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 know some people are just not interested in music, but if you were willing to give it a try I would suggest maybe instrumentals and music without lyrics. Or even music with lyrics in a language you don't know, it's easy to just tune it out instead of trying to process 2 streams of words (your work, and the music) at the same time.
No matter your genre, you're likely to be able find plenty of playlists without lyrics (instrumental only). I exclusively listen to instrumentals while programming, I can't focus if there are lyrics either.
Don't get me wrong, I like music, but when I work, especially if it's programming, I can't focus enough. I get distracted. However I'd be interesting to try with some classic music.
Note: I don't mean instrumental as in classical specifically. Maybe though if you like that. You can find instrumental mixes in almost all genres. Instrumental metal, instrumental dubstep, instrumental video game tracks, etc etc.
I'm totally with you, I can't focus at all if there are spoken words, but a little background rhythm helps me get in the zone.
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.
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.
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.
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
I agree. Although I am a vaporwave first person. Nothing like music that feels nostalgic and meandering at the same time. I don't mind synthwave but it has gotten more sub bass and driving over time (less 80s nostalgic and more John Carpenter going dark vibes).
I never got into psychill but I love some old school jungle and ambient dnb. I can't say I am really into the newer jungle/ambient dnb these days.
I have listened to dark techno and I do find it ok to program to. Almost anything with lyrics, solos and the like just get me drawn away. I would recommend Tangerine Dream as one of my favorite old school synth / experimental music makers that I like to listen to while doing stuff (usually before clocking out).
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.
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.
What I love about those groups is that they have a lot of instrumental music which isn't as distracting. It also seems strangely tailor-made for coding, as if they were hired by coders to make music for coding.
