Study Music

The music I listen to is completely based on whatever activity I happen to be doing. Working out, studying, driving, crying, eating fajitas...they all have specific playlists. Seriously. I have a Spotify playlist titled "IDGAF" where the only song on it is the That's So Raven theme song.
...I suppose I could write a blog post about all of these playlist scenarios but in general, I try not to commit to anything. That's the number one rule of life, kids. Never make any promises.

Anyway, I'm a forever student so I've decided I'm an authoritative figure on the subject of study music. I'm extremely picky about what I can and cannot listen to, and over the 50ish years I've been a student, I've discovered all the most effective songs that I can be (sort of) productive with. Now, when something super, super, SUPER serious has to be revised or a shit ton of reading needs to be done I need absolute silence but if it's just mundane "blah blah what is my life" studying then I can put on some music. This music must meet a couple different criteria:

1. Said music must not be able to be sung/hummed/foot-tapped/mimed along to.
2. Sadness must be a prevalent in the song, typically represented by minor chords or slight dissonance. Think ominous. After all, studying sucks and the further we sink in to the depths of despair, the better.
3. Music must be able to keep studying person awake, leading me to exclude anything with the word "zen" in the title or Gregorian chant.

You can be completely boring and predictable and go with the classic playlist of "Mozart in the Morning" and "Bach for Brains" orrrr you can listen to some of my faves and branch out a little from the men in wigs...unless you're really into that. Then, by all means, go ahead. It's classical for a reason. 

In fact, let me start out with a couple of my favorite classical productivity songs.

Classical

I prefer things with a murderous energy to them (see number 2 in the list of requirements). This usually entails listening to a lot of Russian composers. Historically, war/poverty/famine/general-fucked-up-ness leads to good music. Shostakovich was a pretty cool Russian dude that liked composing music about wars. I also like Stravinsky who composed the Rite of Spring which is totally amazing to study to since you feel this powerful energy when you're TYPING. FURIOUSLY (example. me, right now). Dance of the Knights by Sergei Prokofiev is probably the best music I've found to edit a paper to. Those grammar mistakes you made are begging to be slaughtered.
Russians are cool but you also have the French...seemingly înnócënt and très gâteau (french skillz), but in fact, they're pretty dang depressing. Maurice Ravel's Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte is my favorite classical piece of all time. It's wonderful to study to because it's super sad, just like your attempt at calculus. He also wrote Bolero, which sucks. Another French guy I like is Erik Satie. Debussy, my ass! (Just kidding, Claude, you rock too) This Satie guy owns sad piano music and the 3 Gymnopedies make my life worth living...or dying. Whatever.
Oh, and then there's Danse Macabre by Sain-Saens which is literally a horrifying/deathly dance. Perfect.

Not Dead Guys

Sometimes you don't want to listen to things a bunch of dead guys wrote. How about the same thing, but this time, the guys are still alive!
Here's my not so subtle shout-out to Dan Howell (@danisnotonfire) for introducing me to Ludovico Einaudi (with a name like that he couldn't possibly be Italian). Modern composers are usually the pits and don't have anything new to contribute to modern music since all the dead guys already did it... but Einaudi's music is creepy and minimalist, in the best possible way. I'd recommend listening to his albums Divenire and also the Royal Albert Hall concert album. Sometimes he adds a beat to his music, which you'd think I would like, but no.

Andrew Bird isn't dead either. He's pretty much completely alive and writing amazing music all the time. Unfortunately, I can't sit and study to his music since it breaks rule #1, but ALAS there is a solution. Useless Creatures is a completely instrumental album that he put out in 2010 that is great to study to. The whole thing is amazing and each song has it's own unique sound. My personal favorite is Carrion Suite which everyone should listen to, regardless of study needs or not.

Soundtracks

Typically, my go-to study plan is to put on a soundtrack. Obviously, I'm referring to music that was written specifically for a film and unfortunately, not to the Sister Act soundtrack  I think there are some real gems within movie music that typically get hidden behind the spectacle of the film. Some of my personal best movie soundtracks for studying are: 

Chocolat (a little too happy sounding sometimes but generally good for studying), Whale Rider (gorgeous movie, gorgeous music), Waking Ned Devine (when I'm feeling like I should be having a Guinness instead of studying), Cloud Atlas (the Cloud Atlas Sextet didn't disappoint), Amelie (amazing, but I think I've memorized the music leading me to break rule #1), Memoirs of a Geisha (big thanks to my friend Kyle for telling me this, it's not too John Williams-y) and the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (both Swedish and US versions..for the soundtrack. I have other opinions about the movies).

Trip-Hop/Electronic/Something

I never know what to categorize this type of music as. It's that stuff that's sort of ambient elevator music but elevated (pun.) to another level (double pun.) Emancipator's album "Soon It Will Be Cold Enough" is a great album to sit down and just let go all the way through. I'm also going to mention Pogo (Nick Bertke) as having some of my favorite study music (and music in general) but a lot of it doesn't fit the rules. Ugh, WHO CARES. He's brilliant. Brilliant. BRILLIANT. I started, like many, finding his remix of Alice In Wonderland called Alice in 2008 and I've been hooked ever since. The way he puts seemingly mundane sounds together to make beautiful music is stuff of genius. Finally, the self-titled album by xxyyxx is good for a full listen to calm down when you are at the point of ripping your hair out.

And then there are the times when I can be really productive blasting Uprising by Muse because FUCK THE SYSTEM. More like bureaucrazy, amirite?