- Pet Shop Boys, Introspective
- Pink Floyd, Echoes
- Pink Floyd, The Division Bell
- Pink Floyd, The Final Cut
- Ultravox, Slow Motion
- Vangelis, Heaven and Hell
- Vangelis, Blade Runner
- Green Day, Dookie
- Emerson, Lake & Powell, Emerson, Lake & Powell
- Sex Pistols, The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle
- Joe Walsh, The Confessor
- Yello, One Second
I sure do wish I was better at writing while music was playing. I know lots of writers who actually do their thing while wearing headphones, and I just can't get into that headspace. If I've got music going, there's the overwhelming temptation to actually actively listen to the music and not the words in my head.
I've got Heaven and Hell playing while I type this, and it's not going too badly, but this isn't really writing, you know, it's more... "keyboard diarrhea", if you will.
EDIT: God, I had totally forgotten that part of Heaven and Hell was used as the theme music for Cosmos. Wow, that takes a girl back... What an awesomely good piece of music.
"If I've got music going, there's the overwhelming temptation to actually actively listen to the music and not the words in my head."
ReplyDeleteI run into the same problem; that's why I have some long playlists that are instrumental only for when I am having to concentrate and focus on something like studying.
Vangelis is one of modern music's most prolific and underrated composers.
ReplyDeleteAs for "The Final Cut," I've found it okay so long as I listen to it in a sort of mental vacuum. If I listen to it while failing to suppress the knowledge that it's a followup therapy session to "The Wall," and the knowledge of the various tours, live productions and so forth thereof, I find myself going, "Okay, Mr. Waters, ENOUGH! You're father died in the war and you're sad. We Get It Already."
gvi
Ultravox, nice :)
ReplyDeleteI've got all my stuff ripped, too; I like to just put the whole lot of it on shuffle in Winamp.
Yello?
ReplyDeleteI get it. You've managed to hack into my MP3 folder and are just mocking me, right?
Gonna go throw in Goldrush and my favorite Si Senor the Hairy Grill.
Si Senor The Hairy Grill:
ReplyDeleteBEST. DRIVING. MUSIC. EVAR!
"The sun is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteThe moon - even more beautiful.
Oh, Yeah."
Or do you prefer...
"Clouds. Love. Stars. Colors."
Or Shirley Bassey singing the Rhythm Divine?
Hmmm... I may have to dig that out.
I'm firmly convinced that some people need quiet to concentrate, and others need noise.
ReplyDeleteI'm your inverse: I can write short, messy posts in silence (which is what Stingray prefers, one reason I usually don't put up long posts until evening when he's done with the workday), but to concentrate I need music. I used to do math homework with something from the Indiana Jones or James Bond series playing in the background- much more effective than quiet.
I think the manic part of my brain that's always running around bouncing off the walls or playing paddleball needs something to do while the more productive bits are working.
Ms. Tam:
ReplyDeleteMay I ask *which* Blade Runner soundtrack you are ripping (since there are about 3 official ones and a dozen bootlegs)?
<lame poseur>One Second? Yeah, I have that on vinyl.</lame poseur> You run across it at Goodwill for a dollar, you buy it. I have a friend who has most of Yello's stuff on vinyl from buying it when it was new. Many years ago I taped Si Senor The Hairy Grill onto cassette from his vinyl copy of One Second and wore out the tape listening to it in my car.
ReplyDeleteI can write/program better with music if I'm already clear on what I'm going to write. The music becomes something of a protective wall. But if I'm not already clear on what I'm writing, I also end up focusing on the music, actively listening.
Damn, that list takes me back.
ReplyDeleteI'm about the same age as Tam, but I had mostly much older friends growing up. Friends who were way more musically diverse then your average teen/preteen. Friends who I can thank for introducing me to stuff like Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Synergy, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Isao Tomita and even Frank Zappa.
Damn.
Scott,
ReplyDelete"May I ask *which* Blade Runner soundtrack you are ripping (since there are about 3 official ones and a dozen bootlegs)?"
This is the 1994 Vangelis album.
And all this time I thought I was odd for loving Yello!
ReplyDeleteShirley Bassey ROCKS!
I was discussing Floyd a few years back and mentioned one album, don't recall which, and described it as "the one they did about the guy who goes insane. Oh... I guess that's all of them, isn't it?"
ReplyDeleteUltravox? I thought I was the only one who liked Ultravox.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
NMM1AFan
What? No "Men Without Hats"?
ReplyDeleteI saw "Emerson, Lake & Powell" and I thought that can't be right. It ought to be "Emerson, Lake & Palmer". But then it was repeated, so I looked it up and learned something. Durn it. Got through the whole day without learning anything until this happened.
ReplyDelete