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Hacker Music?

24 points by nextmoveone ↗ HN
Really wondering? What kind of music do you guys listen to? I realize everyone is different, but is there a majority?

Can everyone comment with their favorite artist or group + genre?

77 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 120 ms ] thread
nextmoveone
I figured I'd start.

Kanye West (& The Roots) + Hip-hop

chadboyda
Anything Trip-hop (Massive Attack, Morcheeba, Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, Bjork, AIR, EBTG, Zero 7, Tricky, etc.)
mattculbreth
Cool, another one for Morcheeba here. Been listening to The Antidote as of late (not their most popular I know).

brianmckenzie
Yeah, I'm another one for Zero 7, or any downtempo electronica while hacking.
kobs
Another nod for Zero 7.
nextmoveone
Zero 7. Definitely something I would listen to while programming.
sgoraya
To add to the list, some of personal favs that get me through coding sessions:

Orb

Narko Masutra

Kompakt (5,6) - german techno compilation - Germans know their elektronika ;)

Richie Hawtin // Plastikman

Kraftwerk

Squarepusher

imsteve
Music with VOCALS?

You guys have some weak taste in programming music. Only the hardest electronic for me. Stuff that makes you feel like adrenaline is being injected into your brain with a firehose, yet predictable and non-distracting. Who else listens to that?

joe_fishfish
Are you talking about Vitalic, by any chance?
menloparkbum
While programming, I prefer either baroque classical music or weird glitchy sounding electronic music. When I'm not programming, anything goes.
dfranke
I can't listen to Baroque music while coding. The same brain cells that I'm trying to use for coding get tied up with unweaving the strands of melody.
imsteve
Yeah I tried baroque but it made my mind wander too. Distractions must die.
menloparkbum
That's interesting... I specifically chose baroque vs. other forms of classical music because it is more repetitive. Bach is way easier for me to zone out with than Beethoven. ;)
davidmathers
Same here, but preferably Bach and preferably only 1 or 2 instruments. The Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould 1955 is a favorite.

Or weird glitchy sounding electronic music. :)

trueshadow21
um, im classic rock, led zeppelin, blue oyster cult and stuff

i guess im a little different than most programmers/hackers judging by the other posts

weber
silence anyone?
nirs
Nothing like silence.
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greendestiny
I'll second the zeppelin. Although generally for me its Detroit Techno, it has a lot more in common with led zeppelin than you probably think. Also I listen to a lot of motown as well.
runningskull
I'm with you there. Led Zeppelin is my favorite band of all time. And classic rock is the best music of all time. Now if only I could write the best code of all time while listening....
brianmckenzie
I've been known to listen to Zep and other classic rock, it's about half of what I listen to, but usually not while programming.
dfranke
Omnivorous classical, but particularly the Renaissance and Baroque periods. My favorite composers are Bach, Dufay, Ockeghem, Morley, Byrd, Mussorgsky, and Respighi. Ensemble Unicorn is my favorite group of performers.
mattculbreth
Most active for me while working (from iTunes): Skye, Coldplay, Keane, Morcheeba, Afro Celt, Zeppelin.
german
Lately I've been listening Jack Johnson, but I like any kind of music.

I also love to dance Salsa :P

davidw
+1 for Salsa. It's also a great way to meet women while doing something fun. And it is a learned skill, something you can become good at if you practice, and it makes you seem a bit less nerdy, I think. My wife agrees.
german
hehehe, It is a great rhythm, and not so hard to learn. That kind of music is the best for dancing!
Goladus
Favorites are Mozart, Brahms, Bach, Chopin, and Beethoven but like dfranke 'omnivorous classical' is a pretty good description. But I will pretty much listen to anything.

Some of my favorite performers are John Eliot Gardiner, Andre Previn, the Kronos Quartet, Cecelia Bartoli, Murray Perahia, Mitsuko Uchida, Emmanuel Ax, Alison Hagley, Bryn Terfel, and Yo Yo Ma.

And I also often prefer quiet when hacking, and only listen to music to drown out distractions.

matth
Bonobo, Clint Mansell (The guy who scored The Fountain. Try listening to Death is the Road to Awe, it's worth your time), Talking Heads, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd.

