
Ask HN: What music do you listen to while coding? - thorin
Last few years I&#x27;ve noticed most people listen to music while programming probably due to awful office environments. Any recommendations? I like Jean Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Black Sabbath, Caravan. Prog or instrumental is often good, can really get you in the zone ;-)
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mdip
For some reason good music[1] with vocals that I haven't heard to death add a
sort-of distraction when I'm working so I choose to listen to music that I've
heard enough to have memorized the vocals or music without vocals at all.
Since it gets annoying to listen to songs I've memorized, I'll pick acoustic
or unique covers of that music (I've grown fond of odd piano covers - I found
five tracks that are piano-only versions of My Chemical Romance songs -- a
band who's music I generally don't enjoy but when done in piano, it's just ...
oddly interesting).

When I'm in an intense bit of code, rapidly writing implementation, I like to
pop in Progressive Rock of any kind, the longer the track the better. I'll
often pick something by Dream Theater, though sometimes the metal-ish sound is
a little much for me depending on my mood.

[1] As in, music I enjoy listening to which is usually 70s rock and
alternative from 1995-2010. That's not to imply that this is a universal
definition of "good music", only that it's what _I_ enjoy listening to.

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mindcrime
It really depends on my mood. Most of the time, heavy metal and hard rock of
various sorts. I like everything from 80's era hair metal, speed metal and
thrash metal, to the latest black metal and death metal, with a healthy dose
of NWOBHM, power metal, doom metal, etc. mixed in, as well as plenty of "just
hard rock".

If not that, sometimes I listen to classical and my tastes for that are pretty
all over the place. I'm not actually all that educated (or picky) when it
comes to classical, so I'll usually just put on a shoutcast station in the
genre and go with that.

Outside of that, when I'm coding I sometimes like electronic music that I
don't otherwise listen to a lot of. I'll put on some trance/house/ambient
whatever stuff, or listen to something like Daft Punk, Kraftwerk, Giorgio
Moroder, etc.

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pacnw
Depends on the time of day! Morning - classical or ambient to not fatigue the
brain while tackling tougher problems: Baroque style classical, ambient:
Mysteries of the Deep, FAX (Pete Namlook), Boards of Canada, film score (Tron,
Hans Zimmer etc), Fez game score by Disasterpeace

Afternoon - techno, to get the adrenaline flowing again: \- any live mixes
from Adam Beyer, Berghain residents, Nicole Moudaber, Nina Kraviz, etc etc

Night - Trance - really to keep the motivation going, any older A State of
Trance episodes (pre 500) will do to add some melody to the grind

That's it, every day :)

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aviaryan
I like game music

POP Warrior Within -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1potMUPsJI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1potMUPsJI)

Assasin's Creed -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-nrEl3NqX8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-nrEl3NqX8)

In Motion from The Social Network -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yczul_609Gg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yczul_609Gg)

~~~
fuck__dang
I have listened to In Motion so many times it's not even funny.

Also, A Familiar Taste is good, and Magnetic. I think Magnetic is actually my
favorite track but In Motion definitely hits the spot like right when I open
up my editor.

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pm24601
[https://focusatwill.com](https://focusatwill.com) \-- they always have a beat
that fits my current energy level.

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d0xy
That's the nice thing:
[http://musicforprogramming.net/](http://musicforprogramming.net/)

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s_dev
I use background noise: [http://www.noisli.com/](http://www.noisli.com/)

~~~
thorin
That's a good idea. Thanks

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stulogy
Drum 'n' Bass – might be a UK thing.

