Don't laugh, but for me, it's Abba. Their entire discography is ~3 hours which is how long I can maintain peak concentration. Their songs are consistently good so that I don't need to skip a song, but not too good that I would stop working and start listening. Plus I've never heard Abba song in any good movie so it doesn't remind me scenes from a movie I would want to rewatch. Of course I don't listen to it every day, only when I really need to, most daily programming tasks can be done with any music.
As a dancer it’s funny to me that programming and dancing both seem to be better with a disco soundtrack. Or house, or funk. Anything with a strong backbeat.
Like others have said, for specific types of activity, I'll prefer no vocals or maybe even no music, but if vocals are fine Abba does have a great flow to it. I used to run to Abba too, at times, because it feels upbeat/positive with good enough tempo. Super trouper, for instance, makes for a great booster.
The Winner Takes It All lyrics are great for commits and Pull Requests: I don't wanna talk
If it makes you feel sad
And I understand
You've come to shake my hand
I apologize
If it makes you feel bad
For real concentration I can't have lyrics but that's a great idea for other flow states. Mozart and Brahms are good for me ... Not slow enough to put me to sleep not fast enough or unusual to make me pay attention to the music.
I vary a lot but when I do classical music Mozart has occupied quite a lot of my stats, in particular a clarinet concerto by Katherine Lucy [1] and also things like Beethoven's 6th (pastoral, it's beautifully featured in Fantasia) or Grieg's morning mood.<p>- [1] <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1R6rh9My8CTK4DqZorJR0V?si=3Ctn94z7RCWy2emoktVP7Q" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/album/1R6rh9My8CTK4DqZorJR0V?si=3Ct...</a><p>If you have specific song/interpretation recommendations I'd love to hear them.
Agree about the lyrics. Phillip Glass is one of my favorites for flowing. His style usually involves a lot of repetition, which I find meditative.
No laughter here, my brother in music. This is one of the few vocal groups that I could be in the zone with, except "Fernando", because one must release their inner theater kid with that one.
> Don't laugh<p>I laugh (:<p>But good for you, whatever works. Personally, I can't do music with much lyrics or narrative; I find it distracting.<p>But to each their own!
Mamma Mia soundtrack also works well \m/
It would be impossible for me to not sing along to ABBA
ABBA is amazing
Shoutout to SomaFM's Defcon Radio which has been my go-to programming music for years now. Not too dissimilar to the stuff found on this site. <a href="https://somafm.com/defcon/" rel="nofollow">https://somafm.com/defcon/</a>
This seems focused on one very particular taste in music of droning semi-random lo-fi synthesizers. I find this unlistenable without any kind of percussion.
The fact that it works for the author, but totally does not for you is a big fat sign that says: search what works for <i>you</i>. More than that: search what works for you <i>in a particular state of mind</i>. You are a special enough snowflake to require a personal playlist, and it's not easily guessable. Sometimes what works best for me is Bach's violin concertos. Other times it's MBR [1]. Yet other times it might be some Keiko Matsui piano jazz, or early Apocalyptica, or Enya, or [...]. Try different things, notice what feels right and when, rinse, repeat.<p>[1]: <a href="https://masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com/music" rel="nofollow">https://masterbootrecord.bandcamp.com/music</a>
I've had three main tracks that I've used for the past 8 months or so.<p>The first one is a 1-hour mix of "In Motion" from the soundtrack to The Social Network: <a href="https://youtu.be/bCxPmMbZjuk" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/bCxPmMbZjuk</a><p>The second is a 1-hour mix of "It Has to be This Way" from the soundtrack to Metal Gear Rising Revengance: <a href="https://youtu.be/jKGDib6qZBo" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/jKGDib6qZBo</a><p>The third is a 1-hour mix of "Clock Tower" from the soundtrack to Dead Cells: <a href="https://youtu.be/plwhysPCxXI" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/plwhysPCxXI</a>
This site is a gem that has accompanied me on many spikes in the last year :) datasette's original music is top tier too. cognitively stimulating but not attention stealing.
