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Ashutosh Dash
Ashutosh Dash

Posted on • Updated on

Music for Coding

Okay, so before I start, I would confess that I don't listen to music for greater concentration, in fact listening music distracts me a lot more, but listening music keep me away from other noises which include sound from Television, someone talking on the phone etc.

So, I just thought of sharing with you my playlist. Not to mention, these are my preference so feel free to share your playlist in the comments.

  1. Interstellar Instrumental
    Ever since I came across this 1-hour long art-piece of Hans Zimmer, it's my go-to music for any important task.

  2. Inception Instrumental
    Talking about Interstellar, how can we forget to mention Inception. Another art piece by Hans Zimmer. I literally listen to the two in the loop.

  3. Batman Trilogy Soundtrack
    "Why do we fall, Bruce?"

  4. The Score
    Looking for some adrenaline booster and out of stock for Red Bull? Checkout The Score's youtube playlist and you would realise they really need some serious attention.
    Some of my recomendation:
    a) Stonger
    b) Unstoppable
    c) Born for this

These were mine preference. What are yours? Tell us in the comments.

Feel free to connect with me over LinkedIn and checkout my profile on GitHub.

Top comments (45)

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brammitch profile image
Brandon Mitchell

I listen to metal while programming. The beat keeps me motivated! Here's some of my favorites:

Power Metal

  • Alestorm
  • Gloryhammer
  • Memories of Old
  • Unleash the Archers

Black/Death/Thrash

  • Radamanthys
  • Skeletonwitch
  • Slugdge
  • Xoth

Melodic Death Metal

  • Aephanemer
  • Amon Amarth
  • Be'lakor
  • Nawabs of Destruction

Progressive Metal

  • Amorphis
  • Between the Buried and Me
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spacemonkey profile image
Mitch Pirtle

Some additions for this list:

  • Chris Turner
  • TesseracT
  • Killswitch Engage (early stuff)
  • Intervals
  • Sevendust
  • Oceans Ate Alaska
  • Termina
  • PURGE
  • Bury Tomorrow
  • Architects
  • Rogue
  • Jason Richardson
  • Anup Sastry
  • Fit for a King
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highasthedn profile image
highasthedn

Ah, a man of culture! My most listened album at the moment is Limbo from the Portuguese band Gaerea

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thefern profile image
Fernando B 🚀

Looks like we got similar taste, I love anything Hans Zimmer. I don't think I've heard Batman before. Love tons of stuff to list it all.

Spotify:

  • Tron Legacy
  • lofi hip hop music
  • Lo-Fi beats
  • Brain Food
  • Max Cooper
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ashutoshdash profile image
Ashutosh Dash

Aah, thanks for reminding about TRON, amazing movie and amazing soundtrack

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Fonta22

Agree w/ lo-fi 🙂

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Jonathan H

I'm a soundtrack addict, as well. My personal coding music preferences tend to come from James Newton Howard (all the M. Night films, Waterworld, Treasure Planet, Dreamcatcher), Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, Black Sails, Cloverfield Paradox), Thomas Newman (Shawshank Redemption, Meet Joe Black, WALL-E, etc), Rachel Portman (Cider House Rules, Benny & Joon, Chocolat), Philip Glass (Truman Show, The Hours, The Illusionist), Danny Elfman (Edward Scissorhands, The Family Man, first two Batman films), and of course, Zimmer (Crimson Tide, Dark Knight trilogy, Spanglish). And there are the one-offs like K-PAX from Edward Shearmur, Finding Neverland, etc...

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ashutoshdash profile image
Ashutosh Dash

thanks for sharing, i would definitely try these

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crywolfe profile image
Gerry Wolfe • Edited

As a fellow developer I find instrumental music is really important when intentionally focusing.

I'm also a piano instrumental composer. I compose, play and record neo classical lite jazz and a number of my work colleagues listen to my music while coding. Give it a listen. Hope it helps you code. It helps me but I'm biased. 😀

soundcloud.com/crywolfe will have my complete playlist.

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lukethacoder profile image
Luke Secomb

Beautiful piano work Gerry. Should try and get your tracks onto Spotify.

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Gerry Wolfe

Thanks Luke!

I just added this to my Jan 2021 goals. It is now on my to-do list to get on Spotify by February 1!

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paqman85 profile image
Glenn Paquette

Chillhop lowfi - it's fairly ambient music, little to no lyrics. I find it the perfect music to block out distractions and focus on work.

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MD Geus

When I need to focus on coding I listen to music. It helps me keep the noise out.
But the most important thing is that there is no singing or words. If you listen to singing you want to hear the words and try to understand it, but you need to write something which is in your head and we, people, are not very good in multitasking.
So, I pick the most neutral Techno, Mostly any liveset from Charlotte de WItte will do.
just beats, no complex melodies.
I guarantee that you are in the flow within 5 minutes :)

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Ashutosh Dash

yeah, u r right, that's why I suggested instrumentals only

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Manuel Velázquez

I usually listen to these three YouTube channels:

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paulshorey profile image
paul shorey

Love this thread! Thanks! Saving it for music listening ideas later.

(Jazz:)
Boogaloo Joe Jones ♠ Psychedelic Jazz Guitar ♠ 1967
70s Japanese Jazz (Vol. 2)
Relax African Music | Jabali Spirit

(Ambient:)
Open Your Heart
Ambient Frequencies
Paul Minesweeper

(Noise rock:)
Pink album by Boris
No Closure album by Merzbow
I wonder if there's anyone else out there who finds "Japanese Noise Metal" genre relaxing and helpful to concentrate.

Links in the bottom of paulshorey.com/about

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David Wickes

Yeesh.

  • J. S. Bach, 48 Preludes and Fugues aka Das Wohltemperierte Clavier. I like the Jandó recording on Naxos for the piano, and I'm a fan of Esafani on the harpsichord. This is thinking music.

  • Wagner, Der Ring Des Nibelungen. All of it, obviously, if I need to program for sixteen hours straight. I notice a lot of metal fans here so I highly recommend Siegfried.

  • Telemann, 12 Fantasias for Solo Flute. I like the recordings by Frans Brüggen.

  • Donnacha Dennehy, Tessellatum, a piece for viola, gamba and electronics. It's mad, you should listen to it.

  • Bop. A lot of bop. Bird and Diz stuff from New York. The Dial recordings would be a good bet.

  • The Passion of Reason by Dutch recorder trio Sour Cream. This is an odd album that goes from the late medieval to the Baroque, but really draws out the mad experiments with rhythm and pitch that went on. Oh and mixes it with bird song because why not.

That'll do.

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ian h

The John Wick soundtrack can be quite excellent as well.