James Steele

Rush - The top artist listened to by Software Developers and WebMasters

A couple of weeks ago on this blog I asked what music inspires you to write killer code? Little did I know that a couple of days later The Register published results of a poll asking a similar question. Here is a sampling of the results taken from The Register on what IT people are listening too. Rush was hands down a winner by significant margin.

TOP 30

1. Rush — 737
2. Metallica — 422
3. Radiohead — 281
4. Heart — 276
5. Iron Maiden — 274
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers — 238
7. Pink Floyd — 230
8. Led Zeppelin — 202
9. Megadeth — 191
10. Nirvana — 188
11. Slayer — 165
12. Queen — 138
13. Portishead — 129
14. Smashing Pumpkins — 125
15. Kraftwerk — 125
16. Pixies — 116
17. AC/DC — 115
18. U2 — 108
19. Black Sabbath — 99
20. Coldplay — 87
21. Guns N' Roses — 84
22. R.E.M — 75
23. Bach — 69
24. Beastie Boys — 65
25. Dead Kennedys — 65
26. Jimi Hendrix — 62
27. Motorhead — 60
28. The Beatles — 60
29. Joy Division — 57
30. The Smiths — 57

And you may now peruse the top five artists by profession. Read it and weep:

Software developer

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Radiohead
4. Iron Maiden
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers

Webmaster

1. Rush
2. Heart
3. Nirvana
4. Radiohead
5. Metallica

Security

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Iron Maiden
4. Radiohead
5. Pink Floyd

Telecoms jockey

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Heart
4. U2
5. Radiohead

Reseller/distie/channel-type

1. Rush
2. Pink Floyd
3. Led Zeppelin
4. Kraftwerk
5. Slayer

Training

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. AC/DC
4. Nirvana
5. Kraftwerk

Student

1. Rush
2. Iron Maiden
3. Metallica
4. Radiohead
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers

Sales

1. Rush
2. Heart
3. Metallica
4. Led Zeppelin
5. Nirvana

Project manager

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Radiohead
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Queen

Strategy Boutique (Ad Sales/Marketing/PR)

1. Heart
2. Rush
3. U2
4. R.E.M
5. Bach

Database administrator

1. Rush
2. Heart
3. Pink Floyd
4. Metallica
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers

Hardware engineer

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Heart
4. AC/DC
5. Queen

Callcentre thingummybob

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Iron Maiden
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Slayer

Academic

1. Rush
2. Radiohead
3. Pixies
4. Bach
5. Pink Floyd

Engineer

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Heart
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Pink Floyd

Network manager

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Portishead
4. Nirvana
5. Iron Maiden

IT manager

1. Rush
2. Radiohead
3. Heart
4. red Hot Chili Peppers
5. Pink Floyd

Sysadmin

1. Rush
2. Metallica
3. Iron Maiden
4. Pink Floyd
5. Megadeth

IT hack

1. Rush
2. Heart
3. Megadeth
4. Pink Floyd
5. Metallica

CIO/IT director

1. Rush
2. Pink Floyd
3. Heart
4. Slayer
5. Dead Kennedys