Better Than Coffee

Late nights? Early mornings? What music gets you going?

It seems like a no-brainer, but studies have shown that listening to music effects a person's mood. During a particularly intense work schedule, I put this to the test with a couple playlists. I'm an avid music listener, so the only real deviation was the intentional selection of music for the time of day or emotinal effect.

• "better than coffee"– a short set of high energy songs
• "modulated mood"– a couple hours of varied high to medium energy songs
• "mellow"– end-of-the-day, wind down music

For my wakeup list, I crossed genres but largely stuck with songs that, to me, have similar emotional cadences. Punkey rock, electronic, and percussive world music that worked better than espresso to wake me up. My daytime playlist had more extended dub, downtempo and hip-hop. For the wind-down list, I avoided repeating any daytime generes, using only classical and contemporay piano.

Totally subjective results – I drank less coffee, was in a better mood and fell asleep at night without the cogs in my developer brain still spinning.

So, try it yourself. Maybe you'll cut back on the caffeine... and, hey, that's a health bonus too.

References

• www.suite101.com, "Music and its Effect on the Brain" (accessed 09.12.2010)

More Topics Coming Soon

• Roundup: Playlist sharing sites & apps
• Modeling playlist data & common schemas