I haven’t posted recently but I promise you that I am hard at work on a real doozy of an article about fighting and eggs and Abraham Lincoln. It’s moving shit. Usually when I write/study/read I like to have some sort of sound going on in the background. Sometimes this is just the hum of my fan or the sound of nature (and by “sound of nature” I don’t mean the clatter outside my window, I mean my alarm clock that only plays nature sounds—I prefer the summer night setting), but most of the time it’s the sound of music. I once read a study that claimed if you’re going to do homework set to music it should be tunes which you are unfamiliar with. The theory being that if you don’t know the song you will be less likely to get distracted by mouthing along or consumed with memories of that song’s interaction with your life. The researchers found support for this hypothesis, but I tend to disagree. Personally, when I hear something new I become completely preoccupied with dissecting it lyrically (that is, if I can understand the lyrics, which I often can’t, which leads to a Google search, which leads to a Gmail check, which leads to A NEW FACEBOOK MESSAGE OMG!, ect., ect.). This is opposed to hearing something I have already mastered the meaning of (or so I think). Therefore, when this DOUBLE RAINBOW video went viral, I empathized with the guy. It may as well have been me getting thrown off by a new and exciting song while studying. Woooah, that's new Pearl Jam! What does this mean??
Some say stick with classical music while studying, but I’m not cultured enough for that. And now they are telling us to keep it fresh? Well, I don’t know if I can do that either. So in an effort to cover all bases, I am in the process of experimenting with non-classical non-lyrical study soundtracks. Here are my top five, in no particular order (except The XX is obviously #1). Allow them to digest. Results may vary.
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