Do you need music to write well?
Everyone has a writing workflow that works for them which includes tools, spacial environment, the right desk (or standing desk), and even the right time of the day.
I’ve discovered that one of the most important elements in my writing workflow is that from the musical perspective – in fact, it is very difficult to even begin to blog without some sort of music in my ears!
:)
My musical tastes are fairly eclectic – that is, I like and have enjoyed nearly every single type and genre, including Country (which I hated for no good reason for a long time!).
And if I can be so bold and honest, I’m a mainstream pop music junkie. That is, anything that’s playing on repeat on your local music FM station is probably in my play list. “Good” music be darned! I enjoy a catchy and simply melody in my eardrums.
But, I do enjoy these other types as well: Electronica, Vocal Trance, Old School Hip Hop, and Contemporary Classic (if that’s even a thing).
One final note thing of note is that I like the “Repeat 1” setting. In other words, I love to find a “song of the day” and put it on repeat for the entire day. I’ll listen to the same song one, two, and upwards of 300 times in a single day. The image to the right is what a single week looks like in terms of listen count (I clear it every week).
Thank goodness for my favorite headphones or my wife would go insane! She finds my interest in hearing the same song on continuous loop to be pretty ridiculous! Hey, it works for me!
What about you? Do you need music to write well? Where did that habit come from? What types of music do you listen to?
Love to hear your thoughts!
[Image Creative Commons, simon]
I listen to music when I blog, or write. If its not music its usually a mindless TV show in the background. I really just love having noise around me.
Right now I am listening to Foster the People when I write OORR
Watching scrubs.
This is a habit I made when I was a kid. I couldn’t do homework without one of these two things happening in the background.
Instead of a mindless TV show playing in the background.
I love listening to the LOST soundtrack when writing! It’s a great soundtrack to listen to when writing.
I do two things and it actually depends on what kind of blog entry I am writing. If I am writing one that relies more on my thoughts rather one that requires research and data gathering, I will listen to music.
If I have to jump around, write, download images, get links, gather information I will actually put a movie on. This comes with two caveats. A. It’s not a movie I haven’t seen before and B. It’s a movie a lot of dialogue so the conversations blend into the background.
Maybe it’s just me, but I find it easier to concentrate on doing those posts with Samuel J. Jackson shouting, “English motherf***er, do you speak it?!” in the background.
I listen to music pretty much any time I’m doing anything other than a meeting or talking to other people.
I’m all over the board with what I like but I trend more towards rock and danceable stuff (that’s not Top 40 pop).
Turntable.fm has been something I’ve really been digging lately.
I can’t listen to a song on repeat. I usually listen to albums to completion and I usually like a lot of control over what I’m listening to (read: don’t listen to the radio very often).
I absolutely love music, but it distracts me when I blog. I try to listen every once and a while, but it always just slows me down..
The only time I listen to music while blogging is when I’m trying to keep my newborn asleep! lol Music usually distracts me because I like to sing along.
Most of the time I’ve got some sort of music on while I write. Some of my favorite music to write to is ‘All the Bright Lights’ and here recently ‘Bon Iver.’ You don’t have to think about what’s being sung and that helps me write.
Music junkie here. I’ve been listening to music while writing my whole life. I have different bands/people for different moods/topics!
Cosmic convergence! I just posted my own post on this exact subject : http://www.dtrasler.com I can’t write without music, and make different playlists for different moods – loud rock tunes for angry days, soothing female-only vocalists for down days….
I can’t have any music at all when I’m writing. I get too distracted (maybe because I am a musician myself) and start thinking about other things. Being in silence is best for me, although I can work around noise. But I have never been able to be affective while listening to music!
I say no..that’s seems like something that will detracts me form writing..just me personally.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
interesting.
I love listening to music when I’m thinking or reading blogs. When I write for the blog I usually have the music off (it helps me concentrate on the content) but just about everything else I do has music in the background. In fact, I loose focus on some projects if I don’t have music going in the background.
I think it started at my old job where I did repetitive work. It got boring so I bought an mp3 player and started listening to music and podcasts.
