Finding the perfect study music is an art. Anything too upbeat can be distracting (and somehow those dance parties just aren’t helpful for getting your reading done), but too many slow songs can also bring down your mood or put you to sleep. We’ve created a great study playlist of 17 songs for you that will help you focus on all the homework you need to complete.! Click here to access the playlist on 8tracks and let us know in the comments what music helps you focus! Here are a few descriptions of some of the songs featured in the playlist:
1. Polite Dance Song by The Bird and the Bee is a mellow track with a steady quirky beat. As long as you can ignore the lyrics’ demand to “get up and dance”, this song will energize you without being too distracting. Bird and the Bee is a duo consisting of Inara George and Greg Kurstin. Known for their smooth indie pop tunes, the band has gained popularity since the release of their first EP in 2006. They’ve released three albums since them, and many of their singles have been featured on shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Bones. Heavily inspired by seventies groups such as Hall and Oats, their sound is both mellow and danceable. Any song by Bird and the Bee is a unique fusion of jazz and electropop that’s great for keeping you in the study zone!
2. A Fine Frenzy is the artist name of Alison Sudol, who writes, plays, and sings all her own songs. Sudol, a passionate reader and writer, is fond of metaphors and literary references; even her artist name is lifted from a line in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This influence is obvious in her clever first album One Cell in the Sea. The single Rangers is features particularly lovely piano and violin accompaniment (both played by Sudol herself). The dreamy lyrics, which relate human nature to rabbits and hunters, are quite meaningful on a closer listen, but Sudol’s gentle sound never monopolizes your attention, making this song the perfect background music.
3. The name Ed Sheeran has been a little more popular since he collaborated on a song with Taylor Swift (see a review of her new album here), but Sheeran has actually held a fiercely loyal fan base for years, which has compounded thanks to the commercial success of his song A-Team. Lego House, a single from his debut album, is a soulful acoustic guitar ballad. Thanks to the British singer’s charming accent and soothing voice, Lego House is a great chill-out tune for your study playlist.