I started working in my current company about a year ago, and a few weeks later I started sending to some jobmates my own selection of music: a different song each day (well, I don’t send the song but a link to a mp3 file in a shared folder).
8 h 35 min of music so far, songs that are somehow special for me. For me, that’s the best music for programming.
Feelings is awesome.
Filini wrote:
when I was asked to put on some music I tuned in a Country web
radio, for the horror of my roommates - Country music is
not so popular here in Italy 
It isn’t as popular as you might think where I am at either… Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Personally I like to code to dance, techno, electronic, or ambient. Pretty much anything without too much in the lyric department to distract me.
Music that is distracting is hard to code with.
For me, this is anything with vocals in it since i tend to concentrate on the words a lot.
a lot of laid back electronic music that is repetitive and not annoying is good to listen to since it puts you in a consistent flow that can resemble a hypnotic trance.
I’ve listened to a whole lot of music where I work and I find classical the best for programming, it just seems to stimulate the brain in the right way for writing code at least; my brain.
I’ve also found that volume has a lot to do with distraction, the higher the volume the greater the distraction.
Since one has to play rock a high volume levels in order for it to sound decent and classical can be played at much lower volume levels in order to sound decent then this may have some effect although, I play classical when I’m programming at high volume levels and it still does not distract me.
The one thing I cannot listen to while programming is rap; It just continuously breaks my train of thought…
For long hours deep, it’s all Radiohead all the time. Get some concerts on http://bt.etree.org, incidentally.
For fixing problems, I shuffle through my whole catalog.
I agree mac. I get sleepy without the vocals though so I opt for opera. Since I don’t speak Italian or Russian or French I do not even try to listen to the words and yet it has much more energy than light jazz or muzak or classical. I know that there are high energy instrumental pieces out there but those just make me want to shut down and go outside. Too much energy. Same with the techno stuff. I’d think about going to the club instead of work.
I used to share a room in an apartment with 3 other people. One of them used to listen from time to time manele http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manele . Here are some examples:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUEYz-ybpUg (sounds a bit like opera music)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLZUQofJQNEfeature=related
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dJurBil-bM
They’re horrible, but it was kind of fun to listen to this stuff.
I listen to Slay Radio through a shoutcast stream. Remixes of old Commodore 64/Amiga classics. It’s perfect for coding, and they have a great live show called The Sunday Service where Reyn Owenhand takes requests from IRC - he will play pretty much any song in any style with a full set of instruments and a looper - LIVE! (http://www.reyn.net/)
Dude, what’s wrong with you? The Night Chicago Died is an absolute, unshakable classic.
That 70’s song selection does suck a lot. I listen with headphones to Jack Johnson, Pearl Jam and Live.
I have headphones on all day because our technical support department is in the same room. We’re all in cubicles and the headphones are the only way I can block out the conversations of my coworkers. I find that listening to anything with a good beat and no lyrics works best for me. I’m currently on this Dance/Electronic kick. We’ll see how long that lasts.
This post, and comments, is a real eye-opener! I thought all us, ah… senior, coders were Dead Heads!
I feel compelled to add my 2 cents to this already burgeoning list of comments - finding this article hot on the heels of a debate in my office of the pros and cons of an office jukebox.
I prefer silence to work to, but failing that anything minimal, electronic, with no lyrics. Something metronomic just ticking away in my headphones is fine. (As I type this, I can already hear what sounds like Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree on the office stero in response to this article I just forwarded. What have I done?!!!) 
I live in a fraternity with 6 other people. This music can’t even get to me.
I listen to all varieties of metal when I code. My playlist is massive and I just hit random and let it go. If I am in a team environment I’ll either use headphones or turn the volume so low the only way to hear it is to be sitting in my chair. Music for the most part though helps. My roommate listens to beats, so you can imagine how incompatible his music taste is with mine, but whenever he has his music on loud it doesn’t bother me at all. Sometimes I even prefer it when coding.
Only instrumental music played here at Smurf Developer Central. Lyrics cause the brain to wander too much. Don’t care if it is ‘classical’ or instrumental bluegrass, as long as there are no words.
All that other stuff is ok… But The Transformed Man?
That’s just wrong…
I’m partial to Schoenberg’s piano concertos, myself. The atonality seems to help with the distraction – most of my little mental micro-thought-trains that wander off from work get caught by the music, and dumped back off onto the work a moment or two later. Tonal music, even Bach, doesn’t quite do that for me, and anything more than the piano is distracting.
For pure fun try the When Pigs Fly CD (http://www.dynamicmusic.com/pigsflycd/mainpage.html).
You haven’t heard anything until you’ve heard Ani DiFranco and Jackie Chan (yes that one) sing Unforgettable