Drawar

If it's instrumental and ambient it's a winner - something that can be easily ignored, acting just as background noise. Otherwise it just distracts me.

Shoegaze is a nice genre to work to as well. It pulls you into your own beautiful, gay little bubble and drowns out everything else.

I am a bit of freak and often do playlists depending on the project working on. I really design well if I use music to get into the mood of what I am designing.

Mostly hip hop, lots of instrumentals, old 70s tunes, deep house. It varies alot, and I guess it depends on the project. But I definitely can't work without music. It's quite essential.

Instrumentals or House.. Anything with lyrics is just too distracting.

Oddly I can code to movies though. Don't know why but I usually have something visual on when I'm coding, if not movie (more than likely animated) often old Buffy or Angel episodes... yes I am confirmed as odd.

Derek, got a few favorite albums/artists you like to design to?

Everything. Sometimes I'll purposely make a playlist for specific projects to slightly influence the mood, but I really do like everything from Jay-Z and Nas to underground hip hop to Tori Amos to the latest Justin Timberlake to my friend's indie band to E.S. Posthumus.

I'll also design/code to movies and TV shows.

Sigur Ros. The Black Angels. Interpol.

The last month+ I've been working to The Decemberists station I created on Pandora. The station is awesome without tweaking (I hold a theory that tweaking ruins Pandora stations). The music, besides being great, is low-key enough not to distract.

Hip-Hop, R&B and Classical.

Hip-Hop when I'm always done and just pumped to almost be done.

R&B usually at the beginning to get me rolling.

Classical when its time to lock things down and get serious.

I tend to develop a soundtrack to projects. There tends to be one or two albums I play a lot while I'm working. The last project was the new Cooper Temple Clause album and The Postal Service!

Anything from the house/techno end of the rainbow.

Harder stuff when programming...

Ministry of Sound Chillout sessions... makes me feel cool like one of those of trendy London types ;)

I don't get distracted at all by music when designing... I'm just finishing something up and I've been listening to Dragonforce the whole time :P

I'll also just put on my "top 25 most played songs" in iTunes, so I know something I'm in the mood for will come up.

Trance/Techno/House or sometimes instrumental and new-age-ish, or maybe rock... Ministry of Sound most of the time...

I need music on at all times, especially while designing. I usually listen to trance or house and occasionally ambient.

mostly Jazz and instrumental music. Lyrics are distracting me in a really really bad way. Most of the time its turned on but really soft.

Every project has a personal playlist, it depends on what i have to do... If that's a code matter, maybe something smooth, oterwhise rock, funky, something more energic...

I design and code to everything... well... except country. Country music is evil.

I listen to soothing/ambient music when writing or designing. It can be either instrumental or a combination of vocal and instrumental, but it has to be ambient.

Frou Frou, and Imogen Heap....and of course some trancey techno

Pure silence and little to no lighting.

Frou Frou and Imogen Heap are awesome. But it depends what kind of stuff I'm doing. Detailed work and I need silence. But for everything else I'll just put iTunes on party shuffle and see where it leads me. Usually, Guster, DMB, Jason Mraz, Damien Rice, Sufjan Stevens. Tons more, but ya know.

I generally design to either d'n'b, ambient or laid back hip-hop. Not sure why it works but it definitely does. Perhaps everyone here could suggest a track and we make a "9rules soundtrack" to try out on a project ? Or not...

I listen to absolutely anything. Generally rock of some sort. Right now Orson are playing but I love all sorts of stuff.

\m/ Power Metal \m/

Seriously, though usually the long instrumentals or ballads if i'm trying to concentrate.

Usually whatever I'm into at the time, but I often put together playlists with the same mood and feel as the look I'm going for--It's amazing how bits and pieces of what goes through your ears as music can then come out on the canvas as a completely different art form.

I tend to listen to the same sort of music around the clock. My taste changes quite often, but it's been stuck on heavy metal, hardcore, and grindcore for quite a while now. Stuff like After The Burial, Gwen Stacy, etc.

However I come across some good alternative stuff like She Wants Revenge and Say Anything when I have my library on random. I hardly ever stick to a specific playlist.

I too listen to everything except country music (shudders just typing it). I usually have a main playlist that contains mainstream music. Once in a while I'll load up my anime playlist, or my games playlist, or my movie soundtrack playlist depending on my mood and how many instrumentals I want.

i listen to a lot of japanese music when working ^_^

I listen to weird breakbeat techno and some hip hop.

I usually listen to 311 when I'm designing or programming. Its a softer rock so it isn't distracting but its upbeat enough to keep your mind flowing.

Last FM

I've had the new NIN Ghosts albums on a LOT the last few days.

Yeah I was gonna say, all I've seen on your AIM status in NIN music :)

hip-hop, r &b or old school rap. Some pop and yes even some country. At work I listen to Power 105.1 New York all day long every day. But I'm getting sick of them because they play the same stupid ass songs EVERY DAY. Too bad Hot 97 (NYC rap/hip hop station) doesn't have an online stream. :(

Prodigy for me. Just love it.

Been listening to a lot of progressive rock or music from indie bands lately. I've been enjoying Anathema, Porcupine Tree, Tool and more recently Pure Reason Revolution.

Has to be fast-paced or fun. Lyrical or instrumental doesn't matter, doesn't distract me either way. But definitely no ballads.

Instrumental always works best for me. I especially enjoy listening to video game sound tracks while designing/coding. But if I'm in a more upbeat mood, then it's ska all the way. :)

I usually listen to rock or electronica music. Mainly music from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante, Spoon, Daft Punk, Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Gorillaz.

Most of the time i have my iTunes set on "party shuffle" that way I'm not going for one theme / style / emotion :)

Owning many, many styles of music, it will either be a specific mood which I go for, but mostly I use my smart list of "not played in the last 4 weeks and more than 3 stars" - this keeps me from locking in too much into one direction.

I listen to Rock and Indie.

In short, it distracts me too much.

I'm a musician so when working I'll hear something in the music that gives me an musical idea I want to expiriment with so I can't listen to music when working or I'll never get any work done.

I sometimes end up working with a guitar on my lap and alternate.

I can listen to something like efterklang sometimes.

I listen to everything but country and rap. If I know the song, I sing along and it makes it easier and more stimulating to design! :D

For this one project, I listen to screamo because I'm like mad and stuff because they made me make it look bad ]:

Dude I totally listen to Pandora all day. I've got some pretty great stations with everything from Hard Rawk to Drum n Bass. Those are my two favorites though.

Mostly hip hop/backpack rap like Atmosphere, Sage Francis, Eyedea & Abilities, Murs. Sometimes a project does call for punk/hardcore like Terror, Hatebreed, Evergreen Terrace.

I've started listening to alot more slow stuff while doing code, Matt Nathanson for one is great to code to, for me anyway.

Mostly hip hop/backpack rap like Atmosphere, Sage Francis, Eyedea & Abilities, Murs.

Good choice in artists. I mostly listen to underground hip hop (and lots of instrumentals) when I'm designing, then when I start coding I sometimes switch it up to deep house.