Have you listened to his "business funk" mixes? Too stimulating for work (for me) but so much fun. In my head it's the soundtrack to me striding through an open plan office barking nonsense business jargon.
For me, the Bach of electronic music..
Agreed datasette is critically slept on
This may be weird.. but I have been listening to a bunch of extended "save room" ambient tracks based on music in Resident Evil.. Someone under the name of Survival Spheres has a crapload of these on YT-music.. They are all about 10-12 mins long.. and they stay of the way mentally..
<3 music for programming<p>some personal favourites:<p>- <a href="https://musicforprogramming.net/seventyone" rel="nofollow">https://musicforprogramming.net/seventyone</a><p>- <a href="https://musicforprogramming.net/fiftyseven" rel="nofollow">https://musicforprogramming.net/fiftyseven</a><p>- <a href="https://musicforprogramming.net/fortysix" rel="nofollow">https://musicforprogramming.net/fortysix</a>
For me nothing beats 90s ambient dnb for coding. There's something about drum and bass that really gets me in flow.
Same. My music collection covers a vast range but I find the Good Looking Records catalog to be nearly ideal for getting me into the flow state.<p>It really sucks that so much of that catalog is no longer available for all intents and purposes.
You thinking like Good Looking Records stuff like Artemis? Love it.
Also Big Beat, for me. Crystal Method's Vegas reaches into my brain and flips the <i>time to code</i> switch.
Definitely my cuppa tea too :)<p><a href="https://m.youtube.com/@arcologies" rel="nofollow">https://m.youtube.com/@arcologies</a>
Yoooo thanks for the rec this is spot on up my alley.<p>You might also like mood indigo on SoundCloud, mix of house and DnB been a solid programming session soundtrack for me over the last few years.<p><a href="https://on.soundcloud.com/5HzXSAKAdM41bxIvdp" rel="nofollow">https://on.soundcloud.com/5HzXSAKAdM41bxIvdp</a>
Same... Source Direct - Approach and Identify
I used to have bassdrive on. So good.
The soundtracks for SimCity 3000, 4, and the 5th one titled just "SimCity" are written specifically to be played while doing some fiddly micromanagement tasks.
I love instrumental only hip hop beats like shamisen x hip hop <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qi_-RmXz_g" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qi_-RmXz_g</a>
I’ve thought about and experimented with it a lot. The main criteria is no lyrics, or at a minimum lyrics in a language you don’t understand at all, since this hijacks attention from parts of the brain useful for programming in a noticeable way. I find prominent fast percussion seems to help with focus but I am less confident of that.<p>Most other elements don’t seem to matter too much. Baroque, industrial, ambient, etc are all effectively equivalent in most regards.<p>That said, I tend to lean toward 1990s atmospheric drum-and-bass (pretty much anything released by Good Looking Records) as a good default. That genre maximizes things that seem to help while minimizing things that seem to detract.
I personally love my classic/progressive rock and am happy to listen to it while working. It seems odd to limit music for programming to only lo-fi.
I'm well aware that I'm in the minority, but I have never been able to focus on <i>anything</i> - especially programming - other than in absolute, total silence.<p>(Yes, I'm an only child.)
soma.fm
Channel: DEFCON Radio
Best programming music!
I recently discovered Lorn and have been mainlining his back catalogue ever since whilst working. Thoroughly interesting and immersive yet not distracting.
I remember downloading music from the hacking e-show “The Scene” way back when - must have been late 2000s? Some great music in there like Newborn Butterflies if I remember the name right. It was nice background music in the show and I’d put it on from time to time.
This is music for programming: <a href="https://velato.net/" rel="nofollow">https://velato.net/</a> (or music as programming??)
I love progressive techno for this. No vocals and sounds are in the lower frequency range. Easy to tune out.
Swans is good for programming. And good for gnosis.
this is so much fun!
This sight got me through many projects in college :)
minecraft music is peak and takes all :)
Look up Dub Techno.
Iron Maiden for me :)