Music at Work
I just saw this article and flow chart on the Huffington Post. As at least one commentator noted, it is missing quite a few genres and has some others like smooth jazz ::shudder:: I thought it might be a launching point for talking about what we personally like to listen to while we work.
Comments
which is precisely what I listen to!
It is always tricky to attempt to reduce all of music to a handful of "genre" categories. I had a number of complaints with their selections:
- Beware of anything from that kind of source that says "research shows that" without specifying the research (I am looking at the baroque-makes-you-more-creative claim). I am no expert in the brain science literature but have dipped in enough to get the sense that many of the popularized claims made on its behalf are regarded as dubious at best by actual neuroscientists (including a lot of the left brain/right brain and brain gym stuff).
- Much of my work when I am in the office (as opposed to meetings or the classroom) is reading-thinking-writing-deciding-communicating. ANYTHING that has a beat (in particular a bass beat) or comprehensible vocals is out. It noticeably diminishes my concentration.
- Ambient is good. But ambient needs some subdividing. I am not sure how to name them, but there are kinds of ambient/drone that seem to work by opening up consciousness, making it more airy, and these are perfect. There are other kinds of ambient/drone that seem to work by absorbing/numbing consciousness, and I don't find those helpful for working. I am not sure it's that they make me sleepy, more that they preoccupy my brain too much; they do not seem to offer space for nimbleness any more than thud-thud-thud does.
- Anything else instrumental without a bass beat can work - baroque, acoustic guitar, quiet piano music...but there is a similar distinction in here somewhere, so e.g. Nils Frahm is fine but not always, say, Olafur Arnalds because the latter is at times more emotive; stuff that is pulling at the emotions is not good.
Maybe there's a general distinction in here somewhere between music that is trying to overpower you in some way (make you dance, make you tense, make your emotions swell, fill you with energy, make you drowsy, create a trance state, etc.) and music that is .... resting? Reflective? Blowing kisses rather than hugging? I suspect that distinction cuts across quite a few genres. I think for me it's the key distinction for work music.