A post earlier tonight by Max Pool over at
codesqueeze.com caught my eye moreso than the average post on a programming blog. It asked
What Music Do You Code To? Great question.
Music is the most important thing in my life - yes, even moreso than programming. We all need passions other than what we do for a living (right, RIGHT?) and since all I knew of computers was King's Quest and AOL, I've been going to concerts, buying CDs (or cassettes... and yes, I still buy them as showcased by the picture in this post - each of those racks behind me holds 1000 CDs and that's not even all of them - yikes!) and generally pouring a vast majority of my attention into the music scene. Heck - my first foray into database-driven web development came in the form of an online music magazine that I ran for quite a few years. It was a way for me to both indulge my constant craving for new music, while also having a sandbox to try out new things I learned about programming. Sorry kiddies - no links... the site is still in classic ASP as it died a slow, painful death when I got to college and started doing internships and homework.
Anyway, back to the point, the music that comes out of my laptop at work is truly off-the-wall. Just ask my brother who sits about 10ft away from me in our office - I can easily go from death metal to gangster rap without a second thought. I blame that on being a Gemini. But if I had to peg myself into a musical role, I'd say I was a hardcore/punk/indie kid and recovering metalhead.
Lately, the bands that have been getting the most spins (do mp3s spin?) include:
- Joy Division / New Order
- Alkaline Trio
- The Loved Ones
- Nirvana
- David Bowie
- The Cars
- The Clash
- Cursive / The Good Life
- Social Distortion
- Minor Threat
- Ink & Dagger
- The Misfits
- Wolf Parade / Sunset Rubdown
(I've also placed a link to my Last.fm profile on the side of my blog - so if anyone has any interest in what I'm listening to, or is just really bored, you can check that out)
I've noticed that the best stuff to listen to while working is something you're very familiar with. When I listen to new albums, I like to immerse myself in them to truly hear and enjoy them. However, when I can sing the lyrics of a song without a second thought, it just seems like everything is in order and my code seems to flow as smoothly as the music.
Well, in order to keep this thread running through the developer community, I guess it's time to tag a few more people to fill this out. So I'm going to throw the onus on the few bloggers I deal with on a somewhat regular basis: