Salon post: February 2nd

[jenett]

Welcome to this week's salon post!

(This is a public post, feel free to encourage other people to drop by, just note the 'if posting anonymously, include a name people can call you in responses' rule.)

Topic of the week
Someone in one of the librarian spaces I hang out in asked how people listen to music at work, and it got some fascinating answers. So my question to you is 'what do you listen to, and how, if you do'.

(And if you don't, feel free to talk about why, or pick a totally different topic.)

What I've been up to
A bunch of writing, and less watching of things, so no exciting updates here.


House rules:
* Consider this a conversation in my living room, only with a lot more seating. I reserve the right to redirect, screen, and otherwise moderate stuff, but would vastly prefer not to have to.

* If you don't have a DW account or want to post anonymously, please include a name we can call you in this particular post. (You can say AnonymousOne or your favourite colour or whatever. Just something to help keep conversations clear.)

* If you've got a question or concern, feel free to PM me.

Comments

[jenett]

Work: Spotify off my phone speaker, at low volume. If I'm doing tedious admin work that doesn't require thought, I do podcasts.

In both cases I do a fair bit of editing of what I'm listening to because my office opens into a moderately public space in the school with students, teachers, and visitors coming through.

(I don't do headphones for the same reason: I want people to feel they can bother me.)

Car: Podcasts, via Bluetooth radio transmitter.

Home: Music, via wired headphones if I'm concentrating. TV shows/etc. via streaming media if I'm not or am knitting or such.

[wohali]

I can't get any software work done while listening to music, so, my home office is silent. If necessary I wear noise-cancelling headphones in shared spaces.

If I'm doing something else, like motorcycle repair or hardware work, I can listen to music I know well; music I don't know distracts me too much.

[jenett]

I find it makes a big difference to me if there are words.

Some kinds of work I need things without words (and that are also not common practice period Western music, because my 'hi, one of my undergrad majors was music with a focus on theory and composition' trained brain will sit there and poke at analysing the form rather than doing other things.)

So I do a lot of modern Celtic and New Agey stuff in those cases, and save the things with lyrics in languages I can make sense out of for writing (some stuff interferes, some stuff doesn't) or times I specifically want music to make me focus on something.

(I keep a playlist as a part of my spiritual practice and listen to a song every morning at random, and I also have a list of music for bad days that cheers me up.)

I used to completely freak people out in college, however, by doing music composition homework while listening to completely different music.

[wohali]

Words do make it worse. I have some sort of audio processing problem, where I have a very hard time understanding sung lyrics at all without a libretto or lyrics sheet.

Oh, I guess I can listen to radio while I drive, though. But I tend to pick stations with music I know then, too (like oldies 70s rock stuff).

Re: composition homework: You are a freak. :D

[dolorosa_12]

I listen to a lot of music at work - I can't listen to stuff with very intrusive lyrics, so I listen to a lot of dance music, DJ sets and the like, which also seems to have the effect of making me feel more alert and enthusiastic.

I move around a lot during my work (I'm a library assistant whose main role is providing teaching and training, so I do a lot of teaching work in seminar rooms, people's offices and so on), but my 'home base' is a shared, open-plan office. For this reason, I listen to music through my computer, using headphones. I find it really hard to work when other people are having conversations, so listening to music helps me drown this out.

I don't drive, and I never listen to music while I'm walking or travelling.

[jenett]

I find I work a lot better when I've got music on - it helps even out background noise. (Also work in a library, but there's a lot of random noise from students in the hallway, IT staff cutting through to the back stairs to their office, etc.)

I had seriously gotten out of the habit for more than a year, though, so I've been thinking a lot more about why that happened, and what helps.

(That's part of what Spotify is helping with, since I can play around with different types of music without investing a ton of money, and a lot of their pre-designed stuff or rummaging in other people's public playlists works reasonably well for me as a starting point. Then I go and buy the stuff I really like and want to be all grabby-paws about.)

[davidgillon]

I've always worked in open-plan offices, mostly in one the size of a football field*, and people are disturbing, so music was a way of tuning them out. I find I can tune music out, where I struggle with people.

I go through phases of listening to music while working at home, I can write to music, but I don't need it. I haven't for the last few years, but really should sort out my iTunes library. I'm fairly sure I know which drive it's on. I think.

*Plus we complained about the noise from the air-con units for years before management did anything.

[silveradept]

I don't get to listen at work if I'm on the desk, but in the back I can call up YouTube and listen through headphones. If I do anything that might indicate I'm listening to music, however, I generally get shushed for being too loud and distracting by a coworker that is sensitive to any sound at all near her workspace.

I'm listening to recordings of the music I'm getting for an after work concert band. Most of the time, I'm picking some appropriate instrumental soundtrack somewhere and going with it to help me stay awake and focused on the reading I'm doing.

[evandar]

Work: We have the radio on as background noise in the shop, but we’re only allowed to listen to one particular local station as it’s one that the higher-ups have determined is suitably inoffensive. So it’s very bland pop music from the 80s onwards, which isn’t my thing at all, but which is okay to sing along to while baking.

Study: I tend to listen to instrumental stuff while studying, or one of a couple of favourite albums on loop. I’ve got them downloaded to my phone and I’ll play them through headphones as I’m typically in a library while working on the thesis.

Home: I use the Deezer app and usually put it on Flow, so I get a random mix of things. I don’t like wearing headphones at home, so I only play music while I’m alone or cooking. I’ll sometimes stream audiobooks or podcasts through my phone as well.

[rosefox]

When I need to focus, I listen to progressive house music; usually very few words, pleasant melodies, and a steady beat that isn't so fast as to make me agitated. This YouTube channel is basically perfect and ad-free, but their radio station and mixes keep getting taken down because they don't have rights for the songs; I'd appreciate recommendations for services where I can pay for ad-free music and the artists get royalties.

[adafrog]

At work my nurse keeps a radio on to one of the local stations. Mostly 80/90's. But when I need to study and concentrate, I put on the Bose headphones and listen to classical.

In the car I listen to Sirius, usually on comedy right now.

At home I really only listen to music in the barn with a bluetooth speaker. Random stuff from the phone.

[alexseanchai]

Music makes work so much easier. Or, no, that's not right. Music makes work a whole lot more doable. Lots of mp3s on my Kindle, plus headphones. Can't be arsed to make proper playlists, so I've got the lot on shuffle, and I just skip over anything I'm not in the mood to listen to. There's podcasts of assorted flavors (mostly religious though), Pagan music, contemporary pop, Celtic, contemporary folk...I'm probably missing several genres here, though I do think I kicked most of the rock off after Supernatural broke my heart, that show being why most of the rock was on in the first place.

(I need to check out Wayward Sisters)

[jazzyjj]

Now that I have my MacBook, I mainly use iTunes for listening to music and other things. But I also like YouTube for some things, and there are a few good online radio stations that I like. My DTBM (Digital talking book machine) can also play some music. I think it's somewhat limited since its primary purpose is audio books, but it has an incredibly good speaker and the volume range is good too.





I'm told there are some pretty good options on the iPhone for listening to music, which work well with Apple's on-board screen reader. So I'll have to explore those options as well when I get my iPhone.

[badfalcon]

I wish I could listen to music at work - it would make my life SO much easier. I'd be able to concentrate better and get so much more done *sigh*

In the car I listen to a CD or the radio. Sometimes, when I remember, I hook my old mp3 player up to the doodad that lets it play through the radio. I really want to get a new car radio so I can listen to my Spotify through bluetooth.

At home, I mostly listen to Spotify. A good combination of my own music and their playlists. I do also love the 'song radio' option.