Music that you can code to

Tonight is the Brit Awards, so what better opportunity is there to blog on the subject of musical inspiration for developers? My Jan/Feb copy of Men’s Health magazine details a study carried out at New York’s Columbia University in which scientists discovered that blue was the most inspiring colour for creativity – so how about music? What tunes would you say help to fuel your mind if you like to tune in while you code out?

According to Dr. Lee R. Bartel, compositions that sequentially boost Alpha, Theta and Beta brainwave states can inspire and support the creative thinking process. He should know as he’s even put his name to a CD with some tunes by Ron Allen. As none of us have actually heard of Ron Allen, perhaps we ZDNetUK community members should come up with our own list that we can share.

Would Hoppipola by Sigur Ros feature in your top tunes? It’s climactic, happy and has just the right kind of ‘smile’ about it to fuel your thought process hasn’t it? Personally I think Valentine by the Delays is one of those tunes to pick you up on a dull day.

But you know, it’s not always about inspiration is it? Why do you think Seattle’s finest grunge found such huge success? If you are stuck with a debugging nightmare and working for someone you really find hard to bear, perhaps something truly throat-slittingly negative and morose is the only way to go. If that’s the way you feel then I recommend Soundgarden’s The Day I Tried To Live, at least it will remind you that someone else once felt as hopelessly exasperated as you.

If you’re watching the Brit Awards tonight then I wish you luck as I don’t think Pixie Lott or Lady Gaga are going to carve themselves a place in our long term cultural history too soon, so you might want to look through your oldies and take a pick from there!