Ok, I start: I like synthwave, synthpop and sovietwave. And it’s not as much a question of focus as the fact music energized me, so lyrics are also ok and even welcome and I don’t get distracted at all.
There is tuning involved.
If what i’m working on is repetative and aggrivating, i’ll have anything on, up to and including an audio book.
If what i’m working on requires modest brain power, stuff that’s calm and ambient.
If what i’m working on is demanding, dead silence.
Sometimes, but generally not. If I listen to anything, it’ll often be something that has no lyrics or is just ambiance, like Enterprise engineering or warp core background. But I ALWAYS wear earphones, just so people know I’m not taking walk-ups at the moment.
Prefacing with my usual “I’m not a dev, just a tinkerer” disclaimer: new wave, goth rock, industrial and EBM are my gaming/coding gotos (my musical tastes go far beyond that but I definitely never “outgrew” my angsty, anti authoritarian tatses). I’ve been a big fan of Nine Inch Nails and Reznor’s work, and his influences and collaborators. New Order, Gary Numen/Tubeway Army, Bauhaus, Thomas Dolby, Peter Schilling.
I lean more towards industrial while scripting, messing with my self hosted stuff, wrenching on my truck or mower or whatever. 16volt, Sister Machine Gun, Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, …
When my coworkers are in the office: night drive vibes, 90s house dance, 80s pop, Post Modern Jukebox, 8-bit covers, scary pockets, bardcore covers, puddles pity party, Zheng covers
When I’m alone at the office: ethereal and creepy haunting music with the lights low, alt metal, metal covers, Gaylord (anti-Nazi black metal), Kiss From a Rose
The Doom 2016 soundtrack.
Latincore, boltcore, baile funk, bounce, bubbling.
Usually play the daily mix for SoundCloud and the sets from DJs of parties I plan to go in the near future.
Most of the music I enjoy listening to, has good singing and/or lyrics that I want to hear. But this is exactly what I don’t need while attempting to concentrate on another task!
When I need to focus on something, the music needs to be motivating, blocking out any ambient noise, but not distracting. I find trance and other techno to be best for this.
Mostly instrumentals. Either acid jazz type stuff or hard trance-like things like Bardo Pond or Isis. It can be other things like System 7, but only if I am really familiar with it. Otherwise I get distracted by the lyrics.
Heavy metal to disassociate myself from the office
soma.fm always has great DJs and streams. Definitely a go to for flow state.
Reminder to support SomaFM since they’re fully independent and listener-supported: https://somafm.com/support/
80s bestof
SomaFM really is the best thing on the Internet
Groove Salad for me. Unless I’m updating production severs then I put on Drone Zone to lower my heart rate.
when i really have to focus, i listen to dronezone
Jam bands like Phish or Goose. Lots of instrumentals, unfamiliar lyrics, nothing to sing along to.
I enjoy non-AI generated music.
hard to come by after YT took away the ability to filter search results by age.
luckily I had ripped a bunch of music from YT before AI was a thing.
mostly around 80s jpop, synth, wave.
These days, I’d usually listen to either a Dungeon Synth playlist (like Mountain Realm, Atrium Carceri, Witch Bolt…) or I’ll listen to my doom/stoner/psych playlist (Mars Red Sky, Colour Haze, Earthless, Kikagaku Mori, Youngblood Supercult…).
Also, there are a few Diablo Lo-fi mixes made by blizzard that really get me in the mood of writing. Tristram theme Lo-fi is also sick.
The soundtrack for Virgo Versus The Zodiac. It’s the only video game soundtrack I ever bought.
I started listening this morning and the soundtrack indeed slaps. Thanks for the rec!
Never saw this game before…ooooo that soundtrack is silky. Keeping an eye on this one!
Acid Jazz/Funk. No overwhelming lyrics, good background noise.
