Picture this, or maybe just remember back to the other day.
You’re sitting in your dorm, and it’s late. The clock ticks closer and closer to the dreaded deadline, but despite the pressure, your brain is exhausted, and you have no motivation to continue. You’ve doomscrolled way past your allotted distraction limit, and you desperately need to get your gears turning to finish out the night strong, but it just feels impossible
We’ve all been there at one point or another, especially during midterms and finals season. The feelings of exhaustion and tiredness are all too well known, at least in my dorm, but sometimes, the remedy you need is just the perfect study soundtrack to get you motivated to power through the night and meet that deadline. Now I present to you “Avery’s Top Three Genres for Locking TF In.”
Jazz
This one is an oldie but a goodie, and apparently, every Starbucks and Panera had the same idea in 2010, but jazz is some of the best music to listen to when trying to knock out that essay you’ve been sitting on for weeks. It’s the perfect blend of soft and comforting, while also being interesting enough to inspire emotion and passion. For me, it evokes ideas and extracts the inner Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë with my writing, similarly to how the smell of coffee helps me to unleash my inner Mary Shelley. I can confirm jazz works, as I am currently using it to help me bring this article to you right now. Artists such as Miles Davis, Chet Baker, and John Coltrane are some great starters to the genre if you would like to use the beauty of jazz to your advantage. I promise, it does help.
Pregame Music
You would think that loud, fast, exciting music would be a great distraction, right? Well, at least for me, I’ve found that when it’s a late night, and I just need to find the energy to keep going without involving caffeine, pregame hype music is the perfect remedy. Typically, I don’t use this for anything involving writing or reading, but when I’m working on my stats homework or other subjects involving formulas and calculations, pregame music is essential to hyping me up through it. It keeps you awake and puts enough energy into your system that you almost trick your brain into thinking you’re excited to do what you’re doing, like you’re about to go out with all your girls. Some of my favorite examples of artists that have helped are Bad Bunny, Joey Valence and Brae, and Charli XCX.
Movie Soundtracks
My number one go-to option for music to lock into has got to be movie soundtracks. Typically, I’ll pick a stressful or high-stakes one to listen to get my system going, but other times I’ll pick a comfort movie to just get me going. I am a very imaginative person, and so typically I can almost insert myself into the movie and use it as more motivation. My favorite stressful soundtracks to listen to would be Whiplash, Babylon, and the Stranger Things soundtrack, but if I’m going for a calmer evening, I’ll go with La La Land, Fantastic Mr. Fox, or Interstellar. For really studious nights, I’ll also listen to the Harry Potter soundtracks and pretend I’m studying at Hogwarts.
Of course, these are just some tips that have worked for me throughout the years; they may or may not work for you, but if you’re looking for a good study mix, then here you go, and enjoy.