Music to listen to while you work

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Right now, I’m sitting down and listening to the Florence and the Machine essentials soundtrack from iTunes as I write this blog post (specifically, “Dog Days Are Over”). I always love listening to music when I work.

When I worked in a corporate office, I would bring my headphones and plug in to block out loud salespeople closing deals on the phone, someone playing hold music from a doctor’s office on speaker phone, or a marketing department having an end-of-quarter celebration down the hall.

Now that I work from a home office, I can pump up the tunes as loud as I want knowing that I’m not bothering anyone and free from any other sound distractions. Ok, maybe it isn’t always that idyllic — on hot days when I have my windows open, there is the constant sawing and drilling of home improvements that never seem to end, dogs barking, and then in the fall the dreaded leaf-blower season (our town has not yet banned gas-powered leaf-blowers, although it is a constant source of town list chatter on our local social media).

Still, my music is usually enough to drown out most distractions. The following are a few of my work favorites. When I’m deep in my copyediting mode, I’ll have to listen to music without words so that I’m not distracted from the words that I’m reading. It’s why my list is mostly a set of soundtracks.

• The Spa music channel on Apple iTunes. I could listen to this soothing soundtrack every single day. It is exactly what it says it is. Think of the sound of tinkling wind chimes, wind blowing through trees, water trickling, and soft, soft, soft music playing in the background. I’ve been to a few spas, and it is exactly the type of music these places play, so it instantly sets my mind in that relaxed mode. It’s perfect for copyediting thousands of words a day.

• The Dragon Age Inquisition Soundtrack. You might wonder about a video game soundtrack being on this list. Give it a listen. It’s powerful and evocative. If you’ve played this epic game, it will instantly bring you back to the soaring world of Thedas. In 2023, the Recording Academy finally decided to create a category for “Best Composed Soundtrack for Video Games and other Interactive Media,” so composers that add so much atmosphere to the nearly $100 billion gaming market (in the US alone) can finally be recognized.

• Game of Thrones soundtrack. Maybe if you’ve lived under a rock you won’t recognize the beating drums and soaring strings and vocals from the main title from Ramin Djawadi (in this Atlantic article, you’ll see that the producers banned flutes from the soundtrack because they didn’t want it to sound “like a Renaissance faire”). The music swings from the powerful to the mournful in a second. If I’m feeling in a somber (and murderous) mood, I’ll skip to “The Rains of Castamere.”

• The Inception soundtrack. I’ve been in love with this Hans Zimmer soundtrack since it came out. When all of the brass instruments are blaring in a throbbing beat, I close my eyes and can feel myself filling up with inspiration to write. It’s dreamlike and labyrinthine, perfect for setting the mood for a writing session.

• Avatar: The Last Airbender soundtrack. This is for the TV show of course, not the god-awful movie (which only got a 5% on Rotten Tomatoes). This is one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen. Yes, I know it’s a kid’s show on Nickelodeon, but it’s sincere and full of adventure, humor, and pathos. And Samuel Kim’s soundtrack is a thing of beauty. If I’m feeling like I want to kick some editing butt, I pop this soundtrack in. Sadly, I haven’t been able to find any full release of the entire soundtrack, but the main theme and a few of the other pieces are online, and I love listening to them.

Of course, I listen to a lot of other music while I work, but these are the ones I return to again and again. What are your favorite pieces of music to listen to while you work?