Ask HN: music for hackers?

> what is your music?

Mostly heavy-metal / hard-rock, along with some techno/eletronic music, euro-pop, some gangsta rap, and classical music. Mainly I listen to stuff like Anthrax, Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Alestorm, Armored Saint, Agnostic Front, Borknagar, Bonfire, Bon Jovi, Blind Guardian, Children of Bodom, Cinderella, Crashdiet, Cradle of Filth, Dokken, Dimmu Borgir, Danzig, Death Angel, Damageplan, Down, Dio, Europe, Emporer, Exodus, Firehouse, Finntroll, Foreigner, Gamma Ray, Grave Digger, Great White, Guns N' Roses, Hammerfall, Helloween, Iron Maiden, Immolation, Iced Earth, Incantation, Journey, Judas Priest, Jacob's Dream, Krokus, Korpiklaani, King Kobra, Lacuna Coil, Lita Ford, Manowar, Motley Crue, Motorhead, Metallica, Megadeth, Morbid Angel, Mortician, Nuclear Assault, Nevermore, Opeth, Overkill, Ozzy Osbourne, Poison, Pantera, Queensryche, Quiet Riot, Savatage, Slayer, Slaughter, Steel Panther, Testament, Trixter, Tristania, Tygers of Pan Tang, Uriah Heep, Van Halen, Vader, Vains of Jenna, Winger, Warrant, Warlock, Whitesnake, Y&T, Zebra, etc.

> What is the music of hackers?

I don't think there is any such thing... hackers have pretty broad tastes in music, in my experience. But there does seem to be a common thread of thought, suggesting that fairly repetitive, lyric-free music (techno of some sort, for example) is good for listening to when actually programming.

When I code I prefer music without lyrics:

Math rock, dubstep and other energetic electronic music when I want to pump myself up to get through some boring grunt work. Jazz when I am doing a mix of activity. Ambient and classical when I need to focus on delicate or thorny problems.

If I find myself distracted by even sparse ambient or the world is cutting through I will just listen to noise from simplyNoise to block it out.

When I code I usually listen to Ambient music, like Brian Eno. Otherwise I listen to brown noise generated by this site: http://playnoise.com/.

I prefer music without lyrics because its easier to concentrate. I usually listen to classical music or jazz. I tried listening to noise but it makes me feel very uneasy. However the sound of rain (or other sounds of nature) work really great for me! I downloaded a recording of rain from http://rainymood.com

I love dub. Also a bit of drum'n'bass, dubstep. Sometimes world music, electronica, UK Garage, hardtek.

But the music of hackers is probably experimental/acousmatic/concrete. Stuff like Ryoji Ikeda, Pierre Henry, Kaffe Matthew, etc. That's really music hacking.

I find musicForProgramming(); is good for when ever I'm using a computer or doing tech work. Otherwise I just throw on a radio for background noise.

Link: http://musicforprogramming.net/

I've been recently listening to and enjoying Digitally Imported's Ambient channel. Not a lot of distracting lyrics in their songs, and usually very calming.

http://www.di.fm/ambient

I've been digging these mixes that were posted last time the question was asked. Really helps to get in the zone.

http://soundcloud.com/jaytechmusic/

Huge ska-punk fan, and I love catching the local college radio stations.

http://somafm.com/ => has some pretty cool mixes when I need to hack.

Anything from Duke Ellington to CCR and from U2 to Top 40. When I'm "in the zone" progressive or trance work really well (Armin van Buuren, Deadmau5, or more dance oriented such as Mike Snow).