26 replies to this topic

[Hans van der Maarel]

I know this is a question that Martin is really dying to ask, but it looks like I beat him to it. It also came up during the map design panel discussion at NACIS...

What music do you listen to while working on maps?

Personally, I enjoy listening to The Who (my favourite band), as well as other rock/punk bands of that era, such as The Jam, The Clash and The Ramones. Depending on the job at hand and my mood of the day, I go for different styles. Something that demands a lot of brain activity usually calls for some quiter music (e.g. Pete Townshend's solo work)

[Kartograph]

Digitizing:

Johnny Cash / Dubliners / Deutschland Radio (all feature and news station) / History Audiobooks

Thinking and designing:

Pre-Bach i.g. Old Music (Byzantine / Medieval / Rennaissance)
Movie Soundtracks w/o vocals (being an RPGamer I have sooo many of em)


@Hans: They did a musical here in Germany with one of the ramones guys. Did they do it somwhere else?

[Derek Tonn]

Hmm.....

Some of my personal favorites:

- John Mayer
- Jack Johnson
- Lauryn Hill
- Louis Armstrong
- Ella Fitzgerald
- Counting Crows (at least on rainy days, or when I'm bummed-out)

[Hans van der Maarel]

Andreas,

I don't know about a musical, but wasn't there a Ramones museum opened in Berlin recently?

[Martin Gamache]

I know this is a question that Martin is really dying to ask, but it looks like I beat him to it. It also came up during the map design panel discussion at NACIS...

What music do you listen to while working on maps?

This was actually suggested to me by John Krygier....


As for me my tastes are so eclectic and these days it's mostly NPR but when music comes on it can be anything from from African guitar band Tinariwen, to Euro-latino troubadour Manu Chao, to DC Hardcore/math rock such as Medications, Fugazi or Shudder to Think, or old indie rock like Superchunk, jazzy stuff like Sam Prekop, Tortoise, Sea & Cake, old school NY pre-disco Arthur Russell, the post Helmet experimental band Battles, modern Indie rock such as Pinback, or hearthbreaking stuff like Mark Kozelek and Mark Hollis. And really that's just a small sampling of what is litterally lying at my feet:
 CDs.jpg   156.26K   143 downloads

[ELeFevre]

Early in the design process I keep things on the quite side with symphonies, chamber music, folk/western tunes. I'm a big fan of composers Dimitri Schostakowitsch, Hector Berlioz, LV Beethoven, Mr. Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copeland.

Once I begin working on the computer I listen to a lot of rockish (foot-tappin)tunes:
popular staples include:

the Pogues, the Clash, Built to Spill, Neutral Milk Hotel, Jets to Brazil, Johnny Thunders, Fugazi, Mr. Jello Biafra, No Means No, Tom T. Hall!!, Woodie Guthrie,
Joy Division/New Order, the Cure

plus much more...

[frax]

I spend a lot of time lately listening (online) to the World:Wide show of the week. It is a BBC 1 show, that airs on Sunday nights, and it is available for a whole week after that. Gilles Peterson plays music he likes, which is not necessarily limited to a narrow spectra - jazz, club, hiphop and electronica. Mostly good stuff -- esp the "Browsnwood Basement" shows (a special where he only plays "strictly vinyl, no reissues" and nothing released after ~78)
BBC 1 - World Wide

[Martin Gamache]

I spend a lot of time lately listening (online) to the World:Wide show of the week. It is a BBC 1 show, that airs on Sunday nights, and it is available for a whole week after that. Gilles Peterson plays music he likes, which is not necessarily limited to a narrow spectra - jazz, club, hiphop and electronica. Mostly good stuff -- esp the "Browsnwood Basement" shows (a special where he only plays "strictly vinyl, no reissues" and nothing released after ~78)
BBC 1 - World Wide

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I use to get John Peel's shows that way and listen to them during the day. RIP John Peel. There is a show on CBC called Brave New Waves that is quite good that sort of replicates that formula.

[David T]

Great question! I'm always listening to music when working on maps. My tastes really vary when it comes to the process. It depends upon my mood, and whether I need to be pumped up (to get my mind back into the game), or if I'm on a roll.

When I'm on a roll, I usually like to listen to movie soundtracks, that are instrumentals. The music is there as background noise, to block out the distractions. When I need to be pumped up, bcause I'm dragging, I like to listen to dance music to get my mind going again.

A couple of months ago, I bought an XM Radio, and listen to that all day long. I'm a big baseball fan, so was listening to a lot of baseball in the afternoon. Whether it was the call-in talk show, or an actual game, it was nice to have that going. Wasn't distracting at all. Sometimes, in the late afternoon, I'll put on the news channels (CNN, Fox, whatever), just to keep up with what's been going on today.

In the mornings, I tend to switch between Broadway showtunes, movie showtunes, 80s Music, and the Dance channel, until I find a grove, and then stick on a channel for a long time.

[Rick Dey]

With my iTunes library sitting around 4000 entries and usually set for random, the possibilities are endless (Vivaldi followed by Blue Oyster Cult?). It tends to lean toward Classic rock with some smattering of Jazz and Classical. Being in an office with cubicles, earphones are a requirement and sometimes they just get to be too restricting being wired to the computer as I need to move around, so the music has to be put aside. However there are those days that I need to focus and block out my surroundings and co-workers, I pull out the heavy artillery (my Bose noise cancelling headphones) and crank it up. The Doors, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Mindi Abair, Bob Seger, even some garbage can all do the trick then.

[Mike H]

Funny how itunes has changed my music world - if you asked this question last year i would name my fave albums at the time. But now, I run itunes on shuffle 24/7 at work or home, so unless something actually manages to irritate me (and I hit skip) i retreat into my own private radio station of sorts... according to itunes I can listen to music for 9.6 days without a repeat.

Maybe next year I'll be back to doing the album thing again?

m.

[Craig]

Currently I play a lot of Blackmore's Night, Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett while working. I'm a real fan of heavy rock, but I can't listen to it while working, otherwise I start using my keyboard as a drumkit, and I also have to crank up the volume, which the dog doesn't like.

I also listen to a lot of classical - it just suits our kind of work.

Craig

[Hans van der Maarel]

Quite interesting in this context:
Discover Music - Pandora

The 'music genome project'. Enter an artist or song that you like and it will collect similar music for you.

[Derek Tonn]

Quite interesting in this context:
Discover Music - Pandora

The 'music genome project'. Enter an artist or song that you like and it will collect similar music for you.

Hans,

Yes, Pandora is about the coolest music site that I have found on the 'net to date! If you want to check out my "mapping music" station, you can visit: Mapping Music

That's my "background noise while I am working" taste in a nutshell....unless I'm feeling the need for something FAST/LOUD if the situation calls for it.

[Andrew]

Haha its good to nkow that other people here also change their music genre to match the work they are doing. I no longer feel alone. I have play lists tailored for certain jobs at hand.

Andrew