The question “What do you listen to while you work?” got me thinking, and I realized the answer goes way back. I think I’ve always needed a soundtrack for my life.
I can still vividly remember being 12 or 13, mowing the lawn with a radio and headphones, completely lost in Casey Kasem’s Top 40 countdown. A few years later, in the early 80s, the task of weeding the flower beds was powered by Michael Jackson’s entire Thriller album. The music wasn’t just background noise; it was part of the experience.
That habit has stayed with me. In my classroom, if my students are doing independent work, I’ll put on some classroom-friendly Lo-Fi to help us all concentrate. When I’m working alone after school, I might put on a movie I’ve already seen a hundred times, just for the familiar hum. But when I really need to get in the zone to grade papers, I’ll turn to jazz or a favorite album from a band like Toto to help me focus.
Where this idea of a “soundtrack” becomes most powerful, though, is in my writing.
When I was writing a book set in the 1950s, I built a playlist of music from the era. Listening to it helped me immerse myself in that time and think more like my characters might have. For a future book I’m planning set in the late 1980s, I’ll do the same thing—I’m already thinking about the playlist I’ll need to keep my head in that decade.
I guess it’s only natural. If you’ve spent your whole life with a soundtrack playing in your head, it makes sense to create one for the lives you’re writing about, too.
So, my question for you is: Do you have a soundtrack for your life? What music takes you back to a specific time or helps you focus on a creative project?
Copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt
