IT's Musical Habits 676
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.
Hmm... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is goofy (Score:4, Interesting)
And not to nitpick, but 'Electro' (in the article) is not short for Electronic. It is actually an identifiable style deriving from Kraftwerk (which they have on there, but the Orb and Underworld are not Electro) meshing electronics with funk (see "Planet Rock" [wikipedia.org]). It then has all of its offshoots over the years like Darkwave (which most folks just confuse with Industrial anway) and Electroclash (Adult., Dopplereffekt, Fischerspooner, Peaches).
So what's on our lab iPod playlist?
Twine Twine, IDM/ambient.
Mr Vegas Pull Up, Dancehall.
various Welcome to the D: Electro, Electro.
various Lo Fibre Companion, grindy bass ambient from Birmingham, UK.
when I code... (Score:5, Interesting)
Q: Are we not men? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've talked with a few people in IT around here about music before (varying positions, but mostly programming) and it seems we all agree on liking the following bands:
1. Devo
2. Dead Milkmen (have yet to meet an IT guy who doesn't like Stuart)
After that, there's not much agreement, but I am a bit surprised that these are the two bands we almost unanimously agreed on liking.
Where is Progressive Rock? (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I like King Crimson, Genesis, Gong (of Radio GNOME Invisible fame, no less!) among other stuff.
Re:Security? (Score:2, Interesting)
For the truly heaviest, scariest interrupt-driven bit twisting crank-addled software, nothing quite beats Tangerine Dream...
dead head tripwire (Score:1, Interesting)
But OpenBSD loving security freak dead head I am.
Hmmm (Score:2, Interesting)
Rush, lots of Rush.
Yes,
Genesis (the old Peter Gabriel variety)
Eric Johnson (including the the '70's Electromagnets)
and...
Veggie Tales : Silly Songs by Larry!
Wonder where that puts me?
Age profile (Score:5, Interesting)
Developer profile: 25-35 years old, teenager when Iron Maiden and Megadeth were all that.
Project manager profile: 40-50 years old, teenager when Pink Floyd was hot.
Security profile: same age or slightly older than a project manager, given up hopes of ever becoming a project manager, not young enough to be a top-of-the-line developer anymore. Gone into security (and taking courses on that) because the "experience of old age" does give an edge in (a) making young developers listen to you when you give them security advice, and (b) not having enough dreams for the future anymore to let features go before security (no enthusiasm to cloud judgment), etcetera. Just the kind of person to have grown up in the days when Grateful Dead / The Doors / Jimi Hendrix were cool.
Or am I way off the mark here?
Re:This is about as useful as saying... (Score:2, Interesting)
Admittedly it isn't serious, but how is saying that, say, developers like heavy metal is going a bit far? If most of them do like heavy metal (not that this survey proves that), wouldn't it infact be completely accurate?
To ascribe the reason to that to the sort of work they do and therefore the sort of brain they have may be going a bit far, particularly as there may be other factors (e.g. some jobs held more commonly by older people who prefer older music). Nothing wrong with saying people who do X tend to like Y though, marketing research does it all the time. It's evil, being marketing, but often right.
Re:College homework (Score:3, Interesting)
Hmmm
My main reaction to this is that they completely ignored the possibility that people might have a mix of really different stuff.
Next to my linux workstation there's a Mac PowerBook. I checked the "Recently Played" list and found:
Grateful Dead "Playing in the Band"
Andy Statman "Midnight Zhok"
Ad Vielle Que Pourra "Micro-Polka", "Valse Minette"
Vienna Teng "Green Island Serenade"
Peter Hedlund "Iste Kornbodsmarsch"
Phillipe Bruneau "Valse-Clog des Pyrénées"
Linda Ronstadt "Long, Long Time"
Cowboy Junkies (several songs)
Beatles (White Album)
Chieftains/Sting "Long Black Veil"
Dorothée Hogan "Marche de Mont-St-Louis"
Silly Wizard (Live Wizardry)
Café Accordion Orchestra "Surullinen Tango"
I wonder how many of us just don't fit into any musical pigeonhole?
But I suppose "IT people show few consistent patterns in musical taste" wouldn't make for much of a story.
Re:Translation: (Score:1, Interesting)
I think that's entirely accurate actually. Most people I've known that are MS certified are always the sorts of people who go with the flow. When MS says "this is the next big thing" they shift their focus onto it. It doesn't really surprise me that their musical tastes reflect that to some extent.
The rest of the categories are sort of interesting, because it actually reflects a lot of what I saw in college. While I agree that the sample size of the survey is too small, it's certainly reaffirms what I've seen in the tech industry...
hmmmmmm (Score:2, Interesting)
I like a lot of hip-hop and rap, but I also like classic metal and grunge and emo and goth music and really just about everything but tejano techno and post-1980 country (no, I didn't miss a comma between tejano and techo. I like traditional Tejano music and I can put up with most techno. I cannot stand tejano techno for even a minute.)
Re:Poetic... (Score:3, Interesting)
Apparently [wired.com], this dude is one of the most popular artists with iTunes too. So what does that say about Microsofties listening habits? I'm sure his music is OK, but would new age covers of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" help keep you focused if you were busy coding like a fiend in a caffeine-induced fervour?
Re:Developer, Analyst, Sysadmin...My Music (Score:2, Interesting)
since we're all showing off about what we like (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:when I code... (Score:3, Interesting)
My general listening habits for simple coding include (just google for them, I don't feel like digging up/typing all the links):
Although when doing more mathmatical coding (like reordering matrixes because of graphic tiling, and bit shifting and stuff), I need either complete silence or something that's not too harsh. Aphex Twin's more ambient stuff usually does the trick...
I've actually always been curious about what kind of music most people who code listen to. my one friend, a database/web programmer, listens to the likes of the Flaming Lips and Melt Banana, and my other friend, a driver developer for 68k controller chips, listens to classical. *shrug*
Re:Have to be careful here with music tastes (Score:3, Interesting)
(and for the hip-hop evangelistas that will take umbrage, please go try to convert someone else, 'k? thx bye)
Re:Security? (Score:2, Interesting)
I work with security, and I find getting stoned every now and again is a nice thing to "clear the head". Just to avoid the paranoia and the constant problem-solving that goes on in the back of my head at all times. Afterwards, I'm a lot more relaxed and ready to go back to work and deal with those really difficult problems.
Those of you who are against drugs and have other ways of getting work completely out of your head on weekends and holidays, how do you do it? I'd really like to know.
Yes, I post anonymously since I don't want to post on a heavily visited webpage that I smoke pot.
Re:200 students? that's it? (Score:2, Interesting)
The UK is: britain plus northern ireland.
Ireland is a (soveriegn) country with absolutely nothing, except proximity, to do with britain. The only geographic region it falls under is europe.
European History (Score:4, Interesting)
The last episode of the great endless European war was a double-header that started in 1914, wiped out an entire generation by 1918. It would have just gone on and on had not the flu wiped out everybody that the bullets and gas didn't. They took a generational break and went back at it in 1939. By then the Europeans had so impressed everyone else with their savageness and blood-lust that entire continent was kept split right down the center for two whole generations with the threat that if they didn't behave, they would get nuked out of existence and written out of the history books. The Europeans responded by refusing to fuck and go to church, so now they have the lowest birthrate in the world, to the relief of their neighbors.
So now they pretend to be united so they occupiers will ignore them. But if history is any guide, they'll restart their endless war again sometime between 2010 and 2020 with the latest generation of techno death toys. Maybe this time they will succeed in actually completing the massive continental suicide that they have been working on for the past 2000 years. God knows, next time around there's going to be a lot of people around to help them do it.