bootcamp : prototyping mix

Notes on choosing music for prototyping:

We know music acts on the emotions, but my (unfounded) hypothesis is that during active work (such as prototyping) music also occupies just enough of our cognitive load to distract us from our inner critic (helpful during quick lo-res prototyping explorations). As long as it's upbeat, music seems to propel prototyping activities, but there are some subtleties to consider.

Volume: It seems fine to raise the volume above "background" level, some bopping, dancing or whistling seems to enhance mood & engagement. That said, too loud can be quite distracting -- this is a judgment call.

Lyrics: Generally, we've found it's good to avoid lyrics, although lyrics in a foreign language seem to be less distracting (except of course, to those who speak the language). Occasionally a song that has prominent lyrics does still work for reasons unknown: Beck's "Que Onda Guero" appears on this mix & seems to be such a track.

Repetition & Rhythm: From a purely subjective point of view,in my observations repetitive music with prominent rhythm sections seems to keep people focused on the task at hand (when the prototyping is physical in nature). My guess is that our brains like to have something predictable to latch onto. On this mix Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" & Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder" are a good examples of songs that feature a lot of repetition and seem to be crowd favorites.

Tone: As mentioned, music sets the tone... it can add urgency or can be used to calm the nerves. Despite being a little slow in tempo, the last track of this mix -- "Strange Bath", by John Brion -- gives a surreal game show feeling that has proven enjoyable for short, timed prototyping challenges.

Familiarity: Something to be considered... do you use music that is familiar to all or something that is a bit exotic? I'm not sure yet, both can be distracting or engaging.

DISCLAIMER: I use a variation of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" that is a personal edit (mine ends around 4m30s -- GrooveShark, the source of these tracks only had the full version). The edited version cuts out a good portion of the meandering psychedelic jam during the last half of the song -- you may want to skip this last bit as it could distract & derail prototyping efforts. The beginning of the song features such a nice groove (you may notice heads bopping & bobbing to the rhythm) that it is worth the risk! I've placed it as the last track so you can fade it out if you wish.

fidelity mix : 05.2010

Notes on the fidelity mix:

A small portion of the mix for a 2 day design thinking workshop in Boston. Most songs featured here were used as intermission / welcome music or as part of our 1 hour introductory wallet project.

Learnings:

A big discovery on this trip was the use of song duration to time each phase of our intro project. We added music over the empathy and interview phases for the first time just to get the background energy up in a large open space. Soft music with no lyrics seemed to compliment the activity and felt like it created a relaxed, conversational context (like music at a dinner party). (The two Django Reignhart tracks on this mix were used for this purpose.)

Small variations in volume (I'm talking minute changes) seemed to have a drastic amplification effect on level of chatter in the room -- if you want people to talk louder to raise the energy in the room just tap the volume up a tiny bit and you may find a cascading effect that amps up the whole room (just don't turn it up so loud that people are shouting uncomfortably).

Look for a wallet mix with timed tracks to show up here in the near future...

on location : mayor of amsterdam's house

Mix for a design thinking activity at the Residence of the Mayor of Amsterdam.

The room was a opulent 17th century salon with opulent wall carvings, chandeliers & pink fabric wall coverings. Because it was adorned with such a specific and ever-present character, musical accompaniment proved quite a challenge. We began with some old-time (1920's) gypsy jazz, then once the mood was set, brought in some old instrumental favorites (who knew "booty butt" would play well at the Mayor's house -- but it did). We ended with a little lounge music from the early 2000's.

Opening the windows and letting some air & a touch of traffic noise helped set the mood as well.

tips for finding music

In short, always be on the lookout for new music.

Look for places where the music is curated for you... this can help lead to some unexpected finds that are outside your sphere of musical knowledge but are related to your taste.

Online radio: My favorite station is KCRW, a public radio station in Los Angeles. You can listen to all of their shows online or via their iPhone app. DJ's Garth Trinidad & Jeremy Sole have fairly consistently good shows. There are plenty of others you might like. Check out the "Guest DJ Project" as well: it features quick samples of playlists curated by interesting folks like Tim Robbins & Jad Abumrad. Friends recommend KEXP in Seattle for music as well. NPR's Music Page can also be a good resource.

