I cannot believe no one mentioned Music for Programming[0].

[0] https://musicforprogramming.net

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From their about page :

Through years of trial and error - skipping around internet radio stations, playing our entire music collections on shuffle, or just hammering single albums on repeat, we have found that the most effective music to aid prolonged periods of intense concentration tends to have a mixture of the following qualities:

- Drones

- Noise

- Fuzz

- Field recordings

- Vagueness (Hypnagogia)

- Textures without rhythm

- Minor complex chords

- Early music (Baroque, lute, harpsichord)

- Very few drums or vocals

- Synth arpeggios

- Awesome / daunting / foreboding

- Walls of reverb

Music possessing these qualities can often provide just the right amount of interest to occupy the parts of your brain that would otherwise be left free to wander and lead to distraction during your work.

I made a 25-hour Spotify playlist for myself of soundtracks, mostly from films:

https://open.spotify.com/user/22p7kffssooevmhucglnnz6ci/play...

(e.g. John Williams, Tyler Bates, Hanz Zimmer, James Horner, Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman, Alexandre Desplat, etc).

There is a smattering of video game soundtracks in there (by far my favorite composer is Christopher Tin), but the key is avoiding any 8-bit or classic "beep beep" songs. Those would break my coding flow.

Ironically, as uninspired as modern Marvel movie soundtracks are, they're perfect for concentrating on code, with a random uplifting nudge or a drop into quiet here and there.

Mostly music from: https://www.di.fm/

Most often this: https://www.di.fm/goapsy

At home: nothing. At work: "We didn't start the fire" - Billy Joel (it feels appropriate)

I go on youtube and try out some of the "epic music mixes," which have a lot of soundtrack type music on them. Also, I have to give a tip of my hat to Ambient Worlds, who have made some great long "rainy mood" mixes that are great for backgrounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30b7_S0paCQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N-IREy7C9s

Usually one or the other of some kind of metal, classical of some sort, or some kind of electronic music, probably synthwave/darkwave/retrowave or something of that ilk.

Occasionally hip-hop, pop, or "other".

"Soundtracks."

That isn't a genre, but each soundtrack offers has its own themes and style. Depending on mood you can have techno (Hackers/Matrix), fantasy (LOTRs/Interstellar), Pop (Greatest Showman/Guardians of the Galaxy), Regional Styles (Last Samurai/Moana), or even just calming/relaxing (Sims 3: Pets).

PS - Try not to dismiss soundtracks just because you never liked the movie/game. I never played the Sims 3, let alone the "Pets" expansion, but the soundtrack remains me of SimCity's sound.

Too often I get stuck reading/writing/editing for days on end to nix deadlines, with nothing but coffee and pot because those are free and free is all I can afford. I've been hypnotized by this edit quite a lot lately:

https://youtu.be/DmQmepDPg6I

I'm frankly not in the best setup for this kind of work but music like this makes me feel like I am the calm eye of a hurricane, letting me do what I need.

Eh, I usually don't. But when I need to bang out a bunch of repetitive code, I'll throw on something intense and fast-paced.

Classical piano music is stellar to code to, specifically composers in early classic and baroque eras like Bach and early Mozart. Music like that is great, because it does not usually have a large range of dynamics and does not have super exciting contrasting parts which can be distracting.

Jazz is good also, but that can sometimes get annoying after awhile or can be too exciting and distracting.

ItaloDisco / Eurobeat

Gabber, noise, and grindcore

Even though I don't like it, I normally just start one of those "focus" playlists from Spotify. It's harder for me to concentrate if I listen to something I actually like I guess.

My playlist:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_silent_musical_composi...

SomaFM groove salad is great! I feel like since I only listen to it while doing work it snaps me into work mode. It's easy to zero in and forget that the music is playing.

Odesza, Nombe, Ben Murray Smith, Volvo, SG Lewis. Electronic recommendations under ‘Discover’ in Spotify.

Or brain.fm if I really want no lyrics and to focus.

Music without words and too much emotion. Currently tabla concerts fit the bill — complex irregular repetitive rhythms.

Dan Terminus is my favorite for coding.

Lemon Jelly, Ratatat

Nothing in particular. It could be any music I am comfortable with.

Punk rock, dubstep, electronic, drum and bass.

I listen to dance music, with no words. Mostly trance and acid.

The "radio" soundtrack from the Sims

Psy Trance mostly. Sometimes classical.

Trance. Today: Stoneface & Terminal