I'll mix in some hip-hop if I'm feeling a burst of excitement.

nostrademons
Current favorite hacking music: Pink Floyd, Goo Goo Dolls, Guster, Real McCoy, Dar Williams, bunch of college acapella, Van Canto, Crash Test Dummies, Sophie B. Hawkins, Savatage, Nightwish, Postal Service, Narnia soundtrack, LotR soundtrack, some Dream Theater.
scw
Ambient. It never taxes my brain and helps me focus: Brian Eno (Music for Airports, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks), Sigur Ros, Four Tet, Cliff Martinez (Traffic, Solaris).
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jsackmann
I'm a musician, and particularly a composer/arranger/orchestrator, so it's hard for me to listen to things without having them distract me.

Thus, when I want background music that doesn't distract me, I go with something I've listened to about 3,000 times in the past. Doesn't really matter what it is: Schubert sonatas, 70s Herbie Hancock, showtunes ...something that requires the same number of brain cells to take advantage of as a library that I wrote a long time ago and have been using ever since.

cmars232
Recent rotation:

 * Do Make Say Think (recent album I think)
 * Alice Coltrane "Journey in Satchidananda"
 * Various - "Putamayo World Lounge"
 * Hybrid - Live DJ set from Moscow, 2004
In general while hacking, anything ambient, repetitive (electronica) or without vocals (jazz/classical), or vocals in a language I mostly don't understand (tropicalia, death metal, stereolab) is a great soundtrack.

While designing though, no sounds at all! Maybe something really ambient to shut out environmental noise, like Stars of the Lid.

buss
Stars of the Lid is great, thanks for the recommendation. I tend to listen to ambient stuff when coding. Shpongle, Bonobo, Boards of Canada, Andrew Coleman, Bill Laswell, Birdy Nam Nam (definitely not ambient), Broken Social Scene are all good.
gensym
I've got to second Boards of Canada. Also, Four Tet, Alan Sparhawk's solo guitar (his band, Low, is some of my favorite music for when I'm not hacking), Sigur Ros, Collections of Colonies of Bees, Mouse on Mars, Do Make Say Think, Squarepusher, Dirty Three, Six Organs of Admittance, and Labradford
david
Mostly progressive rock, jazz, power metal. Favorite artists: Spock's Beard, Savatage, The Strawbs, The Tangent, Gentle Giant, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Stratovarius, Rhapsody, Dream Theater, Sonata Arctica.
jdavid
I used to love happy hardcore, acid jazz, progressive house, and electro metal, but now i mostly listen to electroclash, eurotrash, synthpop and all of the other hipster variations.
umjames
Thumbs up for happy hardcore and acid jazz. I love highly active, fast techno. Anything from the breakbeat, big beat, 2-step, hardcore, happy hardcore, gabba, drum & bass, and jungle subgenres. The problem with rap for me is that the lyrics distract my thinking while coding. Other types of electronic music don't keep me energized.

But when reading something more substantial than, say, looking something up in documentation, silence is excellent.

jsmcgd
Jackson and his Computer Band. (pardon the pun)
falsestprophet
Most often I listen to indie music. My favorites are Rilo Kiley, The Decemberists, Metric, The Arcade Fire, Feist and Stars. It doesn't look like I have any peers here.

But, I do enjoy some Pop (like Ben Folds and Dispatch), Baroque, Ska and Big Band as well.

edit: I also love Gunther and Swizz Beatz. I don't know why.

That said, of course, I prefer soothing tapes of Paul Graham's voice.

SwellJoe
I'm exclusively indie rock. You're a bit softer in taste than I, but there's some overlap. The Arcade Fire is one of the best bands playing right now. Their live show is astoundingly good...best I've seen in years.

My faves are: Spoon, Midlake, Fugazi, Death from Above 1979, Voxtrot, Mission of Burma, Cat Power, The Lemonheads.

When I'm working I'm most productive with things that have no lyrics or illegible lyrics, but are familiar. Jesu, The Fucking Champs, and electronica like Booka Shade and Apparat. Embarrassingly, perhaps, I'm totally loving working to old school metal lately--some from before my time, actually, but I like it anyway--Judas Priest, in particular. Also stuff I liked in high school and college: Carcass, Godflesh, Neurosis.

I made a list of my favorite tracks at emusic a while back (need to update it with Arcade Fire and a few other recent faves):

http://www.emusic.com/lists/showlist.html?lid=564452&p=1

You can't beat emusic if you like indie music. It's cheap, non-DRM, and they've got nearly all of the best bands and labels.

nextmovetwo
Lots of Hip-hop and classic rock; Some metal (lots of 3 Inches of Blood recently); some indie (i guess) stuff (Fall of Troy, etc); some Funk and some Jazz; the occasional orchestral track never hurts.
Alex3917
Maurice el Medioni's album Descarga Oriental.
gregp
luke vibert all day long.