Music to Write An Essay To
the perfect writing music – get an “a” with andrew
featuring artists like:
Fiona Joy Hawkins, Cesium Swimsuit, ODESZA, Flow, DJ Food, music2work2, Cliff Martinez, Moby, Aphex Twin
YouTube was the first place where essay writing music really kicked off. Long form instrumental tracks created the perfect balance of blocking external noise without distracting cognitive centers with words or lyrics. Often falling into the “New Age” category, it wasn’t the sexiest of genres and would never appear on radio but there was a huge and hungry audience.
Many of the tracks on this playlist have millions of streams and views and are very much people’s go to writing music, others are brand new compositions but are great at setting the optimal environment for getting the words out.
Here’s the thing though – there’s no way that every track on this list is going to work for you – it’s likely that you’ll experience some tracks as jarring or too disruptive or even too boring and soporific. The point of this playlist is less about stringing tracks together in a sequence and more about finding tracks that you can put on repeat and get into a state of creative flow – it’s why we generally prefer longer form submissions.
While we cover pretty much all genres and intensities, typically the tracks are ambient in nature, mid tempo and are instrumental. There are some tracks with the odd word or two but there is no lyrical story telling to distract the writer when they’re trying to get their own words out.
Smirr – Adenine
8 December 2020
There’s music on this list that’s there to help production – to provide an energetic accompaniment to your writing or typing – the tracks are not terribly reflective – they’re there to help an existing idea manifest.
But what if you don’t have the idea? What if your muscle memory is all warmed up and ready to go but nothing’s coming out? How do you write your essay then?
Looking Glass 4 (Red) – Yellow6
18 November 2020
Sometimes all you need is the repetition.
I’ve written about this several times on the playlist – about the psychology of music – about expectation and dopamine and audio hacking and all those things that make music an effective tool for getting shit done, particularly in the creative writing space…
Post London – Nick Rezo
15 May 2020
There’s all kinds of music to write to out there – hell, I’m pretty sure we feature all of them on this list – but there are certain styles that have a direct path to the part of my brain that will get me to start writing. Nick Rezo’s Post London is one of them.
The first visual memory I have is that of the white upright piano in Singapore, Hell and the Dark Forces lived at the bottom, Heaven and the Angels at the top, they would play battles through my fingers and I was hooked.
As a psychology graduate I studied how sound affects human performance.
As a musician I compose instrumental music that stimulates your brain but doesn't mess with your language centers, leaving you free to be creative and brilliant without distraction.
As a curator I research how music can improve your life and create flow - I can tell you what music to listen to when studying for a test and why listening to sad music can make you feel better.
As a creator / contributor at musicto I’m part of a global creator community that collaborates through music. You can learn more about our community here.