I'm almost always listening to music while I am coding, and especially when I am at home, where I don’t need to wear my headphones. I listen to a lot of different music and usually try to listen to new music as well, something that it’s unfamiliar or that I haven’t heard before.
Some studies show that listening to music while working "can make us more productive". However, this study, suggests that listening to music may "disrupt creative performance in insight problem solving".
If I am working at home I can't stand being in a quiet room, so I need to listen to music. If I'm in an office I usually listen to something on my headphones, but not always. Sometimes I just listen to the noise of the room if it's not too disruptive.
The first instance of background music appeared, as far as I can tell, in France in 1917 when composer Eric Satie coined the term Furniture Music. Not a very flattering term, but I think you will find some of his music, such as the Gymnopédie No. 1, very well suited as background music while working. And this particular composition is almost always found in those several hours long playlists of classical music for concentration and mindful listening that are everywhere on Spotify, Youtube etc., together with Chopin's Nocturnes, Schubert sonatas and the list goes on.
Is Classical Music then best suited for this job? Perhaps. At least, some of it. I think if you listen to, for example Ionisation, a piece written in 1931 by Edgard Varèse, you will find that this might not work very as background music, at least in the same way that Satie’s music does. I'm not even going to mention composers from the Darmstadt School.
Is it music Pop music with vocals then? Or maybe Jazz? Perhaps Electronic dance music? I also find that music with repetitive structures works very well, which is at the core of a current of contemporary classical music known as Minimalism and in this Essay for BBC Radio 3 New York based novelist Hermione Hoby reveals how she always listens to Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians while writing.
This might sound somewhat pretentious, but isn't writing code also some form of writing? We are all creators with stories to tell, are we not? What particular piece of music do you rely on to telling those stories?
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Oldest comments (40)
I can’t feel comfortable with any other kind of music but hip-hop/rap or old pop songs that remind me of childhood.
I can hardly stand classical music or any similar kind.
Hmm yeah, maybe because it's tricky?
Nah, that’s not my kind. This is something really nice!
Lately I've been listening to rock music - KSE, The Contortionist, Deftones & FKJ.
Classical is too relaxed for my muscles. I feel like I can't lift a thing when classical music plays on the background lol
Yes, maybe the classical which is marketed as "relaxation" music, but the Varèse piece was also one of Frank Zappa's favourites.
Various lofi playlists in YouTube lately. I love how it's a 1-2 hour mix tape.
I've also built up a 600+ song playlist that's for Study/reading/coding that I've been curating since college. This consists of a lot of things: Video game and movie soundtracks, jazz, ambient, chill step, lofi, trip hop, and classical.
Wow that’s pretty impressive! Is it public?
Yes it is! You can follow it here open.spotify.com/user/121392429/pl...
Great playlist, a lot of good music there.
Nice playlist! listening right now! <3
I think soulection radio is a good choice for it. I'm listening to their radio for 5 years now and it always worked for me.
A lot of people don't share my taste, but I listen to Pop/EDM while programming. Even with lyrics. You can find my playlist here.
I like trance (no lyrics) and instrumental piano when coding. I don't have a playlist, I just choose whichever seems good on Spotify.
However, the past few days I've listened to Game of Thrones' (Ramin Djawadi) soundtrack and No Man's Sky's (65daysofstatic) soundtrack.
For the most part I need to stick with vocal-free music to really concentrate. I tend to rotate between light/"happy" classical music, Big Band, trance, movie scores, etc. Currently I'm using some electroswing playlists on Youtube.
I listen to various types of music such as jazz,lofi, hiphop, blues, experimental music and so it goes.
this is one of my favourite background music to code to
youtu.be/mlUMgZGFCtw
I usually listen lo-fi playlists in YouTube, as @mintii says, and also some synthwave mixes, it's great for inspiration!
Anyone here with a deezer account? We could create our developer-playlist ;)
I got a deezer account :D, I'm down.
Hi! And your deezer username? I'm davidgerva :)
My username is: Hardaker
BBC Radio1 Essential Mix - 2 hours of uninterrupted DJ sets:
bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wkfp
Perfect to get into the flow and a good reminder to take a break after a show is finished.
I used to listen to that as well back in the day (I used to run a dance music website - beatfactor.net). I still listen to it from time to time, mostly the classic ones - e.g. Nathan Fake & James Holden (2006), Sasha (2005), Future Sound of London (1994) etc. etc. It's an amazing archive. These days I listen mostly to Late Junction on BBC Radio 3 - it's a lot more diverse and experimental.
Usually no music for me. If I like the song, I find myself distracted by the lyrics. If I'm not fond of the artist or the song, why listen to it in the first place?
In a particularly crowded environment, like an open office plan, I guess music is better than hearing voices, so I may consider putting on headphones. In that case I think I'd go with something with no lyrics like movie soundtracks or classical music.
I totally gave up on listening music while coding because I observed that it was perturbing my concentration.
By the past, I was doing things that was very much repetitive and didn't involve the possibility of errors (like very easy HTML and CSS), then I used to listen to all sorts of Brian Eno music, by focusing on the Ambient series when needing to be more productive and I think it had some effect.
Today, for some reason, I don't need the music to achieve this effect, and it would even disturb me.
I listen piano cover song.
It depends, most of the time I simply listen whatever was listening the day before.
My top 5 playlists for coding
Florian Prz ・ 1 min read