It was a raucous album by the rock group Journey. One morning Shannon slapped on Journey, and heavy metal sounds filled the lab.
Clearly this book was written by a Country-Western fan (What kind of music do you usually have here? Oh, we have both kinds. Country. AND Western.). I’m not sure there are many people who would describe Journey as ‘heavy metal.’
(T.E.D. wrote:
Its all a matter of perspective. Back in the late 70’s they were considered that (what can I say, it was a horrid, horrid time for music). If you look at the soundtrack to Heavy Metal, you’ll see Journey on it.
Today? No.
Of course, this book was written in 1994 about events in the 90’s… so the author really had no excuse.)
For myself, I usually find that a classical piece with a grand, majestic finale works best. Nothing quite like the final movements of Mahler’s symphony #1 or Beethoven’s Ninth to really focus my mind.
I had a co-worked I shared a cubicle with few years back. He was always using speaker phone even when he didn’t have anything to say. He would be on a speaker call for a couple hours a day and I would just have to sit there and listen. I started grumbling about it and we had a few discussions but he didn’t stop doing it. So one day I put Cindy Lauper - Girls just want to have fun on repeat, turned my laptop volume up, locked my computer and walked away. The asshole finally picked up the headset.
I know this is about peoples personal preference for music, but I am surprised nobody has mentioned http://pandora.com/. I listen to it virtually everyday. You wanna listen to 70s rock or hip hop or indie or whatever it will get it for you and start guessing what you want to hear next. I’ve been using it over a year.
Clearly this book was written by a Country-Western fan (What kind
of music do you usually have here? Oh, we have both kinds.
Country. AND Western.).
ding You win being first with the Blues Brothers quote. That’s exactly what entered my mind when I read the later post that said I listen to all varieties of metal when I code.
Of course, this book was written in 1994 about events in the 90’s… so the author really had no excuse.)
I suppose you could look at it that way. What I was trying to get at is that I think its still OK to call them metal today, as long as you are talking about that old work. Just because the genre’ has evolved doesn’t mean we have to go back and reclassify all the old practicioners as something else.
If he was talking about their work in the 90’s, well, I’m impressed. I didn’t think anyone bought that stuff.
I started listening to this mixed tape and wow, something just snapped releasing some very suppressed memories. I thought I was ok all of these years, but clearly from my uncontrollable weeping while fetal position on the floor demonstrates otherwise!
Billy, don’t be a HERO, come back to meeeeeeeee. BWWWAAAAA!!!
I suspect you guys might find the wikipedia entry for Journey a bit more accurate. They classified them as initially Jazz Fusion, then loosely compared them to Boston and Foreigner (roughly how I remember them), then Pop, then Adult Contemporary. Heavy Metal is never used once.
Amazing amount of churn in that band too. I count 20 different members at one time or other. At some point you quit being a band and start being a corporation.
Cleanup, Testing, Documentation, Scripts:
Bat Out of Hell/Meatloaf
Please Hammer Don’t Hurt’Em/MC Hammer
Design, Algorithms, Intensive Coding:
Accelerated Learning
Anything else:
Active noise cancellation headsets.
One person’s music, is another person’s nightmare. I can’t imagine someone not using a headset in a group environment. Private offices are great, but cubicles next to the sink and coffee pot, not so much.
Familiar music helps me concentrate. Something new is distracting, but if I’m running over well-worn tracks in my brain then that helps. Especially if the alternative is the low murmur of an office environment.
I’ve been tested as having a bi-lateral brain - neither side dominant - so I think the music helps the parts of my brain I’m not using when programming. Then those parts don’t distract me from coding - they get to listen to music!
For me, coding is an act of violence. I feel like I’m ripping things apart and putting them back together in ways nature never intended. Tool, NIN, and the like are my favs. I don’t need a shrink - I can always write code if I have some negative feelings to work out.
Tie A Yellow Ribbon is actually not that bad. I’m imagining myself walking down a road on a sunny day. That would be a nice and happy background music.
‘Background coding music for the team’???
Maybe I’m just a music-nazi, but that sounds like a total recipe for disaster.
There couldn’t possibly be a quicker way to create dischord (no pun intended) amongst work mates.
The chances of ‘You got some of your Tito Puente in my Slayer. No, you got some of your Slayer on my Tito Puente. Hey! This actually sounds good’ are close to zero.
Like I said though, I’m a music-nazi.
I find the only music to code by is music I already know. Anything new is too distractng, and removes my mind from the problem at hand. Loud rock when the going is good, something gentle when things are tricky.
At my previous position, we had music playing all day long. It alternated between country and america’s top pop hits. I could deal with pop music, but it made for a tough day when country was on. One day they accidentally put it at the wrong station and Offspring came on, which I was pretty happy about. Half way through the song though, it got changed to country.
It’s nice now where i’m at, no music at all. If I need to concentrage, I ussually have nothing going. Otherwise I have my headphones on with either assorted music (largely from the 80’s and 90’s, mostly rock) or sports talk radio (which I am addicted too).
I prefer the head phones, bad-taste/humour music doesn’t work for me… Preferably coding music should be without lyrics, or at least in a language I don’t understand (or in English but mixed low, mumbled and otherwise hard to notice), otherwise it distracts me too much. Lyrics in norwegian, my mothertounge, doesn’t work at all because I can’t just NOT hear what they say.
BTW what timezone are you posting from? This post appeared less than half an hour ago, ca 08:30 UTC+1 August 11. Is there really a timezone UTC-32 ???
