My 5 Favorite Musicians to Listen to While Writing
I recently wrote an article for Patient Power on research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center that is helping some breast cancer survivors find relief from neuropathy through dancing the Argentine tango. Neuropathy commonly damages the nerves in the hands and feet, which can cause numbness, burning, and loss of feeling, thus creating balance issues and putting people at greater risk for falls.
An initial pilot study found that just 20 minutes of social dance a few times a week improved the ability to move and think at the same time when compared to home exercise. A five-year study is now underway to truly assess if dancing the tango can improve both movement and cognitive functions.
The person leading this study said the reason the tango works is because its rhythm of 120 beats per minute creates the neural phenomenon called entrainment where two or more oscillating systems, such as brainwaves or behaviors, align. Line dancing has this type of rhythm, but others like the salsa and waltz do not.
This got me thinking about the type of music I like to listen to while I’m writing. Truth be told, I always have something playing through my headphones when I am working on any piece, but the music I listen to has to have a certain type of rhythm, tone, and repetition to help stay in the zone where the neurons are firing. For example, most country music will not work nor will speed metal.
With that in mind, here are the top five musicians I listen to these days when I’m working.
1. AC/DC: When lead guitarist Angus Young heard that his band had been accused of making the same album 12 times, he said, “That’s a dirty lie! The truth is that we've made the same album over and over 14 times!" While that may make music snobs turn up their nose, AC/DC offers the best combination of rhythm, power, and repetition for me. You can put their playlist on shuffle and never have to hit skip because they are not going to drop a power ballad on you.
2. W.A.S.P.: These 80s hair metal shock rockers will never surprise you with a slow jam either, but they will hit you with every other form of foulness imaginable. However, if you can stomach it, the pace of the music will help keep your brain and fingers moving as you bang out your next piece.
3. Carly Rae Jepsen: On the flip side, I am a sucker for up-tempo pop. The challenge is that if you go with one artist like Chappell Roan, you’ll get “The Giver” and “HOT TO GO!”, but you will also have slower tracks, such as “Pink Pony Club” and “Casual” that can be distracting. For that reason, I usually create a mix of upbeat songs from different musicians, but if I had to pick one artist, I would go with Carly Rae Jepson because songs like “Call Me Maybe” and “I Really Like You” get the blood pumping.
4. Public Enemy: I’m not sharing anything profound when I say the greatest innovations in music of the last 30 years have been hip-hop, but as much as I admire what Kendrick Lamar is able to do, it is hard for me to concentrate while writing to the structure of his music. The group that works the best for me is Public Enemy whose music is generally always up-tempo and never has a shortage of force.
5. Van Halen: One other area that is helpful when selecting music is familiarity. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a child of the 1980s and 90s when Van Halen was one of the biggest bands in the world. While their music was certainly more complicated than AC/DC’s or W.A.S.P.’s, Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing had its own distinct sound that brings back a flood of memories as I write to songs with an upbeat pace.
That all being, these are just musicians that work for me, and I am not encouraging you to put on W.A.S.P. and write to songs like “Sex Drive” and “9.5. – Nasty”. My only advice is that if you are going to write to music, you need to pick something that works in tandem with your brain and hands and does not distract them.
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