The Town of Odyssey

This is a topic that doesn't quite know what it is. I'm not even sure where it should go, but a general discussion sounds safe enough.

So anyway, I like making playlists for different moods (I'm sure this is a common enough occurence) but recently I feel like I've been stuck in a rut with my music. If anyone feels they'd like to offer me some new listening experiences to add to my current favourite playlists, please do so! (Maybe check the music I've listed first, to see if we have similar tastes. )

And, should anyone else want to swap around their favourite picks for favourite playlists, this would be as good a place as any, I guess. I'd be interested in hearing something different!

Chilled out music:
Joao Gilberto; Oscar Castro-Neves; Carla Bruni; a little bit of Hans Zimmer; Tomohito Nishiura (Moment Of Rest from Professor Layton series, End Theme from Professor Layton series); Thomas Newman (Finding Nemo and WALL.E soundtracks)

Upbeat, 'tech' sounding music (which is great inspiration for programming):
A lot of Portal, Half-Life, and other Valve stuff; Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network soundtrack); Some tracks from GB games Link's Awakening, Pokemon Red

Sad music:
Ludovico Einaudi; Alexandre Desplant; Philip Glass; Howard Shore (Gollum's Song from the Two Tower's anyone? Amazing.) Also more Portal (Exile Vilify T_T )

Get Creative Inspiration from Fantasy Worlds music:
Almost entirely consisting of Howard Shore, Koji Kondo (Legend of Zelda) and Jeremy Soule (Morrowind), with some Ludovico Einaudi

Get Stuff Done music:
Deadmau5; Skrillex; David Guetta; Basto; Macklemore; other assorted popular artists who produce loud, rhythmic and repetitive songs that make you get stuff done.

Oh, I'm on Grooveshark, that's where I do most of my listening. Does anyone else like this site?

I used to use Grooveshark all the time. Then I moved over to Spotify (essentially the same type of thing).

Some artists to try out, perhaps: Imagine Dragons, Of Monsters and Men, fun. — I listen to them and other artists with similar low-key indie sounds when I'm at work. It helps me stay focused but it's still good music that I can sing along to.

Also, Macklemore, yay!! I will listen to his album on repeat for hours. I. Love. Him.

Macklemore. No. Just no. No. No. No. No. No.

Kait wrote:low-key indie sounds

Interesting way of describing them. I would call them 'upbeat alternative sounds.' lol.

I don't really use playlists. I usually just shuffle a genre or listen to full albums. Playlists are usually arranged by genre anyways, so here are some of the ones I listen to most. When I acquire new music, I usually put it in one of these wide genres, so they basically act as my playlists.

Ambient (for sleeping or reading)
Emo (for anytime really, most of it is pretty happy-sounding)
Folk (anytime)
Hardcore (getting pumped up)
Indie Pop (happy)
Indie Rock (contemplative, sad)
Post-Rock (reading, contemplative)
Post-Metal (getting pumped up)
Worship (worshiping)

This doesn't really have much to do with the topic I guess, but I like posting about music.

I use Grooveshark at school because Pandora is blocked but when I am running or working or doing schoolwork I listen to Pandora.

When I am running, I want anything upbeat, don't really care what it is (as long as it isn't obscene) because it is not as though I pay attention to it.

I listen to country music and instrumental music using 8tracks or Songza. I like motivational inspirational movie soundtrack instrumental music when I'm studying, because I hate words of new songs playing when I study. When I run I listen to upbeat country.

I listen to most of my music on YouTube. I have playlists for Christian stuff, secular music, instrumental, Disney, etc. If I really like a song after awhile, I buy it on iTunes and store it on my phone for listening when I'm out of wifi range (i.e. jogging). The majority is the songs that I leave on repeat are romantic nonsense.

Smaug the Dragon wrote:A lot of Portal, Half-Life, and other Valve stuff;

The Portal 2 soundtrack rocks.

