Help me make my Inspirational Soundtrack

[DangerCode]

GBGames mentioned having uplifting songs in my head (like Eye of the Tiger) as an inspirational device.

So I'm compiling a list of songs to burn to disk for times when I need it. Some of these songs are going to be corny to the extreme from 80's hair bands, but that's okay.

So far, I've thought up 3 entries

Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)
Rockstar (Smashmouth)
You've Got the Touch (Stan Bush, from the Transformers: The Movie soundtrack)

Any other suggestions?

(BTW, I'll only be burning legit copies of the music to disk, so no need to discuss legal issues)

[ggambett]

Start Me Up, Like a Rolling Stone (The Rolling Stones)
All Star (Smashmouth) (it's All Star not Rock Star)
Pretty much anything from Fatboy Slim
Pretty much anything from Crystal Method (especially the Blade soundtrack)
The whole Fifth Element soundtrack :)

[Mark Fassett]

My daily soundtrack includes:

Damageplan
Disturbed
Tool
Anthrax
Mushroomhead
Pantera
System of a Down
Static-X
Melvins
Godsmack
Helmet
Drowning Pool
Korn

And a ton of other stuff

You might not think it's uplifting stuff... but it always gets me going.

[Valen]

Dream On (Aerosmith)
Living on a Prayer (Bon Jovi)
Fame (Irene Cara)
We are the Champions (Queen)
Princes of the Universe (Queen)
And just about any Guns n' Roses song.


If you're into classical:

Badinerie (Bach)
40th Symphony (Mozart)
5th Symphony (Beethoven)
Swan Lake Scene No. 10 (Tchaikovsky)
Love Story Theme (Henry Mancini)
Godfather Theme (Nino Rota)
And a million things by John Williams.

[GBGames]

If you're working, you might not appreciate getting distracted by catchy lyrics. I have a huge playlist, but to do work while listening to music, I had to slim it down to either just music or lyrics that don't distract me.

I listen to:
- Underworld (think Hackers soundtrack)
- Chemical Brothers
- Crystal Method
- The Minibosses (especially Contra and the rock version of Zelda)
- The Matrix (Lobby scene)
- Boston Pops Orchestra - Super Mario Bros Theme
- Penguin Cafe Orchestra (A friend gave me these)
- Prodigy
- Depeche Mode
- Queen - We Are the Champions and We Will Rock You (and also the The Royal Philarmonic Orchestra versions)
- Daft Punk
- The Chips Ahoy Swing (Just found actual name: Sing Sing Sing)
- John Williams - Superman Theme and Indiana Jones Theme
- Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass
- Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven
- Frantic Dogpaddle - The Picard Rap (Hilarious and awesome)
- This Pac-man techno remix that is unnamed
- Tetris Remix
- Sting - Desert Rose (and also remixes thereof)
- James Bond Theme (remixes blah blah)
- Futurama theme (not just the intro to the show, but the long version)
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Village People - Macho Man (yes, I'll admit this one, but it is catchy)
- Weird Al - The Rye or the Kaiser (parody of Eye of the Tiger, so that's why)
- Eiffel 65 - Silicon Girl, Hyperlink
- Snap - I've Got the Power (it was in that Jim Carrey movie Bruce Almighty)
- Zero - Bania u Cygana (it is in Spanish so I can't sing it)
- Darude - Sandstorm
- Bachman Turner Overdrive - Taking Care of Business
- Fatboy Slim
- Orbital - The Box (I) and The Box (II) are particular favorites
- Richard Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries (don't drive while listening to this. An actual study found this was the most dangerous thing to listen to while driving)
- The Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane


There are a number of Spanish songs at a fast beat. Basically, music that gets me moving quickly or lets me feel empowered gets to stay on the list. Michael Jackson gets a few entries because his music is just that fun to listen to, and Alien Ant Farm's version of Smooth Criminal is also on there because of that.

[DangerCode]

I enjoy listening to music while I work, mostly Depeche Mode (but I don't find any of their music especially inspirational in a corny Tony Robbins sort of way).

Fame and We Are the Champions are excellent suggestions.

The Superman Theme is another great suggestion. Might as well throw in the Rocky Theme too.

[DangerCode]

Ride of the Valkries and Rock You Like a Hurricane are geat additions also.

Keep em coming...

[Dan MacDonald]

Carmina Burana by carl orff

Every last one of you has herd it, but none of you probably know it's name... :)

[DangerCode]

Carmina Burana by carl orff

Every last one of you has herd it, but none of you probably know it's name... :)

Is that the theme to the Exorcist?

