This thesis proposal has got me down. Help me, 50 Cent!
It’s almost here – the end of the fall semester! With finals almost over, and the campus starting to empty out a bit, I asked the student employees here at Parsons Music Library what they listened to in order to survive the end of the semester. The responses were great fun to read, and also very informative. We’re approaching a new era of music consumption (okay, we’ve actually been here for a long time already) — that of streaming audio and internet radio. It’s fun to hear the music anywhere you like, and get access in a way that suits you. And we’re not the only ones collecting data on this phenomenon, as you’ll see from this recent study.
Below you’ll find our student staff replies to the question “What do you listen to during finals?” Feel free to add your answers to this question in the comments area!
Student
I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff. I recently got Waterson: Carthy – Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man (northern British folk) and Adam Phillips’ Songs of Old (bluegrass/old-time/gospel) for Christmas listening, but I’ve been coming back to Jacqueline Schwab’s Down Came an Angel (solo piano) a lot, as well as Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices Carols from the Old and New Worlds.
The “kick-butt-time-for-exams-do-or-die” mix in my suite has largely been Basil Poledouris’ soundtrack to “Conan the Barbarian” and cuts off Corvus Corax’s album Sverker (wacky German neo-medieval folk-metal). Yeah, we’re nerds.
Student
When studying, I can’t listen to songs with lyrics. I like to play either classical or electronic music where no words are sung to distract me from reading or writing. There is literally a playlist called “Classical Study Music” on Spotify and it really does help me.
Student
Typically when I study I listen to iHeartRadio. Some of my favorite stations are POWER 96.1 and FM 96.9 WLAN. However, I also have a big collection of classical/operatic music that I listen to when Pop music starts to bore me. They are some of the “99 best ___” collections that you can buy off Amazon downloads for like $5.
Student
Anything heavy and or intricate, to help distract from whatever I’m studying. Porcupine tree has been particularly good.
Student
I personally like to listen to Mozart’s SONATA for TWO PIANOS – Anderson & Roe.
Apparently it’s been tested that listening to this song helps retain the information the best? But on Pandora, I also listen to Beethoven although I usually skip the songs that I know because our brains stay active when we listen to unfamiliar music.
Student
Whenever I’m studying I love to listen to the Gladiator soundtrack or the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack. Along those same lines is the Hanz Zimmer Pandora station. These are all full of motivating scores that help me get my work done without the distraction of lyrics. (Because I’ll usually end up singing alone so that’s no good). Those are my main ones.
Student
This past week I’ve listened to a variety of Ludovico Einaudi playlists both on Pandora and Spotify, as well as the Nicolas Jaar album “Space is Only Noise.”
Student
This past week I have been listening to jazz and hip hop to get through the finals (Stan Getz – The Bossa Nova Years and Pete Rock – NY’s Finest Instrumentals).
Student
To be honest, I have been listening to “In da Club” by 50 Cent on repeat since 9 AM while working on my thesis. How and why this happened, I’m not entirely sure. Probably a deadly combination of lack of sleep, stress, and caffeine. Usually when I’m studying or writing, my favorite things to listen to are Sigur Ros or Jonsi — ambient but still energetic, and I don’t get distracted by the lyrics because they’re not in English.