What kind of music do you generally prefer for coding? Personally I find myself looking for:
- Long (30min+) mixes so I can keep the same tempo going
- No vocals, I find listening to vocals makes it much harder for me to concentrate on coding (others might not be bothered by them)
Below are some of the mixes I enjoy, normally I would just open them in the background on my 2nd monitor (it helps that the visuals are also pleasing without too much going on)
Do you have any favourite mixes? Let me know in the comments.
Top comments (39)
I currently enjoy a lot of lofi hip-hop or chillhop. Mostly music with few lyrics or none at all, although some metal songs from time to time can help push through a sleepy or lazy day.
My current favorites:
Emancipator
IruGuitar
Celldweller (or Blue Stahli)
I have also acquired noise-cancelling headphones for work since music is a crucial part of my work process. It's incredibly helpful when trying to achieve that state of "flow".
My music taste has always been criticized, so I realize it might not be popular with most everyone. However, if a least one person can discover new music from this comment, please let me know because that would be awesome!
Hey, fellow Celldweller fan chiming in! Internet high five.
I like it, its a bit more upbeat than the other ones in this thread.
All your links point to the same list though?
Sorry, my bad, I've fixed that now. Thanks for pointing it out, and I'm glad you liked what you heard!
Mostly European power metal here, with some symphonic and folk metal, as well as a little techno and chiptune. I've got a long (50+ hour) playlist I set to shuffle while I work. I tend to prefer certain songs as starting points, but beyond that I'm not picky as long as it's fast, well arranged, and has lots of synth or electric guitar (or full orchestration, depending on the band).
Favorites right now include:
Good mix! I think I would find it hard in the beginning to code with that (I'd get too much into the music), but if you know the songs very well then it can be more in the background and work
Falconer is like one of my favourite bands. :D
Nice topic!
Depending on my mood or the intensity of the task, I would go from music where high concentration is not required, to music I basically use to get into the zone.
For getting into the zone, I usually go with classic or modernized classic. One of my favorites is Vivaldi's Winter from Four Seasons:
If for you, classic feels too classic, maybe a more modern version(s) can help here:
I also like very much Bach's harpsichord music, for example:
There is also a special place in my heart for Castlevania music :)
That John Wick music is perfect mix of classic and modern, thanks for reminding me of that!
I like a good dose of weird in music while I'm working to keep things interesting, but I don't like things that are too abrasive. I've been building a Spotify playlist of songs that fit the bill:
open.spotify.com/playlist/56xspz5B...
Give this a go!
It's legit programming music, just check out this video and you'll see what I mean:
Can I just be James Murphy for a day, please?
Haha thats surprisingly good
Glad you dig it!
Not sure if it'll work quite as well for programming because there are lyrics, BUT you may want to check out the band LCD Soundsystem if you like the music above. James Murphy is the band's founder, and to second @markjohson303 's sentiment, he's pretty awesome.
Because I know you dig long mixes, I'm thinking you may want to check the song 45:33 out:
I avoid vocals most of the time.
Right now I've been listening to a lot of prog metal like Animals As Leaders, Strawberry Girls, and Thank You Scientist. Sometimes I also listen to lofi beats, and I like programming to synthwave music a lot. I'm a big fan of Arcade High and Gunships.
Every now and then I will listen to French music while programming. I think, because my French isn't perfect, it's easier to tune the words out. Right now I'm listening to a lot of Lomepal, Romeo Elvis, and Bigflo & Oli.
Personally I listen mostly to Post Rock when coding. It's the best genre for it and it's such a deep and varied genre too if you really explore it. Bonus points for mostly being an instrumental genre and the songs being quite long in general.
Second choice would be Baroque/Classical/Romantic. But of course the further you go from Baroque through Classical and especially into Romantic the more, uhh, emotionally charged the music becomes? And emotions are distracting. So that's a thing.
Third and finally - video game music or film scores.
EDIT: Okay I lied, some of the more chilled out genres of electronica also deserve a mention.
This seems cool, also (disclaimer: found it on reddit but haven't had a chance to check it out yet) - musicforprogramming.net/
I'll be sure to check out the suggestions in the comments anyway.
Some Post Rock band recommendations:
Nice, there are a couple of Do Make Say Think albums I like working to as well!
I like the cinematic electronica of Ugress:
youtube.com/watch?v=aM3sTHhTWaE&li...
Ugress is an electronica project from Bergen, Norway, the main project of prolific electronic musician Gisle Martens Meyer.
No music at all! Ambient noise gives me 100% focus:
That is certainly a different take :)
Try c2emusic.podomatic.com
I've worked to Jon Hopkins' Immunity, Singularity, & Insides more than anything else; soundtrack-y instrumental electronic. Sometimes deathcore or mathmetal really does the trick, though. Nothing where the lyrics stick out too much.
Had to google some of those, seems perfect for what I had in mind thanks!