[Dan MacDonald]

Nope, but when you listen to it you will know that you were destined to change the world.

[maksum]

I kind of like these songs. They all feel kind of "empowering".

- Believe it or not, I'm walking on air (Theme from America's greatest super hero)

- If My Heart Had Wings (Faith Hill)

- Never Ending Story Theme

- St. Elmo's Fire, Man in Motion

- Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins I think?)

Mike

[Phil Newton]

Couple of tracks that get me going, mostly by Doves. "Words", "Crunch" and "Hit The Ground Running" are particulary good for getting you going. All of their albums are excellent though. I find "Lost Souls" is good for a late night coding session.

The rest of my collection is mostly punk & ska. A few good tracks by Five Iron Frenzy - "Farsighted", "Cannonball" and their entire live album is fun.

Almost forgot - "Live your life" by Crystal Clear is well worth tracking down. It's house, but has very uplifting lyrics. I like it.

[DangerCode]

Hell yeah, the Greatest American Hero Theme and Danger Zone make great entries. Good suggestions!

Some of those I'm going to have to check out further. I don't recall St. Elmo's Fire being very inspirational, but I can't remember any lyrics.

[Diragor]

A lot of the time I listen to my mp3 collection on random shuffle, occasionally selecting a specific band/album I'm in the mood for, but if I really want to concentrate and zone out nothing works better than movie soundtracks (instrumental, not the collections of unrelated pop/rock songs released as a "soundtrack"). I'm a big Danny Elfman fan and the one I listen to most often these days is Big Fish.

[DangerCode]

I don't think anyone mentioned Billy Joel's My Life. I'll be adding that to the list.

[mahlzeit]

The Go! Team, especially Everyone's A VIP To Someone and Panther Dash. Actually, make that anything by The Go! Team. Woohoo!

[Ricardo C]

From Queen: "We Will Rock You" (preferably the rockier, up-tempo version that starts up the "Live Killers" album and the "We Will Rock You" concert DVD), as well as "One Vision" (best known in the US for being featured in Iron Eagle.)

[Abscissa]

Yea, St. Elmo's Fire Theme is great. And maksum, you're right, Danger Zone is Kenny Loggins (also good).

Some other good ones (Not all are inspirational, but at least get me going):
- (Forget who): Wild Wild West
- Cory Hart: Sunglasses at Night
- Tonic: If You Could Only See
- Spyro Gyra: Morning Dance (End theme to Romancing the Stone)
- Tweaker: Linoleum, Take Me Alive
- U2: Discotheque, Staring at the Sun, New Year's Day, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
- Cheers Theme
- Lost Boys Soundtrack: Don't Cry Little Sister
- Michael Hutchence: The Passenger
- The Devlins: Crossing the River
- Heart: There's The Girl, All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You, These Dreams, Alone
- Night Ranger: I Will Follow You, Seven Wishes, When You Close Your Eyes, Sister Christian
- Jennifer Love Hewitt: You, Stronger, Avenue Of The Stars, Just Try
- Al Jarreau: Roof Garden, Mornin'
- Journey: Don't Stop Believin', Any Way You Want It, Separate Ways
- Jacknife Lee: Bursting Off The Backbeat, Cookies
- The Cars: Just What I Needed, Moving In Stereo, Let's Go, Shake It Up, Drive, Magic
- Final Fantasy Movie Soundtrack: The Dream Within
- Genesis: Invisible Touch, I Can't Dance
- Katrina And The Waves: Walking On Sunshine
- Oingo Boingo: Weird Science, Dead Man's Party
- Brandy: Where are You Now?
- Bon Jovi: Runaway
- Billy Idol: Rebel Yell
- Pink Floyd: Another Brick in the Wall Part 2
- Pet Shop Boys: Being Boring, West End Girls
- Crowded House: Don't Dream It's Over
- Cheap Trick: The Flame, I Want You To Want Me, Surrender
- Mr. Mister: Kyrie, Broken Wings
- Tears For Fears: Everybody Wants To Rule The World
- The Tubes: She's a Beauty
- Sister Machine Gun: Bring Your Down (Take You Higher), Got To Be, Vibrator, Autoloader, Strange, End of Me, Wired, Loser (California Fuzzbox Mix)
- Scorpions: Big City Nights, Rock You Like a Hurricane
- Van Halen: Jump, Why Can't This Be Love, Right Now
- Micatone: Plastic Bags & Magaines, Sweet Child, Tidy Girl, I'm Leaving Anyway, Sit Beside Me, Another Road
- Blue Man Group: Time To Start, What Is Rock
- The Clash: Rock The Casbah, London Calling, Should I Stay or Should I Go
- Ramones: I Wanna Be Sedated, Blitzkrieg Bop
- Green Day: Minority
- 2 Unlimited: The Real Thing, Info Superhighway, No One, Nothing Like The Rain, Jump For Joy, Maximum Overdrive
- Beastie Boys: Brass Monkey, Girls, Slow and Low, Rhymin & Stealin, Sure Shot, B-Boys Makin' With The Freak Freak, Sabatage, Tricky
- The Prodigy: Break & Enter, Their Law, Voodoo People, Poison, Breathe, Diesel Power, Mindfields, Baby's Got a Temper, the entire "Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned" Album.
- Juno Reactor: Children of the Night, Masters of the Universe, God Is God
- Chemical Brothers: Block Rockin' Beats, Busy Child, Fucked Up Beats
- The Crystal Method: Starting Over, Born Too Slow, The American Way, Weapons of Mass Distortion, Trip Like I Do, Keep Hope Alive, She's My Pusher, Roll It Up, Murder, Name of the Game, Ten Miles Back
- Nine Inch Nails: Reptile, Ruiner, The Becoming, The Wretched, Metal,
- Fluke: Absurd, Atom Bomb
- ShadeFix (on iTunes and ACIDPlanet): Method of Shaolin, Lucid, Bulletrain, Spring Roll
- Purple Motion (from the old demogroup Future Crew): Cool City, Minimum Velocity, Satellite One
- Ryu's Theme from Street Fighter 2 (Try the "Ryu's Freestyle Dojo" mix on
www.ocremix.org)
- Guile's Theme from Street Fighter 2
- Streets of Rage Theme (remix by DJ Pretzel on www.ocremix.org)
- Bluest Sky (Also on www.ocremix.org, by Kaijin, from Sonic 2)
- Mega Man 3 Intro Theme