I listen to a little bit of everything, but right now my favorites are folk, rock, and something I just discovered today called “talk music” by the band “Listener”. Really good stuff.
I can’t live without music. I absolutely can’t stand talk radio or ads, so I’m either listening to Pandora or playing my own music. TV doesn’t work for me, too distracting (I never watch TV anymore, so I try never to be around turned-on TVs as I will get sucked into shows, even ones that I absolutely hate).
Style? I like most anything, except the mainstream pop. That’s my wife’s domain. I especially like metal, hard rock, punk, anything techno, classical, country, and contemporary Christian. Habit came from the fact that my dad was in a rock band when I was a kid, and has never stopped playing guitar/electric/bass since (he’s the worship leader at my church now), so I was always listening to either his band practicing or his favorite music playing in the car or at home.
Now I have ringing in my ears if there’s no sound. Silence is, quite literally, deafening, so I try to fill that silence with music or white noise any way I can.
Tim,
Have you ever talked to a doctor about your tinnitus? I had issues with it but figured out how to clear it up with some facial massage. Strange, I know, but it worked quite well. My tinnitus was related to TMJ.
I have to work with music. I loved the data entry jobs I’ve done because they almost all let you bring your ipod to work. I guess it is because it is such a repetitive task. I think music provides a rhythm and seems to make work go faster.
If anyone is on last.fm you can find me here
http://www.last.fm/user/susansilver
It isn’t updated because I’ve been using Google Music. The Instant music mixes are great. Much better than what Itunes genius used to give me.
I also use Pandora. I’ve built up a great LoFi Indie station.
I listen to music constantly. Every once in awhile I’ll turn it off if I’ve had a particularly noisy day with the boys. Right now my favs are Mumford & Sons and Adele. I also love the Vocal Trance genre for writing. It’s very soothing and non-distracting.
So, I really thought I was the only person in the world who could listen to a single song on repeat for an entire day. My hubby does at times get a little bothered by it if it’s on the stereo. It’s the best way to truly understand the lyrics, or what the lyrics mean for me. It’s actually really cathartic.
Ok, so that makes three “Repeat 1″ people in the world!
Well…I write ABOUT music…sooooooooooooo I’d have to say yes, I listen to music while I write. Although I cover a lot of genres, I prefer pop-punk. Since pop-punk isn’t popular these days and there aren’t enough bands playing that, I prefer alternative rock. I also prefer albums over singles and listening to the same song 300 times in a row would probably kill me dead.
Music definitely helps, but it has to be instrumentals. When composing sentences, I don’t need words sneaking in on their own, otherwise, I’ll be writing Jesse’s girl for Bananarama while Burning Down the House and it just doesn’t 867-5309, amirite?
So I have a Work Music playlist on iTunes that’s filled with all kinds of stuff (including a few songs with words to provide a change), and the DJ function keeps it shaken and stirred quite nicely.
But when I need to bear down, I have a Futurama playlist that consists of all the instrumentals I could find from the show, including a couple fan mashups (including one with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that freakin’ ROCKS!). With that hammerin’ hammerin’ hammerin’ in me head, I can work through any distraction short of a whale falling from the sky.
I love listening to music when writing, or working. Helps me stay focused on what I am doing. I find a low volume to be the best thing so I’m not too engaged in the lyrics or beat of the music. My most recent spins of full albums have been the Bon Iver album and Foster The People. Love that stuff. So good!
John,
I find that music is the quickest way for me to get “in the zone” when writing.
Music plays…and words just start to fly for me. I have one mix that I listen to constantly.
I too wear headphones when writing. Helps me isolate and concentrate. Of course, it also allows my son to sneak up and scare the heck out of me.
Some good instrumental music really helps me blog. Some of my faves are Hammock, Stars Of The Lid, Eluvium, Loscil, All the Bright Lights, Helios, Jonsi & Alex, & Album Leaf.
Yes, music helps. My love of music came from my parents.
I listen to music most of the time when working with my big headphones. LOL!
