This specific video has helped me buckle down and get shit done so many times. I've even made loops of songs I have copies of on my computer for this kind of thing. The repetition OH MY GOD it tickles my brain in just the right way so as to boost productivity. It's great how that can cancel out the ADHD when I have deadlines looming.
Video game music does the same thing. Death by Glamour gets me in the ZONE.
I practically only have one playlist. Some of the music on it was added in the last millennia.
The repetition really is key. Some of the music on my list have several versions, same song but different recordings, but it has to be the right version. Usually the first one I heard. Having insert streaming service replace "my" version with another is a jarring experience.
I hate that! Especially when it was the correct version and then magically one day it is some other one. One time it played that awful pop version of Professional Widow by Tori Amos and that was very upsetting until I found the normal version that sounds awesome.
My music is a compost pile. All the new stuff I listen to is on top and it gets listened to on repeat and the music is less engaging the further down the stack it goes, even though it was on repeat when it was fresh. Stuff at the bottom of the list may only get played once in a year or even less.
My brain has changed a bit over time. I used to need that constant noise, it helped things flow. Now I prefer quiet. Noise breaks the flow.
I could gladly listen to a song 5000 times, but when Spotify stops shuffling my playlist and plays the same 15 songs on repeat every day for a month I start to notice and get a little bothered! Don't get me started on enhanced shuffle, either
My problem is that I want to choose when to listen to the same song a million times. When spotify gets in the loop of playing the same songs over and over, it becomes very difficult to force it to break out of it when i get tired of it. If I tell spotify to shuffle my playlist, I want spotify to shuffle my goddamn playlist
The people who make YT Music and Spotify must have autism, because they too assume it's normal to listen to the same handful of songs every day.
When I vent about this IRL people agree that it's ridiculous, but then I go online and I see the opposite, complaints that the service recommended a new song or a song they didn't like. They even took out the discovery button from YT Music.
I like to do that with great albums. I'll listen to the whole thing, just, over and over and over again. Until I've got pretty much the whole thing memorized. Then I go on to another one. I'll only do it that way if the whole album is banging, though.
I listen to Sega Mega Drive playlists. Usually the relaxing ones. I've played them so much that the song progression is normal to me. I know which one will play next in the list. Sometimes a song gets stuck in my head and it impedes my thought process, so I put it on and don't have to think about it anymore. Usually the Sega songs, they are designed to be repeated.
The Dash Berlin ASOT 600 set (specifically Sofia) got me through my dissertation writing. Even now, if I sit down with a coffee and turn on the set, within the couple minutes I am completely in the zone for working. It’s like a brain hack for me.
I also like the Music for programming site (specifically RITES) which is also good for some focus music.
I’ve tried to get some folks to post their dissertation writing music and form a massive playlist, as it seems really common to have some certain song or album. I’m sure it’s similar for other intense work flows too.