What music do you listen to when you write?

[skip.knox]

The reggae flavor is nice. I'm not a fan of the genre in situ, but it sits nicely into a chill mix.

It's sort of crazy how that music reaches my ears. Someone made recordings, scattered all over the globe, really. Maybe it's on CD; most likely the cuts are floating in one cloud or another. Some guy in Ireland grabs these and mixes them, which entails wi-fi and satellites and specialty software, not to mention a well-tuned music sensibility to make the blend. That new concoction, like a new sort of cocktail, is put up on the bar (this one's called MixCloud). More satellites, cables, wi-fi, and finally a wire that comes out of my laptop into my ears.

We're a long way from Brother Marconi, ain't we?

And even more fun--I'm listening to this while reading about Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Specifically, G.G Coulton's flawed but highly readable biography, which I get as a PDF off of the Internet Archive, where it lives because it got scanned by some project or other (anyone remember the Gutenberg Project?). Sometimes I feel like I'm living inside the Great Library at Alexandria. With music.

 

[Svrtnsse]

...and yet, we're writing words, for people to read.

But yes, it's fascinating when you think of it. It's all just there, but there's so much that goes into actually getting it there.

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

I just put on a song by Svrtnsse

 

[happygoluckysockmonkey79]

instrumental jazz

 

[Adversaion666]

Honestly, I like to throw on something Ambient. Or instrumental. It largely depends on what I'm working on. Kalremia gets a mix of Midnight Syndicate, Nox Arcana, various Dungeon Synth artists. When I'm working on my newest venture (BlackSite 2112) I'm listening to industrial like Frontline Assembly.

 

[lorenaroys]

It depends. Usually, I listen to all my favorite songs; I like them, and they help me to work and to write.
But sometimes, when I'm stuck with something, I listen to something classical, or stop all the music

 

[Karlin]

motown.

 

[SleeplyBuilder]

It completely depends on how I'm feeling, but I usually listen to Tooboe or Atarashii Gakko as of now

 

[pmmg]

I've answered this before, I am sure, but I tend to gather a playlist for my WIP, which I listen to while driving, or meditating, and from it I tend to get a type of vision of some of the scenes I want to include.

When writing, I have trouble getting into the mode sometimes and find the words distracting. Sometimes I find just the music distracting. I need to have something playing that almost a fades into white noise as I go. I might play one song on loop, or find a soundtrack that is only instrumentals. Its not unusual for it so be something obscure that I would not expect anyone to have heard of.

At the moment, I don't have a soundtrack for the new WIP, and I am slowing gathering it. I've not gotten too far into the writing of it yet, but it will come.

PS: Turns out I did not answer this one, but I have answered a thread like this before.