IT's Musical Habits

operand sent in a fun little article about the listening habits of IT. It seems that developers are headbangers, Microsoft certified pros are Britney fans, and management goes for Mozart. Tragically The Who is not included... Linux users tend toward Electronica, and Security goes for The Dead.

Confirmation

[fbrain]

I can confirm this... At the 20/20 Microsoft and Linux Debate in Newport (no it wasn't open and honest!) I spied a Microsoftie listening to Toxic by Britney Spears on his MP3 player (I can't remember what it was but it wasn't an Apple iPod). This was after the debate^H^H^H^H^H^Htalk.

Re:200 students? that's it?

[dook43]

Elton John, The Beatles, U2, Coldplay, Radiohead.... You're right. What do THEY know about music?!??!?!?

Re:200 students? that's it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Totally nitpicking here, but U2 isn't british, they're from Ireland.

Re:when I code...

[genner]

Ocremix is my current source of electronica. Why yes I do use linux. Why do you ask?

Soon...

[Anonymous Coward]

Soon Hindi bollywood music and Chennai's Mollywood music is going to be #1 for coders,sysadmins,security experts,testers,etc...

Hindi music rocks though !

Re:Electronica

[Anonymous Coward]

Techno is a very specific style of electronica - it goes for mechanical repetition, usually containing a 1 second loop repeated over and over again over a complicated, rhythmic drumtrack. Goes for "purity of sound". See Carl Cox, Jeff Mills, Adam Beyer, Marco Carola... Electronica is a blanket statement that covers many different kinds of music (Trance, House, Progressive, Drum and Bass, Ambient, Electro, Techno, Breaks, etc etc)

I'm not a fan of techno myself (I prefer progressive), but techno fans are extremely elitist (even more than most other electronica fans!) and really get offended if you call all electronic music "techno". I do too, it really shows ignorance.

Re:Q: Are we not men?

[Just3Ws]

Long answer short, NO.
http://www.deadmilkmen.com [deadmilkmen.com]

God, I thought I was the only one. I played "Stuart" (CD purchased legally :-) for one of my co-workers and he agreed that it explained quite a bit about my personality. Been listening to Milkmen since "Bucky Fellini" around '88 or so, seventh grade I think.

Filet of Sole, baby!

Re:Where is Progressive Rock?

[sonicattack]

It's right here, in my music collection. :)

How about bands like Eloy, Birth Control, Frumpy, Jane, Nektar, Focus, Camel, Ars Nova - not to mention more or less heavy spacerock (Ash Ra Tempel, Monster Magnet, Omnia Opera, and my absolute favorite band, Hawkwind)...

If you haven't already, check out this excellent webpage, with hundreds of reviews of progressive bands. [online.no]

Re:200 students? that's it?

[uohcicds]

What do the British know about music anyway?

Well, how about The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Ozzy, The Who, The Kinks, Queen, Status Quo...

Should I go on? Yes, alright you did give us Elvis, FZ and some other cool stuff but you are responsible for Britney, Justin, NKOTB (anyone old enough to remember that suffering) and a whole bunch of stuff so execrable that it makes me wince just to even think about it. For that reason, I wouldn't go around insulting British muscial taste.

Back to the orignal question, however: I listen to a whole load of stuff, from things like Beethoven, whose 9th Symphony is one of the pinnacles of all human achivement; Ministry; Pink Floyd; Led Zep;Jean Michel Jarre; Kraftwerk; Frank Zappa, The Beatles, The Stones and whole load of other stuff which either makes me schizophrenic or makes this little survey fun but somewhat unscientific. I know which one I'm betting on

I must admit to pissing myself laughing at the though of all those MCSE chimps nodding along to Britney. Is it me or is that just the gayest thing in the world ever (with all due respect to any gay readers out there)

Lounge and Chillout

[Qbertino]

My current slant in taste is somewhat fitting:
Two years ago I started listening to modern coffee house and contemporary easy listening music. I got completely hooked and spent a small fortune on various Cafe del Mar, Cafe Abstrait and Ministry of Sound Chillout compilations.
Lounge and Chillout are extremely good for backdropping serious IT work (serious == Linux, OSS and real programming). Interesting enough to keep you going and lighten you up, but unobstrusive enough so it won't go on your nerves. I even got my friends hooked to the style. Now that I have a lounge/chillout collection of considerable size I'm about to rip them, to save a years worth of presents for all my buddies. :-)
That style of contemporary music is my tip for anyone looking for a nice way to color up his coding sessions.

Re:Where is Progressive Rock?

[Ytsejam-03]

Right here [proggedradio.com].

This station plays some killer Progressive Metal, and some prog-rock. Stuff like Everygrey, After Forever, Spiral Architect, Power of Omens, Ice Age, Sonata Arctica, and of course Dream Theater and Fates Warning. (What can I say? I'm a developer and us developers like the heavier stuff, right?)

Re:Heavy Metal, why am I not surprised?

[alexynr]

Never heard of Messhuga then? :)