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.
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/
Groove Salad for me. Unless I’m updating production severs then I put on Drone Zone to lower my heart rate.
SomaFM really is the best thing on the Internet
when i really have to focus, i listen to dronezone
80s bestof
Heavy metal to disassociate myself from the office
I mostly listen to videogame soundtracks with no lyrics, or various electronica (also no lyrics). https://rainwave.cc/ocremix/ if I’m not feeling anything in particular
The Doom 2016 soundtrack.
silence so I can concentrate else my brain focuses on the music and I get nothing done and end up dancing around to the music
At least you don’t start sing. I think singing would be the worst. I’m the same BTW, minus dancing. :D Especially good music, my brain is in a different dimension when I listen to good music I can “vibe” with. (Hey don’t judge, this is the first time in my life I used the vibe word appropriate).
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.
Synthwave is my jam. But, and this is a big Butt, I’m a person who focuses on one job and get distracted too easily. So having any music in the background will distract me. So mute is it then for me.
“this is a big Butt”
Nice.
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.
When coding, I usually listen to Indian classical. It can’t have any lyrics, as I get distracted by them.
When studying (it’s my actual job, I’m a mathematics researcher), I usually prefer white noise, or just a good pair of noise cancelling headphones without anything actually playing on it. Sound of rain works pretty well too.
Acid Jazz/Funk. No overwhelming lyrics, good background noise.
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.
Psytrance or Dubstep. Something without much (or any) lyrics but with a strong bassline, maybe a bit glitchy.
I like -45. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wX2GhQOCO0Y
After a quick listen and skip, can confirm, that would do the job :-)
Psytrance + Glitchy? Kalya Scintilla fan over here 😁👋
Interestingly, the music I prefer to listen to is more rocky - Punk/Grunge/Ska/Folk/Dub.
I acquired my love of psytrance in the early noughties when I used to do henna art at festivals in the UK. We got friendly with a couple who ran a psytrance CD stall, and were very often pitched right next door, so I spent many a weekend doing henna art with their music blasting out of their PA as a backing track. One CD that was popular at the time was Virtual Memory by Alchemy, but I seldom knew who I was listening to - it never seemed to matter. Worked well for getting into “the zone” though, and it’s not distracting because I don’t find myself trying to listen to the (usually non-existent) lyrics.
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!







