Best Music to Listen to When Into Design

Picture this: You’re in the office and stressing out over a deadline. Your colleague sitting right next to you is having a more relaxed day. Both of you have your headphones on and are listening to music but there is one thing we can guarantee is different. While you might be listening to something to help you focus and power through, your colleague might be listening to something chill and mellow that is in tune with how they’re feeling.

Music is a great way to focus and channel your energy according to your mood when you sit down to design. And the office is a space that has seen all of our moods including the good, the bad, and the ugly. So we’re here with a list of all moods you feel during the design process and recommendations of the best music/albums you can listen to while you work. Or don’t.

When the deadline is oh-so-close: Rock/Metal

1. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Securing its position at #1 on the list of ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’ by The Rolling Stones magazine, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the most important rock & roll album ever made. The 13 tracks on this album are the pinnacle of the Beatles’ eight years as recording artists. Some good old music to help you giddy up on your design.

2. Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon

The Dark Side of the Moon is Pink Floyd’s ninth album and is considered a single extended piece rather than a collection of songs. As a culmination of their inner-space explorations of the early 1970s, it shows how the band lays down a solid framework which they embellish with synthesizers, sound effects, and spoken voice tapes. This is a must-listen album for everyone.

3. The Strokes: The New Abnormal

With their first albums in seven years, The Strokes take us right back to where they had left off. The New Abnormal manages to find a fresh, albeit more low-key, way into the woozy late-night grandeur they’ve always been so skilled at evoking. They give you a whole range to groove with, including head-bopping numbers like ‘The Adults are Talking’ to more mellow thoughtful numbers like ‘Ode to the Mets.’

4. Opeth: Blackwater Park

It’s lyrical, it’s melodic, it’s energetic. It’s got all the old-school Opeth trademarks: a winding song structure, plodding riffs that predictably repeat 4 – 6 times before moving on to a new idea, an extended acoustic interlude with clean vocals, and of course, a 10-minute song-length. And yet somehow, it all just works so incredibly well. This album will pull you in and definitely cannot be missed by metal fans.

When you have it Covered: Bollywood

1. Rockstar

This one was really a no-brainer. “Nadaan Parinde” plays out like rock opera with heavy electric guitars, mellowed by lines of the Amir Khusrao. The Pink Floyd-tinged “Jo Bhi Main” has an intoxicating loopiness. The album serves as divine intervention in the form of “Kun Faya Kun” and “Phir Se Ud Chala” plays like a stream-of-consciousness that rolls in and out of genres. The soundtrack to this album will make you feel calm, energetic, and exactly like you have it all covered.

2. Gully Boy

Energetic, emotional, and full of powerful performances throughout the movie, this is a dynamic album that conveys a story through the music. It boasts of 54 collaborators like Divine, Naezy, Sez On The Beat, and more. The Train Song had Raghu Dixit on the vocals and lyrics by Javed Akhtar! This album incorporates the perfect unity between hip-hop and melodic compositions.

When you need to Focus: Binaural Beats

1. Energy (Beta Binaural Beats)

Listening to Beta waves helps to increase focus on the task at hand in addition to overall I.Q, productivity, critical thinking, decision making, situational awareness, and memory. Moreover, Beta waves also help with increasing your energy, sharpening your hearing, and improving your overall happiness and well-being. Isn’t it all we design folks need from music?

2. Alpha Waves

The frequencies of  Alpha waves help to induce a relaxed state of mind. These Alpha waves are also effective at clearing the mind. So, if you have a big decision to make or a lot of work to power through, put your headphones on and sit back on these Alpha waves.

When you’ve already Nailed it: Hip-Hop/R&B

1. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly

A creative culmination of decades of black music influences, from jazz to funk to soul, Lamar weaves together a politically charged tapestry. The album is a cinematic piece of work and is not only one of the greatest modern hip-hop albums, but it’s also one of the best albums of the past decade of any genre.

2. Frank Ocean: Channel Orange

This album is hailed as a modern-day classic. Frank Ocean has quickly proven himself to be among the most gifted singer-songwriters of his generation. His major-label debut swings from Stevie Wonder-style keyboard breeziness to 90s R&B to mystic psych-rock to crunching 8-bit funk without thinking twice. It gives you everything you need to feel invincible.

Bonus : We have also curated a list of movies for designers.