Mood Music for Your Toons

Recently, we asked our followers on Twitter if they listened to music while they play WoW and if so, what types of music they listened to. Did their choices depend on what activities they were participating in, or was it completely random? I’m a huge audiophile, so I’m constantly listening to music no matter what I’m doing. It was interesting to see the varied responses we got. For those of you looking to spice up your playlists, today I’ll be taking a look at some different possibilities for your Warcraft Soundtrack.

First, let’s start with some of the responses we got to our question on Twitter. We asked:

Do you listen to music while you play WoW? If so, what genre? Does the genre change depending on what you’re doing in-game?

And the responses we got:

@Arrens: Yes, all the time. The genre changes based upon what character I’m playing. Music puts me in my RP mood.

@Ithato: I listen to music at all times except when raiding, and yes, I typically go for louder/faster/more aggressive when PvPing.

@SlowWolf: 2 things: Classical Music is always funny, and then Game music in BG’s and such.

@greyseer: Unfortunately, no. Need to be situationally aware outside of game, and so I only keep standard game music piping through.

@Jezriyah: I love the in-game music, plus I’m usually on Vent, so generally no. Only exception is PvP for which I have a playlist. (The playlist is called ‘Eye of the Storm’ because I created it to make that hellhole fly by faster when I needed marks.)

@Nassira: I perform slightly worse when I listen to music during a raid, so I listen to music only while leveling or doing dailies.

@Spoonwolf: Yeah, typically classic rock or something with a beat, drum and bass or heavy house when I PvP or raid.

@mandaril: The in-game music is usually the only thing I have playing.

@Fimlys: Yes, different genres but usually something to keep me awake… Rock mainly, I guess.

@Nemukins: Yes, I have a “grind” series of playlists, including Arcade Fire and Radiohead, and a “PvP” one featuring Motorhead, et al.

@Libraryben: I listen to: Minnesota Public Radio, The Daily Shot, The Colbert Report, and sometimes my music which is Americana/Folk/Alt.

@BMforlife: Mostly podcasts if I’m just grinding or questing, instances usually the guild decides what I stream through Vent.

As you can see, there was a lot of variation in the responses we got! Some folks, like me, can’t function without a soundtrack to go with their in-game adventures, meanwhile others prefer to enjoy the in-game sounds. For those of you looking for some new tunage to pad your playlists, here are some suggestions!

Note: Music being what it is (and as an audiophile, this is something I can appreciate), the “genre” listings aren’t going to be very strict and I’m sure arguments could be made for certain songs to be listed under different sections. Just humor me on this one. Also note, some songs may contain explicit lyrics.

Classic Rock

1. Eric Clapton “Cocaine” (hard to find a decent version of this on YouTube, as it turns out)
2. George Thorogood “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”
3. The Eagles “Witchy Woman”
4. Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight”
5. Pink Floyd “Comfortably Numb”
6. The Rolling Stones “Paint it Black” (another tough one to find a good version of)
7. The Doors “L.A. Woman”
8. Deep Purple “Smoke on the Water”
9. Rush “Tom Sawyer”
10. AC/DC “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”

Covers

1. Disturbed “Shout 2000” (Tears for Fears cover)
2. Nonpoint “In the Air Tonight” (Phil Collins cover)
3. Sonata Arctica “Wind Beneath My Wings” (Bette Middler cover)
4. Nevermore “The Sound of Silence” (Simon & Garfunkle cover)
5. Johnny Cash “Hurt” (Nine Inch Nails cover)
6. Korn “Word Up” (Cameo cover)
7. Iced Earth “God of Thunder” (KISS cover, fun fact: Iced Earth’s ‘Tribute to the Gods’ album is entirely classic rock cover songs)
8. Sheryl Crow “Sweet Child of Mine” (Guns n Roses cover, another one that was tough to find a video for)
9. Blink 182 “Dancing With Myself” (Billy Idol cover)
10. Fear Factory “Cars” (Gary Numan cover)

Dance/Electronica

1. DJ Tiesto “Sweet Misery”
2. Armin van Buuren “Wall of Sound”
3. ATB “Here With Me”
4. Pendulum “Slam”
5. BT “Simply Being Loved (Somnambulist)”
6. Ferry Corsten “Punk” (I actually wanted to list ‘Hearts Connected’, but couldn’t find it on YouTube)
7. The Chemical Brothers “Come With Us” (another tough one to find a video for)
8. The Crystal Method “High Roller”
9. Paul Oakenfold ft. Shifty Shellshock “Starry Eyed Surprise”
10. Bomfunk MC’s “Rock, Rockin’ tha Spot”

Hip Hop

1. Ray J “Keep Sweatin”
2. Mannie Fresh “Real Big”
3. Yung Joc “Coffee Shop”
4. 112 “Peaches and Cream”
5. Kanye West “Heartless”
6. Tyga “Coconut Juice”
7. Lil Mama ft. Chris Brown “Shawty Get Loose”
8. Sean Kingston “Beautiful Girls”
9. Don Omar “Conteo”
10. DJ Danger Mouse ft. MF Doom (Danger Doom) “Benzi Box”

Rock

1. The All-American Rejects “Move Along”
2. Deftones “Change”
3. The Wallflowers “One Headlight”
4. Bush “Machinehead”
5. Everclear “Father of Mine”
6. Flogging Molly “Salty Dog”
7. Placebo “Pure Morning”
8. The Offspring “Hit That”
9. Alice in Chains “Man in the Box”
10. Jackyl “When Will it Rain”

Metal

1. In Flames “Cloud Connected”
2. Overkill “Death Comes Out to Play”
3. Control Denied “Expect the Unexpected”
4. Black Label Society “Bleed for Me”
5. Dragonforce “Through the Fire and Flames”
6. Edguy “The Pharaoh”
7. Evergrey “A Touch of Blessing”
8. Sonata Arctica “Full Moon”
9. Nevermore “The Heart Collector”
10. Stratovarius “Stratofortress”
11. Helloween “The Departed”
12. Strapping Young Lad “Aftermath”
13. Children of Bodom “Warheart”
14. Soilwork “The Chainheart Machine”
15. Flotsam & Jetsam “Swatting at Flies”

Extras

1. Europe “The Final Countdown”
2. Diana Krall “Devil May Care”
3. Train “Drops of Jupiter”
4. Goodnight Nurse “Milkshake” (Kelis cover)
5. Judas Priest “A Touch of Evil”
6. Moulin Rouge Soundtrack “Come What May”
7. Nobutoshi Hayashi “Setsunakutemo… Zutto”
8. Trace Adkins “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”
9. Reba McEntire “Fancy”
10. Toby Keith “Beer for My Horses”
11. The Cure “A Forest”
12. Vanessa Daou “Near the Black Forest”
13. Enya “The River Sings”
14. Enigma “Return to Innocence”
15. Yanni “Only a Memory”

There are so many possibilities out there! I typically don’t have a rhyme or reason to my playlist choices, I listen to whatever I happen to be in the mood for at the time regardless of the activities I’m doing in game, but I know many of you out there have certain “mood music” for PvP, raiding, grinding, etc. Be sure to share your playlists in the comments! (And don’t forget to provide links if you can, so we can all give your picks a listen!)