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Comment by jonathanlydall | Hacker News Reader

To the improvement of my focus and productivity I recently-ish got into listening "arbitrary" music with little to no lyrics and an uplifting tempo.

I used to listen to particular bands which I felt "defined my identity" or something, which I still occasionally do, but I've since realized that when I'm working it's "distracting" to me and I now listen to things like generic "trailer" / epic music or "upbeat" music for workouts.

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This is pretty much what I end up doing by choice, but it only acts as an aid if I can also take them off and get a break. The problem is made worse when you can also see the person chewing with their mouth open and possibly being able to smell it.

Any examples or recommendations? I'd like to try this.

It's probably a personal taste thing, but on Spotify some of the radios I listen to are based on the following artists of their songs:

- Two Steps from Hell

- Sultan + Shephard

- Tom Player

- Matias Puumala

Some other random playlists:

- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E8PiJpaZ8rWVi?si=...

- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E35ecXdUS92X1?si=...

- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E36Le7GAznRHV?si=...

- https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1E366Mpiqxs399?si=...

I don't really curate my stuff, I occasionally "like" songs or start radios off songs I'm enjoying in the moment.

Can't do it myself, but I've heard that people listen to typical traditional "video game music" for this purpose. Fast, upbeat, and never something you need to focus on, but rather, it just helps you keep up the concentration.

...if you're the type of person who can listen to music while working, that is.

VGM is all over the place.

I used to like working to the Hotline Miami soundtrack myself, which worked great for coding menial stuff but sucked for troubleshooting.

The Unreal Tournament '99 OST is way better in that it's fast, low-key, and repetitive. I put on a 3-hour megamix and I'm crushing it until lunch.

The Unreal OST and first Assasin's creed also work well for me.

To add to the other comment. Game music/soundtracks can be good for that, lots of options there, usually that music is to fill the background and keep someone engaged with the game. I also find LoFi music good for that purpose.

I actually had the Golden Axe theme[0] on repeat for 4 hours and didn't notice =) I also have a feeling it wasn't the full song, but I had clipped it to a shorter length to fit into the space required for a ringtone at the time.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWkT180hNLE

somafm.com has excellent programming in a variety of flavors

Fast "hard bop" Jazz from the '50s-60s e.g. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers.

It's intense, upbeat music.

I've greatly enjoyed https://musicforprogramming.net/ since it's so easy to access, has free downloads, and a web player.

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