There’s normally some sort of music or podcasts on in the background. Although this last week and the next two – in the afternoons it’s the Tour de France – best sporting three weeks of the year!
Music in the background – of course.
“song of the day” – absolutely
type of music – depends on the mood/day/topic of my blog post
- Klaudia
Haha, I totally do the same thing with the Repeat 1 song. I find it helps get me in the zone because I stop listening to the words (because I’ve heard them a hundred times) and just feel the flow, if that makes sense. I’ve talked to you about this before, but I’m also a fan of playing white or pink noise. Not for everyone though – but I love it
Me? Silence. Unadulterated, uninterrupted silence.
Kind-of impossible with three kids…
Usually New Order or Pet Shop Boys, all songs on shuffle.
Lately, however, it has been Mumford and Sons. Minus Little Lion Man as I work from home and have four kids…..
As a matter of fact, I was listening to music to help me write when I found this update in my inbox! Ha! I too find it hard to write when I don’t have music on. I either tend to listen to it on loop — my sister gets annoyed by the repeat-one option too, so I tend to go in another room, haha — or do an album/artist at a time. It depends on what I’m writing.
My taste is music is very eclectic, to be honest. But what helps my music the most would be… Secondhand Serenade, Lights, Five For Fighting, The Beatles, Drowning Pool, Journey, Muse, and Relient K. Right now, I’m listening to Evanescence.
Music is such a huge part of my life that I can barely withstand doing anything without some kind of music playing. I listen to a lot of music without singing or that has singing in a language I do not understand (Deep Forest, Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, Jean Michel Jarre to mention just a few)and it’s inspired some, in my not so humble opinion, amazing writing
Currently there are two CDs that Ive been playing over and over – Music from The Social Network by Trent Reznor (HUGE Reznor/Nine Inch Nails fan here) & Atticus Ross and Moby’s latest, Destroyed. Friends have looked through my 5000+ cd collection and asked “Damn! Just how many personalities do you have?” 
I’m just the same, i need music going through my ears in order to get anything productive done but i’m not really fixed on what i listen to. Right now i’m listening to dubstep.fm, also varies though. I’ve got about 20 different radio stations pinned to my media player ready for whatever type of radio i feel like listening too!
I am so glad to know I’m not the only one with the TV or music on while doing something else on the computer. I know we are all multi-tasking!
JS
Classical and smooth jazz, on low.
I generally don’t listen to music when I write. Maybe I should – it might make me more productive. Only when I am extremely frustrated will I put on “my angry music”: Rage Against the Machine and similar bands. “Killing in the name of” is great for venting!!!
wow, i love rage!
hi,
of course the same is true while I write a new blog post. I am also a one song serial listener, and I wondered if anyone else has the same practice, Today I just find my answer.
big time… loop!
I really do need music if I am hoping to accomplish anything at all! It is especially important if I am trying to read or write, and I think it all began as the result of being one of five children in a very small house as we grew up. I needed music to drown out the chaos anytime I was doing homework or reading a book, and the habit never went away.
Like you, I will often listen to one song on repeat. In addition to helping me focus by drowning everything else out, I am never distracted by the change in songs, and I don’t find myself looking up lyrics or spending too much time on what I am hearing.
neat! my team has issues with some songs because it makes them think too much. for me it’s just pleasant “noise” that works.
I know I’m late to the party on this post, but I agree with what you said in the article. I thought I was alone because I’d loop+1 a song while I wrote or was in Photoshop.
I can’t be creative without music. Music is therapy for me, as much as the art I’m creating.
I most definitely have to have music going on while working/writing. Silence in the background drives me nuts. Lately I have been listening to a lot of scores from soundtracks.
which ones?
Hello,
I love music and when I say Love I mean LOVE (all capitals). However, I’m into all Genres and I find it easier for me to write well, not easier I catch myself writing important stuff when Jazz is playing in my ear. I really don’t remember where the habit came from but all I know, I love it; lately I’ve been trying to go without music.
Church Johnson
Letthesewordshugyou.com