I usually have a blend of all moods and emotions in my playlists (I also change my playlists nonstop, so interpret that as you will ), but if I had to break down the general contents of my library into key emotional categories, I guess it would be something like:

Happy:
Owl City, because Adam Young's music is audible happiness.
Eleventyseven, because they have a happy, tekkie sound.
The Jellyrox, because it's Eleventyseven's awesome little cousin.
Family Force 5, because who doesn't like rocking out to them??
Relient K, because their music is forever entwined with summertime and happiness in my head.
House of Heroes, because their musical genius can't help but make me smile.

Calm/Contemplative/Neutral:
Anberlin, because Vital is great relaxation music.
Coldplay, because their music doesn't swing too far to the happy side or too far to the sad side.
Muse, because with a name like 'Muse' you can't help but appreciate them while you chill out.
The Classic Crime, because I don't listen to depressing music if I'm too happy or too depressed.
Brave Saint Saturn, because sometimes you want to feel like you're trapped in the depths of space.
Falling Up, because when you really get into their stuff, there's no room left for other emotions.
Sky Sailing/Port Blue/Misc. Adam Young Side-Projects, because the man is multi-faceted when it comes to musical masterpieces.

Sad:
Casting Crowns, because I like to sing along when I feel blue.
Tenth Avenue North, because they always have something encouraging to say.
Disciple, because sometimes I need to reminisce.

Study Music:
Deadmau5 - I'm not exactly sure why Deadmau5's intense beats help me conquer math, Spanish, etc., but there's something about his music that just does it for me when I'm in a bind and I need to blast something while I'm doing an intense study session. Based on my similar success playing poorly written pop songs while I study, my guess is that the combination of a catchy tune plus low lyrical content is what helps to keep my brain stimulated without distracting me from the task at hand.

????:
Show-Tunes
Movie/Video Game Soundtracks


Like I said, though, I listen to these artists in all sorts of combinations/permutations. Every day I'm shufflin'.

Amethystic wrote:

Smaug the Dragon wrote:A lot of Portal, Half-Life, and other Valve stuff;

The Portal 2 soundtrack rocks.

Listening to it right now. An Accent Beyond is just so epic.

Amethystic wrote:
Study Music:
Deadmau5 - I'm not exactly sure why Deadmau5's intense beats help me conquer math, Spanish, etc., but there's something about his music that just does it for me when I'm in a bind and I need to blast something while I'm doing an intense study session. Based on my similar success playing poorly written pop songs while I study, my guess is that the combination of a catchy tune plus low lyrical content is what helps to keep my brain stimulated without distracting me from the task at hand.

There's something so mentally stimulating about deadmau5's music - especially when trying to solve Physics, Maths and other thought-tickling problems.

Deadmau5 + tricky maths/logic puzzle = very very content Smaug.

Kait wrote:Some artists to try out, perhaps: Imagine Dragons, Of Monsters and Men, fun. — I listen to them and other artists with similar low-key indie sounds when I'm at work. It helps me stay focused but it's still good music that I can sing along to.

Heh, I actually love both those artists. They started me on an indie kick that still hasn't fizzled out yet. But I've yet to make an indie playlist.

Smaug the Dragon wrote:There's something so mentally stimulating about deadmau5's music - especially when trying to solve Physics, Maths and other thought-tickling problems.

Ikr? His music literally got me through my math finals first semester.

Smaug and SWA, I will gladly take your Grooveshark names so that we can follow each other

EK wrote:Macklemore. No. Just no. No. No. No. No. No.

Please expand? I'm genuinely curious.



I love these threads where we get to share music with each other Smaug, (before I share my suggestions) do you have any genres that you absolutely hate, or simply refuse to listen to?

A lot of my 'inspiration' tracks are instrumental, as I've found it's easier to come up with your own thoughts when you're not limited by context of lyrics--it's very rare that a lyric piece inspires my artwork or writing. I definitely recommend the Tangled instrumental tracks, especially "Kingdom Dance" (and even "I See the Light", which sort of contradicts my point about lyric pieces but is generic enough that it can fit just about any ship you want)--the other scores he's done for Disney probably fit this, too. John Powell's score for How to Train Your Dragon is great when you want to feel like a hardcore Viking dragon rider. I normally don't get non-Harry Potter inspiration from the HP soundtracks, so naturally they're a great source for HP-related junk.

