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Comment by tines | Hacker News Reader

Possibly the same reason why people like to listen to music while working? The essential feature common to white noise and music you're familiar with could be the predictability. I know for me a good song (uptempo, not too distracting) can help me block out the outside world and make me feel very productive.

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Music with words distracts me as I like to 'understand' songs and just enjoy the message.

I tried electronic music and as a European it really makes me want to dance, hah.

By far the best music for me is classical music. It literally makes tedious things like writing emails, documenting and coding much more enjoyable.

Another option is to listen to music that's in a different language. I have a playlist that I affectionately call "French Bistro".

I listen to the “radio” soundtrack from The Sims for the same reason. The songs have lyrics but they’re too indecipherable to be distracting.

I do the same with Scandavian music like Wadruna and then whatever youtube throws at me. No idea what they are saying but it's a nice melodic music that doesn't distract me and no worries about the song getting stuck in my head.

There are many genres of electronic music and only some are dance-oriented. If you want to check them out, try non-vocal playlists on https://www.di.fm/playlists or on YouTube or Spotify.

Same with me, the music I normally like distracts me while I work. To fix it I open up a youtube tab with a "cafe sounds" loop running (while also playing my music). Then it sounds like there's some nice music playing somewhere in the distance but I can't make it out. I also open up a "train sound" loop, which really dials in my focus.

It's a bit of a cacophony, but it got me through grad school!

The lofi hiphop (aka lofi girl) radio station on YouTube is another example of non-distracting music. It's there, but not something that draws attention.

Try ambient music.

Space music (a sub genre) is my favourite.

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