do all coders listen to techno? I find myself much more efficient when listening to jazz.
[Edit: it's a little known fact that, in addition to starting the FSF and the GNU project, Richard Stallman was the first to sample the Amen Break.]
Electro sounds nothing like trance, even if you know little about electronic music. Compare Kraftwerk with Tiesto or ATB for example to see what I mean. You may need to listen to trance for a while to be able to distinguish between, say, Goa and Psychedelic, but saying that all genres of electronic music are ultimately the same thing comes across as ignorant. (I understand that any electronic music sounds like noise to some people, but it's a genre as rich and diverse as any other.)
e.g. tech-house, progressive-trance, progressive-house, hard-house etc etc.
The list goes on.
(escapes represent the regex-uncertainty of where they put that damn exclamation point)
I'm sorry to tell you this is trance not techno.
If this (trance) is a little cheesy for your tastes you could try something a little more grown up and housey. Still with a decent pace (125bpm) but with more of a groove.
"Playing with complex patterns of synthesised layers and intellegent beats" is how I describe it to my dad who would also think that this (the link above) is techno.
I can also highly recommend this site http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast.aspx that has a new podcast each week - all electronic music. But definatly no cheesy trance there either.
I prefer Euro myself
1) the fact that you are playing something in the background suggests that you don't feel it it important.
2) Having something playing in the background, where full and undivided attention is not being given to it can have no positive influence on a person.
I don't agree with either of those things. In fact, I would say that in many cases the opposite of both is most certainly true.
As to the first, what a person has playing in the background at work or at home often very rightly defines the character of the person, and gives you great insight into what they believe, and what they hold dear.
Regarding the second, I believe there is ample evidence to show that non-primary stimuli (call it subliminal, if you wish) can have a profound effect on the minds of people (either for good or for evil).
I would be very interested to here your view on this, as well as the view of others on HN.