Musical Tastes

Day 7 in the #vDM30in30

What I like…

There’s an old cliche, “I’ll listen to anything…except rap and country”.

I used to fall into this bucket, but then I actually realised that every genre has some amazing tracks and artists, so now I would describe my musical taste as pretty general. I tend toward the more hip-hop, electronic, easy-listening side. But since then I’ve broadened my horizons and will pretty much listen to anything.

I do have to admit a lot of this is because of a streak of playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero fairly obsessively when I was a student, both of which actually have a lot of music from the 60’s and 70’s that I hadn’t really listened to before.

When I listen…

Slowly I’ve basically stopped listening to music when I commute and travel, preferring podcasts or audiobooks. I find I’m normally in the mood for learning when I’m travelling, and I get bored with tracks too early if I listen to music.

Normally when I’m listening to music, I’m actually in a zone-out or coding mood. I’m looking for something to allow me to phase out of the real world a bit. There’s a pop-psychology term called firegazing, and I feel that particularly is true when I’m coding or flicking around the internet.

What I’ve been listening too

So when I code I’m normally listening to more spacey sound. I want to phase out, get in my headspace and get into flow.

One cool trend that happened recently was the rise of Chill Anime Vines. Basically little vignettes of mainly 90’s VHS quality anime clips, accompanied by trip-hop or spacey beats in 8 second loops.

I’ve also had a few very cool spacey, trip-hop and easy listening lists and videos linked that seem to be perfect whatever mood I’m in.