It’s no secret that music can be a strong muse for creativity and motivation. Athletes use music to get into the zone prior to games and almost everyone is plugged into audio of some kind at the gym. As creative professionals, we take all the help we can get when it comes to psyching ourselves up and tapping artistic talents.

For a long time it was believed that classical music held the key to creativity. In 1993, it was demonstrated that listening to Mozart’s “Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major” could raise IQ levels. Unfortunately, the so-called “Mozart Effect” has since been disproven, and last year the Huffington Post published research theorizing that different people are stimulated by different genres of music depending on their preferences.

Simply stated, any music you like can inspire higher brain functioning.

Most days, music is playing in the background at Top Shelf Digital & Social Media Marketing. Our biggest criterion for “muse music” is that it be instrumental because words can be distracting when we’re writing and editing copy.

Lately, we have been listening to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Soundtrack.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqMGCJkna-0]

Earlier in the year, we were all about iTunes Radio’s ambient sound stations. At the holidays, we loop Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Ballet by Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Do you have a favorite music to get the creative juices flowing?