And I'm sure I've left out a bunch ;)

[Badman]

Tsk, tsk. For game developers, I'm not seeing much in the way of game soundtracks here. Well, 'cept for all the Minibosses stuff, which is natural, 'cause they rock.

My playlist:

- All of AE's Megaman 2 remixes from ocremix.org

- "Awakenings", FF6 OST
- "Kefka", FF6 OST
- "Kids Run Through The City Corner", FF6 OST

- "Final Fantasy VII Main Theme", FF7 OST
- "Aerith's Theme" FF7 OST (of course)
- "Opening - Bombing Mission" FF7 OST

- "Balamb Garden", FF8 OST (This is one of the most relaxing pieces of music I've ever heard; I love it.)
- "Blue Fields", FF8 OST
- "Fisherman's Horizon", FF8 OST

- "A Place to Call Home", FF9 OST
- "Freya's Theme", FF9 OST (This one sounds so sad...appropriate considering the character)
- "Ukelele de Chocobo", FF9 OST (This is my favorite rendition of the Chocobo theme ever)

- "The Prelude", Final Fantasy Pray (This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever recorded in all of human history, and this one track justified the purchase of this CD)
- "Toki no Hourousha", Final Fantasy Pray

- "Chocolate Outline", Age of Mythology OST (Again, a very relaxing track...I hear the first three notes and my muscles just unclench)
- "The Ballad of Ace Lebaron", Age of Mythology OST
- "Flavor Cats (In the Comfort Zone)", Age of Mythology OST (I'm going to have to track down McMullan and Rippey and ask them where they came up with these names)

- "Hazardous Environments", Half-Life 2 OST
- "CP Violation", Half-Life 2 OST
- "You're Not Supposed To Be Here", Half-Life 2 OST

- "Chop Chop Master Onion's RAP", PaRappa the Rapper OST
- "Instructor Mooselini's RAP", PaRappa the Rapper OST
- "Prince Fleaswallow's RAP", PaRappa the Rapper OST
- "Cheap Cheap The Cooking Chicken's RAP", PaRappa the Rapper OST
- "All Masters' RAP", Parappa the Rapper OST

- "Secret of the Forest", Chrono Trigger OST
- "The Brink of Time", Chrono Trigger OST
- "The Day the World Revived", Chrono Trigger OST

- "The Scar of Time", Chrono Cross OST
- "Forest of the Cutting Shadows", Chrono Cross OST
- "Home Arny Village", Chrono Cross OST

- "Manifold Irons", Front Mission OST (I think this is the best combat track I've ever heard)
- "Kalen", Front Mission OST
- "Ominous", Front Mission OST (Love the radar ping in this one)

Hmmm...well, I've written all this and I'm only about halfway through my list :) And of course I've got tons of non-soundtrack songs in my list that I like...maybe I'll do those another day.

