What music do you play, while programming?
Preferably instrumental, anything with lyrics pulls the attention towards it. And preferably something that is not too violent on the ears or too loud (like heavy metal guitar)
I simply don't, it's too distracting.
I listen to a lot of lyricless trance/deep house/electronic music. I personally find music to be key to reaching a "flow sate" while I'm working. It's almost meditative.
I've curated a Spotify playlist that's nearing 300 hrs long, although I add and remove songs on a daily basis. It was recieved quite well last time I mentioned it on HN.
Feel free to check it out:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4kXkKPkOoKmWuhmGnBMVRp?si=...
Thanks to someone on HN mentioning them.
I've done somafm (cliqhop), di.fm, and a lot of IDM previously (Boards of Canada, Dabrye, Slow Magic). I've also had a brief lo-fi phase. These days I'm into synthwave and chillwave, maybe some vapor or retro too.
A constant, though, is I downloaded lots of video game soundtracks and made various playlists. If you're on Linux it's easy to play from the raw formats; if you're on Mac I say give up and use the MP3s.
I've had friends suggest movie soundtracks (John Williams, etc). I'll probably give that a try someday.
While coding: electronic trance or psytrance.
While analyzing: piano (the less boring, the better) or orchestral (“classic music”).
While debugging: heavy metal - those pesky bugs deserve all my rage.
I really enjoy video game scores. Nintendo is solid. Console games in general are really nice and generally instrumental.
I like citypop too, since I can't understand japanese, it feels familiar without getting distracting.
Sometimes I layer it with rain and turn the music volume down when I need to really isolate outside noise. This creates a baseline noise level with some variation but never enough to distract.
I have been getting into covers as well. Piano covers are generally pleasant and youtube has nice hour+ long mixtape style playlist videos.
Occasionally I also end up finding a genre I like that's been created solely online. A recent example is "dark academia" and I search it with the word "playlist" to get a specific vibe I want. And there's fun playlist title variations too, for example "a classical dark academia playlist for art museum dates" https://youtu.be/idJoHeHPrXA . That playlist has the rain already layered over the music.
I often listen to movie or tv series tracks. Recently that's included music from Hans Zimmer (Mission Impossible [1], Rush [2], etc.), Calm with Horses [3], El Chapo [4, 5], and The Kingdom [6].
I sometimes listen to my favorite bands (Tool, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, etc.), but like OP, I'm mostly biased towards non-lyrical while working.
[1] https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=677
[2] https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=967
[3] https://youtu.be/85Byny4WRLU?t=89
[4] https://youtu.be/BBqgevV5JhQ
[5] https://youtu.be/wVDzx9zM0Nw?t=35
[6] https://youtu.be/zA5kgZvRBaE
Lyricless music or music that just has repetitive lyrics or music I know really well so can pay it little attention but still be entertained.
Sometimes 1950s era Jazz, trying to follow the lines of improvisation in the background seems to help me when trying to do something new or creative.
If I'm doing something rote, then modern EDM is good enough i.e. Rufus del Sol or similar that is just simple layers of one note melodies, a solid beat and someone wailing on top of it.
Note that I'm unsure whether listening to jazz when trying to do something creative is just a learned response i.e. that's how I set my mind to creative as a shortcut.
I own a couple of video game soundtracks on bandcamp (and regularly add new ones to the list if I find something good), and I really like those as background music. The usually have no lyrics, and are often designed to be loopable.
Some of my favorites:
- Crypt of the Necrodancer
- The Chipzel remix of COTND
- Anything Darren Korb (Supergiant)
- Journey
- Moonlighter
- Undertale
- Celeste
- Hollow Knight
- Ori 1&2
- Dead cells
- Bleak sword
- Alone
- Feist
- Aquaria
Welp. Music that I listen to for pleasure seems more distracting than "useful", and discussing that music seems less interesting. What makes me more productive is scary music. A.n.K.h works quite well for that - it's free on Jamendo. Not something that I make use of frequently.
Explosions in the Sky or This Will Destroy You are fantastic post-rock bands (no lyrics). Try 'em.
Usually stuff where I can't understand lyrics. Like melodic death metal or Enya.
Mostly minor-key modulations of melodies I remember from highschool band. It's hard to play much of substance given that only my right hand can reach the keyboard from my desk, and only the lower registers at that.
I have a curated playlist of thousands and thousands of songs, but I don't listen to instrumental music. I like stuff that pulls me into a rhythm and makes me get into the zone, so mostly rap.
Tiare F.M. in Tahiti. Mostly Jawaiian / Jahitian music but with a lot of weird euro, country, and retro pop songs mixed in as well.
Whatever makes you produce dopamine will help get you creative, this is very subjective. But I agree on the lyrics' effect on attention
I like experimental/ambient/"noise" type music. This label is one of my current favorites:
fireisfree.bandcamp.com
Anything and everything.
From Insane Clown Posse to Beethoven
tabla by Zakir Hussain
flute by Rakesh Chaurasia
music by Hans Zimmer
Deadmau5's while 1 < 2 - though a few tracks are a bit harsh.
Lo-fi mostly, with the occasional sprinkle of Synthwave and Retrowave
DI FM and YouTube music with trance /DNB/ trap electro.
none while coding. 2pac after coding. lofi hiphop beats to relax and study to when i am researching.
Anything by Fluke or Underworld