Listen: you can only look up "Chopin's Greatest Hits" into YouTube only so many times before it starts getting tired. I think "study music" has a sort of negative connotation because kids have been using the same music to study to for their entire educational career. Study music doesn't have to be bland, it doesn't have to be tired. It does, however, need to be background music that allows you to study just as well as you would without it or, in some cases, even better with it. Here are a few examples of study music that a. is able to be background, b. broadens your musical horizons, and c. stays interesting. There is one rule though: no pre-modern classical music. Anyone can tell you to go listen to Mozart or Chopin or Stravinsky, I'm here to show you stuff you haven't heard yet. Now that that's out of the way, here we go:

1. William Basinski - Disentegration Loops (2002)

William Basinksi, one of the most famous avant-garde composers in present-day, has told the Disintegration Loops story so many times even he is tired of it. But you can read that yourself, what I want to talk about here is the incredible haunting beauty in this composition. Basinksi took old cassettes from his early career and let them play over and over until they literally began disintegrating into nothing, completely changing the sounds as the composition progresses, making the single-song an study into memory, loss, and change. That'll become more apparent if you know the incredible story behind the music, found here.

2. Susomo Yakota - Grinning Cat (2001)

Susumu Yokota takes house to the ambient scene, marrying the two styles perfectly and peacefully. While the loops here are indeed meditative, they're still vibrant and full of life, bustling like a pond filled with violins coupling with dense synthetic drum beats. The eccentricities on this album are interesting, but they don't take away from its relaxing quality. This is one of those album that is so filled with beauty it makes you just want to sit in front of a wall for hours. And that's a good quality to me.

3. Mend - Geotic

I think the best word to describe this album is "shiny." The guitars sound like they bounce around like wind from ice sheet to ice sheet, emitting an echo across an open, frigid air. Geotic is actually the ambient side project (a much more common occurrence than one would think) of Will Weisenfeld, the man behind Baths. Weisenfeld's producing expertise is very present here, and you really feel all of the eccentricities and complexities that went into this project.

4. Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports (1978)

Here it is, the granddaddy of them all: Brian Eno. "Ambient 1: Music for Airports" isn't known as the first ambient album (that would go to 1975's "Discreet Music,' also from Eno). But, I would argue that this was the realization of what ambient music is, and the incredible emotional brevity it can attain just through non-rhythmic sounds. From the piano hits on 1/1 to the soaring synthesizer on 2/2, "Ambient 1" is an exploration of beauty, even in something as menial as music for an "airport." In fact, I would recommend the rest of the "Ambient" series if you like this one, as well as "Apollo," "Discreet Music," "Music for Films" and any other Eno work you can get your hands on.

5. Deru - 1979

Deru's "1979" is a dark hole, welcoming you with pittering piano loops into a world of echo'd synths deep as EArth's core, seemingly never ending and scary as it sounds. The cover art (seen above) is perfect for the feel of this album: dark, a little spooky, and mysterious. Of course, I think that's really, really what the composer wanted you to think. If you look at the website dedicated to this album, I think things might have gotten a little silly in the process. The creator made up a musical language for this album, a backstory about how the producer found a projector at a flea market containing videos of his childhood (which you can buy of course), and an extensive list of things that happened in "1979" ("Highest price ever paid for a pig, $42,500, Stamford, Texas"). I honestly can't tell if it's a joke or not, but it's nonetheless interesting, and the music is great either way.

6. Antonio Carlos Jobim - Stoneflower (1970)

Antonio Carlos Jobim is the king of Bossanova to me, and "Stoneflower" is my evidence for that claim. It's a smooth, classy affair, and the instruments all sound golden. The whole project feels like a Cuban jazz club from the 60's, with flamboyant postmodern architecture and martinis. The first song, "Tereza My Love," is the hypothesis of the record: smooth, silky, sexy, and sweet. Hey, kind of like a martini. OK, maybe not really like a martini, but still, great album. "Wave" is another incredible Bossanova album from Jobim, so if you like this one, give that one a shot too.

7. Software - Digital Dance (1988)

"Digital Dance" is the 80's. It's commercial music, it's shitty subway music, it's elevator music, and I fucking love it. Every sound on here is so fake, so incredibly synthetic, so undeniably cheesy, and I can't stop listening to it. There's a certain nostalgic sadness perfectly embodied here on this record, one that makes me think of weekday bed-times from childhood when you really didn't want to go to bed but you had to. I know, I know, that's a little specific, but maybe, just maybe, you'll feel the same way if you give it a try.

8. Robert Rich- Somnium

Somnium's first moments sound more like one of those seven hour long "background rain" YouTube videos used for studying, but it's a bit different from that. "Somnium," by the legendary avant-garde producer Robert Rich, is deeply haunting. It sounds like you're in a forest, completely isolated in the dark. You here little noises (pitter-patter of water, a faint echo that you may or may not be imagining, etc.) that make you paranoid and shaky as you walk through an unknown place in an unknown state. The album was actually supposed to produce visions for REM-sleeping listeners, but it's also a pretty relaxing study listen as well.