they're generally calm. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32X-ieCav-M
Side question: why do you think so many coders prefer electronic music to be productive? Based on the comments here, electronic music (whether it's ambient, trance or dubstep) appears to be the assumed genre.
1. As vishaldpatel notes, the pattern resembles meditative mantras. However the mind reacts to religious chanting, "trance" resembles that and invokes similar focus to the exclusion of other distractions. Indeed, we call the music "trance" for a reason. 2. The music does not demand attention to itself. Most other music is created with a "drop what your doing and pay attention to ME" sense, and we go to concerts and p…
Interesting that the reasons given here mostly also apply to game soundtracks as well, which is mostly what I listen to while coding. (Overclocked Remix has some great compilations if you are looking.)
I suspect game soundtracks differ from film soundtracks in that they're the backdrop to something that's still interactive, but I'm not sure how that comes into play.
Stuff like a lot of post rock, such as Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Another option is Math Rock like Battles (I am actually listening to Gloss Drop right now).