Sometimes only a particular piece of music will do. Perhaps you want to murder your colleagues, dismember your clients or throw a chair through a window. Maybe your designer has just returned from a two week bender or an unscheduled lobotobmy…
Music is an intrinisic part of the creative process, it is tied very closely to memory but it can also be used to help the way we think, to manipulate our states of conciousness. Not all creativity is the same though – here are my personal preferences.
Music to code by
- The Pixies
- The Killers
- Groove Armada
- Cure
- 2 Many DJs
- Bowie
Music to make art by
- Orbital
- Curve
- Cure
- Radio 4
With the exception of the Cure there is very little crossover – but then the Cure are a pretty versatile band… there is plenty of music that will blow your creative processes right out of the water. The final list:
Music to unwind from work with
- Radio 3
- Arcade Fire
- Pixies (in case of emergency break glass)
Strange but true – a rag bag of classical music is often the only way to silence unwanted thought processes and restore a sense of still tranquility to a fevered and code burned brain. It provides noise and interest but no lyrical distraction and no interfering beats. The trouble with silence is that it promotes thought and many of us think too much and do too little.