HN Explorer

Ask HN: Do you listen to music while coding? What genre makes you more creative?

14 points by uzzi ↗ HN
I have tried listening to different genres of music while coding, from heavy rock to pop music with different results on terms of how do I feel creatively. Lately I have stuck to classic rock, I feel the classics don't get on my way, I just code without feeling distracted. Night Ranger, Journey, Triumph among my favorite coding music. So I'm curious to know what kind of music do you like to listen while programming if any at all?

31 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 75.3 ms ] thread
bilawal
I listen to a lot of Bon Iver, The Weeknd, Rihanna, Charlie Simpson, Florence + The Machine and Ben Howard. So, soft and emotional music. Hard rock and pop music distracts me into the song. I'm increasingly moving over to instrumentals.
uzzi
Hard rock does distracts me too. I'll add some Florence + The Machine to my playlist to add some variation to the classics and see how it goes for me. Thanks
jkupferman
I generally enjoy longer, continuous pieces of music so that my mood can flow with the music and I don't have to spend time tinkering with playlists.

I started by listening to prog-rock (Pink Floyd, King Crimson), then moved onto sample-based stuff like Dj Shadow and RJD2. Now I mostly listen to EDM/Mashup dj mixes from soundcloud which are great. I've been enjoying them so much I built a small site for finding the best mixes (http://mixtrss.com/).

shawnc
Awesome little site you built! I too like to work to mashup mixes - kapslap being a fave. It's that continuous flow, like you said.
pmtarantino
I usually listen to Bob Dylan or instrumental folk music
MaysonL
Goldberg variations, on repeat.
yolesaber
Jazz, especially hard bop, makes for great coding music. When played well, it fades into the background and become a soundtrack of sorts yet it is still technically interesting enough that when I need to take a break from coding, I can focus on the jazz and it'll still keep my brain going.

Chillwave is also amazing. I've been doing a lot of coding to this lately: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa3qqfgp1Ns The hypnotic style of it helps me focus and get into the 'zone' more often than not.

I tend to find sung lyrics distracting in music, although chants and foreign languages aren't as much of a hindrance.

dear
No music. It slows down my speed.
mesozoic
Mostly Oakenfold essential mixes. Long continuous without many words so I find it can help you get into "flow"
willieavendano
I have to agree a lot with @yolesaber. Instrumental hip-hop, jazz, or afrobeat is are the best coding music for me, each for different reasons, and I have tons of each in either on vinyl, in my iTunes or on my Spotify, the latter two I stream out for everyone to enjoy if they want.

For the first, each minute-long vignette alludes to a certain mood, shifting and evolving with each progressive song to create a tapestry as the songs begin to melt together, and it helps me visualize the coding I write. I recommend: J Dilla, Madlib, Knxwledge, Ohbliv and the various radio stations they'd spin off.

Jazz is my classical music, with each song being a movement of a grander sort and becomes a soundtrack in my mind, and I have enough vinyl around me in my working space that I take my large Pomodoro breaks to just meditate and play a jazz record of my choice. I recommend the hard bop or bebop stuff, but free jazz from Strata-East Records is amazing for achieving this space

Afrobeat interestingly enough is fast, rhythmic, and has a beautiful flow to it to move your thoughts in your mind to. It is almost the quintessential daytime music, and brings liveliness to everything around you. Also fairly simple to fall in its trance, and it is great meditative music as well. I recommend (first and foremost) Fela Kuti and several Soundways compilations.

My new favorite Spotify playlist that I have curated has all of this plus spurts of soul and electronic music in it as well, and I prefer this because I have hours of uninterrupted music. It's called "Countercultural Coogi Couture" and I offer you all to take a listen and subscribe to it, I tend to throw in new gems every so often. http://spoti.fi/Tgtkzb

uzzi
awesome.. thanks for sharing what works for you, I will give a try to your playlist tomorrow and see how it works for me.
kaiku
80s pop, all the way.
slajax
I listen to a lot of UKF Dubstep mixes on Youtube. I generally like to listen to up beat electronic music that doesn't have a lot of words and having hour long mixes on Youtube is a convenient way to source a lot of content.
burke
Shpongle was my go-to coding music for a number of years. More recently I've been listening to a lot of trance. Above & Beyond's Group Therapy podcast is excellent.
orangethirty
Depends on my mood. It can vary from Zen meditation music to deadmau5e.
joeblau
I listen to either ratchet music or dubstep. Probably some of the worst music to listen to, but it gets me motivated.
zeynalov
I always listen to Jann Tiersen.
siloraptor
I love heavy metal, but when coding I've found trance and upbeat techno helps me better. The tempo keeps me pumped up and the repetitive lyrics (or none at all) aren't as distracting as regular lyrics.

Astral projection and Tiesto are my faves.

rgonzalez
I do, all the time. But it can't be slow music or it kills my productivity. And usually music that don't engage me too much, otherwise I end up singing along and loose focus. So something that serves as an awesome elevator music that falls in the background nicely. Mostly rock, salsa and techno.
stakent
Rammstein - mainly because my German is bad.

It is improving and I start to understand some of their lyrics what engages parts of the brain used for programming.

Time to look for something else to listen.

hashtree
I sometimes get distracted by vocals, so I often find myself listening to Soma FM. Ambient type beats: http://somafm.com/

You might check out the Groove Salad, Space Station Soma, and Underground 80s stations.

They also have an iPhone app.

rkwz
Anime/JPop/ProgressiveHouse/Chillout/ClubJazz