Music To Hack To?

Posted: Fri, 6 January 2006 | permalink | No comments

Ever since I got my portable ogg player a few months ago, I've been listening to music on a fairly regular basis, particularly when working on my computer (read: programming, mostly). I've noticed that what music happens to be penetrating my skull has a bit of an effect on my coding -- both from a productivity point-of-view (ever so slightly), but more interestingly, from an enjoyment point of view -- some songs just feel like they go well with cutting code, so I enjoy both the music and the coding more than I do normally.

My personal favourites have been songs like Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell, Robbie Williams' Let Me Entertain You, and several tracks off Evanescence's album Fallen. (On the Evanescence point, when my wife first bought Fallen and played it, about 10 bars into the first track, I said "now that is music to hack to" -- interesting how I got that feel so quickly).

The common factor that I can identify there is that they're all powerful tracks, with a strong, driving rhythm and a feeling of speed. They also all sound good really, really, loud (much to my wife's displeasure).

So, in the interests of scientific discovery, I'd like to know what other people like to listen to when they're writing their stuff. Both from a point of view of "what else can I stock my iRiver with to encourage my coding", and also to see if people's tastes in Music To Hack To is universal, or a personal thing.

E-mail your thoughts to mtht@hezmatt.org, or if your blog is syndicated on Planets Debian, Ubuntu, SLUG, or Linux Australia, Just Blog About It and I'll pick it up. Summaries to follow.


Post a comment

All comments are held for moderation; markdown formatting accepted.

This is a honeypot form. Do not use this form unless you want to get your IP address blacklisted. Use the second form below for comments.
Name: (required)
E-mail: (required, not published)
Website: (optional)
Name: (required)
E-mail: (required, not published)
Website: (optional)