[Teeth]

Man you gotta have "You're The Best" by Joe Esposito baby! From the Karate Kid soundtrack!

Whoever suggested St. Elmo's Fire is definitely on the right track, if you listen to these songs you will be able to defeat even the strongest opponents! Listen to them each day! When you wake up!

[lakibuk]

Listen to them each day! When you wake up!
My recommendation for a waking up song: "I just wanna die"/Geto Boys

[Nemesis]

Carmina Burana by carl orff

Every last one of you has herd it, but none of you probably know it's name... :)
You should be glad you don't get to hear me sing Oh Fortuna! :)

[Badman]

Man you gotta have "You're The Best" by Joe Esposito baby! From the Karate Kid soundtrack!

Whoever suggested St. Elmo's Fire is definitely on the right track, if you listen to these songs you will be able to defeat even the strongest opponents! Listen to them each day! When you wake up!

Hee hee. I also like "Jukebox Hero" by Foreigner and "Steam" by Peter Gabriel for this purpose. And "Name of the Game" by The Crystal Method - get 'em up in the back row!

[Dan MacDonald]

For Inspirational game soundtracks, I like R-Type Delta - Final Contact.

For all you WoW players, how about that StormWind music ;)

[Badman]

For all you WoW players, how about that StormWind music ;)

Well yeah, it's just that if you play Alliance you hear it OVER and OVER and OVER again in the game, so listening to it outside the game is kind of redundant.

[GBGames]

Favorite video game soundtrack: Total Annihilation

[Mark Sheeky]

Cosmonaut by Dave Whittaker. You'll need SidPlay to play it!

Mark

[DangerCode]

I'm adding Magic by Olivia Newton-John to the list.

[Teeth]

For cheering yourself up, try "Sugar Foot Stomp" by King Oliver and of course "The Spanish Flea" by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass :)

"A Swingin' Safari" by Bert Kaempfert and his orchestra is also great for that.

[Uhfgood]

Big Time - Peter Gabriel
All I need is a Miracle - Mike and the Mechanics

Off the Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure soundtrack -
Play With Me - Extreme
Father Time - Shark Island

The Secret of Monkey Island Soundtrack (especially cuz if you have the cd version you have the soundtrack with it)

[lowemark]

I recommend downloading these from ocremix.org:
OCR00001_to_OCR00500 (http://bt.ocremix.org/files/OCR00001_to_OCR00500.torrent)
OCR00501_to_OCR01000 (http://bt.ocremix.org/files/OCR00501_to_OCR01000.torrent)
OCR01001_to_OCR01250 (http://bt.ocremix.org/files/OCR01001_to_OCR01250.torrent)
dkcproject - Kong in Concert CD Album (http://bt.ocremix.org/files/dkcproject-Kong_in_Concert_CD_Album.torrent)
SMProject - Relics of the Chozo CD.rar (http://bt.ocremix.org/files/SMProject-Relics_of_the_Chozo_CD.rar.torrent)
Then you'll have almost 1300 video game remixes to choose from :D and it's free! You can't beat that!
You can find some pretty good remixes here also: vgmix.com (http://vgmix.com/song_list.php) Most songs in the Stuff of Legends list are great.
Did I mention that I love video game remixes :rolleyes:

[Abscissa]

There is a lot of stuff on ocremix that I absolutely love. I'm not sure I'd grab their whole collection though, there is a fair amount on there that's somewhat...umm, low-quality/uninspired-techno kind of stuff. But yea, overall ocremix rocks :) I'll have to check out vgmix, I'm not sure I've been there before.

[Dmitry Chestnykh]

Green Day - Basket Case.
The best tune which inspires me :)

[Surrealix]

I read this thread a while ago, and it inspired me to go out and find some more 'inspirational' soundtracks. Seeing it has come up again, I might as well share them.

Klaus Badelt - Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack.
Unreal Tournament Music - Especially the menu from '03
Settlers 4 music (If you have the game)

[matthew180]

Grim Fandango soundtrack is great, especially if you have played it.
Klaus Badelt - Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack rocks!
Medwyn Goodall - Medicine Woman 2
Tangerine Dream
Kraftwerk
Enya
Warcraft II game soundtrack