Websites & blogs abound that feature tracks & mixes worth checking out. Check out Flavor Pill / Flavor Wire for a variety of styles, iso50 for some clever remix collections & if you appreciate the esoteric, visit dublab & aquarium drunkard as well. Just off mainstream is boomrad. Despite the drop in user-ship and a rough interface, MySpace is still choc-a-bloc with independent music. MySpace playlists seem to bias toward pop but might be worth a look. For independent music you likely haven't heard yet + the closest listening experience to an LP, check out the sixty-one. There are plenty more sites and always more on the way, for now try: the venerable pitchfork, & the hype machine,plus epitonic, the international mixtape project, fluxblog, stereogum, & music for robots). This Mashable article lists 18 blogs on Tumblr that relate to music. The illuminated mixtapes also comes recommended. Back to Mine is a series of mixtapes from cool artists based on the premise that they each create a playlist that reflects music they would play at an after party. Nice stuff.

Movie soundtracks are a good place to look as they provide context for the how the music is used as are TV shows (end credits are particularly good). You can of ten find lists of music used in TV & Radio shows online (If you browse episodes of HBO shows, for example, they list out all the music on the show on their website: here's an example, NPR sometimes gives a rundown of the music on their shows as well: example.
Restaurants work as well... If you have a smart phone, Shazam is an invaluable app that allows you to take a quick sample of a song by pointing your phone's microphone at a speaker, then it sends the sample to be analyzed and compared against a database of sounds, returning a song title, album name, & link to purchase. I've found it to be at least 80% accurate with some pretty esoteric song titles in some pretty noisy environments. It's magical.

Decidedly more mainstream, iTunes also features some online mixes worth checking out. For instance, try searching the music store for iTunes Essentials, Celebrity Playlists, or iMIxes. Also mainstream but interesting is Your Music Today. Spotify is now in the US. Enough said. rdio is a Spotify alternative. Songza also has sets of playlists that you can browse. In addition to allowing you to create your own playlists (& the widgets used on this site) Grooveshark allows you to browse popular & recent playlists from other users. You can create your own playlists as well -- for free. As of Sept 2010, iTunes Ping has just launched allowing you to follow the purchases & comments of other iTunes listeners -- yet to be proven, but has potential. 8tracks allows users to create their own mixtapes -- worth a gander. Soundcloud is well, sound stored in the cloud––lot's of it & more everyday. Tons of independent music up there -- a bit hard to find the goods, though. Turntable.fm is a clever little app / site where you can enter musically themed "rooms" and listen to other users as they DJ's.

Pandora's automatic music aggregation is a wonderful thing, but it is not quite good enough to drive an experience. It is, however great for mining for songs. Just create a station around a song you like and create a log of the songs it pulls up so you can deploy them with intention when the time is right. Last.fm & Slacker Radio serve similar purposes.
Sites like LivePlasma (also Misucovery, & TuneGlue Music Map) serve up visualizations of relationships between musical acts / artist. Type in your favorite artist & they will visualize connections to other artists (based on data from sites like amazon & last.fm). More for fun than practical purposes, they sometimes serve up some new material if you take the time to explore intentionally.

entrance music

The goal of entrance music is to be a good host. A good host sets the tone & sets the stage for interaction among the guests. Any music can work, provided it fits these criteria, it's just important to be intentional & not overly distracting or aggressive. Above are some of our picks -- I bias toward a lively but relaxed, reflective mood when the students arrive.

exit music

End on a high note. You have a lot of leeway with exit music, as long as it signifies a positive ending to the class. I usually go with upbeat & snappy but not so "in your face" as to force people to leave right away (unless that is the intent). Another approach is soft & reflective. The choice depends on how the in class activity is going & how I want the students to collaborate with each other before they leave the classroom (keep jamming = snappy music, reflect / plan = soft).