Music While Programming

[BeatScribe]

Just curious,
what do you folks listen to when programming? I can't have anything with lyrics, I end up super distracted. I mostly listen to stuff like Mogwai, God Is An Astronaut, Baltic Fleet - instrumental rock-based stuff that doesn't interrupt my train of thought too much. Anyone else?

[Hercule]

Lyrics eat your brain resources. I heard during a course on application ergonomy, that it can take you almost 60% of your brain activity.
A perfect example is when you drive a car. You make more mistakes when you take a phone call.
And the first think you do, when you are lost, is to switch off the radio...

In my case, I just put a web radio loundge style or jazz. Something smooth.
Sometimes I put some more energized music like Prodigy.
And sometimes a little classical music.

[BeatScribe]

Strangely, I even find classical music too absorbing! I find myself thinking about the composition and things like that.

[Blackharon]

Originally Posted by BeatScribe

Strangely, I even find classical music too absorbing! I find myself thinking about the composition and things like that.

This. Though I don't program - just design the game I can't have classical playing. I end up listening to game soundtracks (a number of songs from Braid are great) or swing/jazzy music lately.

[NikosX]

try Beethoven The piano sonatas by W Kempff, it always keeps me on the edge without abdorbing me!

cheers

[LiamAtDevour]

Basically anything without too dominant lyrics. Something at at least a medium pace. I listen to all sorts of stuff when working. Depressive black metal (lyrics, but you can't understand them), classical, jazz, etc.

[DrummerB]

Interesting thread!

It really depends on the situation. When I'm in a high performance or productive phase I don't listen to music to be able to concentrate on what I'm doing. When I'm tired I prefer faster tracks like rock or sometimes even dubstep to keep me awake. During debugging something calm to keep me from going insane

[blitter]

I work best through the night, but I often find that I'm wearing headphones but I had forgotten to put the music on as I was too in the zone already!

I also find that each project tends to have it's own album which gets played regularly. Taste will range but it's normally mellow stuff =) Except for once which was my last project of 2011 where the music was more upbeat. Back to 'normal' now.

[BeatScribe]

Yeah if you have some music thats "for" what you're working on that definitely is inspiring.

The best thing for me is God is an Astronaut. Totally stays in the background but at the same time makes you feel like you're diffusing a bomb or racing towards freedom. Good stuff to keep you going! But yeah for debugging, formless ambient or stuff with obscured lyrics that don't distract are great.

[baris]

I've had Metric in a seemingly infinite loop for the past month or so. Mild, but energetic.