Some people need silence to concentrate. Other people need some kind of noise. People know what they need, and brains are very different in this way. Such is neurodiversity.
Here are some options for brains which need music to chill, study, do homework, get through boring stuff.
TRY THIS
- Orchestral covers of songs you already know
- Lo-fi music. Lo-fi Lo-fi refers to a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, but what you’re after here is the repetitive nature of most of it. You may find it has a snare that hooks your attention too much.
- Game soundtracks, because computer game soundtracks are designed to keep you focused and playing:
- Portal 2: Songs to Test By
- Stardew Valley Soundtrack
- Boss themes (recurring pieces of music in the Final Fantasy series)
- Minecraft
- Sims 3 soundtrack (isn’t depressing)
- Wii theme music (ditto)
- Godzilla King of the Monsters soundtrack
- Genshin Impact’s battle themes
- The Oblivion soundtrack from The Elderscrolls Series
- Certain songs and albums which you might not have thought of (experiment with volume)
- Linkin Park
- Fall Out Boy
- Steppes‘ folk music
- My Chemical Romance
- Enya
- AFI
- Rodrigo y Gabriella (a Mexican acoustic guitar duo whose music is influenced by a number of genres including nuevo flamenco, rock, and heavy metal)
- “Tom Sawyer” by Rush
- Caramelldansen (epilepsy warning for the strobe lights)
- Loituma – Ieva’s Polka (and other songs in a language you don’t understand)
- Eve and Yoh Kamiyama
- Hulle Granz Cathedral
- Anime raps e.g. Rustage
- mxmtoon
- Thievery Corporation
- Electronic Dance Music
- Techno
- Binaural beats
- Isochronic tone music
- Powermetal
- Post-rock for studying, reading and writing
- K-indie
- Synthwave (possibly too repetitive)
- Don’t be afraid to pick the same song that works for you and just put that mofo on repeat for a whole week. Doesn’t matter if it’s from your grandparents’ era, or from a genre you’d never otherwise listen to for fun. In fact, if you listen to it for fun it probably won’t even work. You’ll be too interested in it.
- TV Shows That Aren’t Too Interesting and thereby function as white noise
- crime procedurals e.g. Forensic Files
- audiobooks you’ve heard before
- White Noise (if you find any kind of music too distracting)