Smaug the Dragon wrote:Alexandre Desplat

I knew we were friends for a reason.

A lot of the music I listen to while just working on something is fairly eclectic. I like Fireflight a lot because they've got the harsher, more hardcore (for lack of a better term) sound while still singing about positive things (e.g. God's love for us, a passion for Him, no longer fearing condemnation, et cetera). TobyMac is just straight-up fun while being theologically sound. Two Steps From heck's "To Glory" is one of the most absolutely fantastic and epic instrumental tracks I've ever heard, and if you like epic-trailer-style music, go listen to audiomachine's "Beyond the Clouds" (and then do me a favor and badger them to release it on iTunes because I WANT TO LISTEN TO THAT BEAUTY). I also listen to the occasional pop song ("Stronger" and "Wide Awake" come to mind), and Taylor Swift's music has a decent sound while at the same time having a load of hilariously common denominators.

Musical Shutterbug wrote:Smaug and SWA, I will gladly take your Grooveshark names so that we can follow each other

I'll PM you my name.

Musical Shutterbug wrote: I love these threads where we get to share music with each other Smaug, (before I share my suggestions) do you have any genres that you absolutely hate, or simply refuse to listen to?

Er... heavy metal I suppose. Or, like, obnoxious country music. There's not much genres I dislike. Just bad music.

TigerintheShadows wrote:A lot of my 'inspiration' tracks are instrumental, as I've found it's easier to come up with your own thoughts when you're not limited by context of lyrics--it's very rare that a lyric piece inspires my artwork or writing. I definitely recommend the Tangled instrumental tracks, especially "Kingdom Dance" (and even "I See the Light", which sort of contradicts my point about lyric pieces but is generic enough that it can fit just about any ship you want)--the other scores he's done for Disney probably fit this, too. John Powell's score for How to Train Your Dragon is great when you want to feel like a hardcore Viking dragon rider. I normally don't get non-Harry Potter inspiration from the HP soundtracks, so naturally they're a great source for HP-related junk.

Soundtracks are the best! Whether movie or game soundtracks, I love 'em all! I know it's not really branching out at all (which was the point of this thread...) but any of your favourite soundtracks people - please share them! MS, you're big into soundtracks too, right? I'd love to hear of your particular favourites!

TigerintheShadows wrote: I knew we were friends for a reason.

a lot of reasons.

Smaug the Dragon wrote:MS, you're big into soundtracks too, right? I'd love to hear of your particular favourites!

...I'm only utterly obsessed beyond all reason and control

Smaug the Dragon wrote:Er... heavy metal I suppose. Or, like, obnoxious country music. There's not much genres I dislike. Just bad music.

Alrighty I'll write up a list for you.

Smaug the Dragon wrote:

TigerintheShadows wrote: I knew we were friends for a reason.

a lot of reasons.

Finally! I have found people who adore Desplat as much as I do. Okay, probably not as much as I do. I'm pretty infatuated with his work But really, he never receives the credit that he deserves for his originality and breathtaking scores.

You guys all have great tastes in music
Throwing in my two cents....
Happy/Calm/ Chilling
A Firm Handshake- Indie/Folk Band
Walk off the Earth- Rock I think?
Pentatonix- Capella
The Afters- Christian
Music from the TV show Smash- if you're into show tunes
Les Miserable soundtracks from 1985, 1995, 2010, 2012
Book of Mormon Soundtrack
Eric Whitacre- Really good choral music that's pretty relaxing
Coldplay
U2
Almost any movie or musical score- Especially John Williams, Howard Shore, Alan Menken, Harry Gregson-Williams ect.
Classical
and
Pacific Sea..... whenever they finally release that CD that we've been waiting for for a year... But they have several good youtube videos.
That's all I can think of right now.....