Work It: the ultimate @work playlists
"The making of a great compilation tape is hard to do... You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but... then you got to cool it off. There are a lot of rules."
A killer quote from the brilliant High Fidelity to get your attention. From the Walkman to Winamp, music has been a guiding force in daily life - while at the gym, in morning traffic, or fighting with excel (or Xcode), music is often a source of focus and joy during mundane activities. Especially at work.
I'm lucky to be a part of an amazing and diverse global team, and one of the fun things is sharing latest and favorite songs and albums on one particular music interest slack channel. And it's not just us - one poll of developers found over 90% listened to music while working at least "sometimes."
Part of the fun is because it's not just record labels who are involved - I'd even say music and playlists are now part of startup DNA too. Anecdotally, I've found it interesting how much sharing music with startup colleagues means to company culture, or even externally e.g., playing a team favorite while hosting recruits or at Friday happy hours can be a subtle tool for employer branding too.
According to the Guardian, finding a middle ground of speed is the top preference - interestingly, funk music like that of James Brown is one of the go-to examples. I personally ascribe more to the High Fidelity approach - varying tempos and genres, with enough of a beat to keep you focused but not too much complexity to distract you.
Here are some of my go-to playlists - what are yours?
Mood Swings - Pigs and Plans Cascine Mix for Village Voice - Cascine Effervescent Groove - Sean Parker Lush Vibes - Spotify Ultimate Goosebump Moments - NME Gold Instrumental Beats - Spotify Berlin House Sounds - Soho House Classic Soul - Seth Rogan Chanson Francaises de Legende - Topsify ... including a few soundtracks: The Saint, Cruel Intentions, Great Expectations, Trainspotting and a couple of my own: Silent Disco (named in honor of our Slack channel ;)) + We Can Work It Out