What music puts you in a writing mood?

I always listen to music when I write. It's like it's urging me on to finish the scene I'm writing at the moment. Other times, they help to give me ideas of a character's past.

In what ways does music help/effect your writing? Here's a list of stuff some songs that help me in specific scenes:

happy-go-lucky days/scenes: "Crawling Towards the Sun" by The Hush Sound.
sad: "One More Time, One More Chance" by Yamazaki Masayoshi.
happy romance: "Allegro Cantabile" by SUEMITSU & THE SUEMITH
sad romance: "Intertwined" by The Hush Sound
fights: "Over My Head" by Sum 41, or anything by Linkin Park
bar fights: "Seven Deadly Sins" by Flogging Molly

Any others? =D

Yup music in the background while u r writing helps u a lot.For me all types of soft music works a lot.it kind of helps to bring out your true feelings.And that way your work turns out to be a well written one.

Besides the songs you have mentioned I do listen to songs which are of Indian language like Hindi or bengali....and even if the language differs they do help.

I write fantasy most all the time, so I listen to 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Narnia' soundtracks while I write. I also listen to Nickel Creek's 'Why Should the Fire Die?'. They're all really inspirational to me.

I listen to Lifehouse, Blue October, All American Rejects, Goo-goo dolls, Plain White Ts and Avril Lavigne. For basically everything, music itself puts me in the writing mood.

I have a cocktail of random Celtic songs (including Brian Boru, Mystic's Dream, Skellig, ect.), a lot of John Williams stuff, the Pirates of the Carribean 3 soundtrack, the Harry Potter 5 soundtrack, and the soundtrack for the anime show Wolf's Rain, as well as a few misc. Michael W. Smith instromentals.

Bands like The Decemberists, The Shins, Death Cab For Cutie, The Postal Service and Delays. Also, classical and instrumental music. Along with film soundtracks, they can really get me going.

Oh, sure. Jack beats me to it. ^_~

Currently, the list goes something like this- Decemberists, Shins, Sufjan Stevens, White Stripes, Belle and Sebastian. Things that have a mix of cool lyrics, different melodies/meter/instrumentation- but aren't so hardcore or groovy that you don't pay attention to the writing anymore.

The Crane Wife [Decemberists] just makes me overly emotional. I love using it for intense scenes- the Island, especially. It makes my job a lot easier when I'm already in mood and mindset.

And The Life Pursuit [Belle and Sebastian] has this sort of airy, retro feel that's grand for upbeat or atmospheric things.

Honestly, I could ramble about music and my projects all day long- I'm sure Cal will be the first to agree. ^_~

Amy Winehouse and Fiona Apple help me alot.

Whatever's on NPR usually works. And if not, my James Bond record fills in perfectly.

The Hush Sound is starting to sound good with the new songs I'm downloading from iTunes. "Don't Wake Me Up" is pretty good for just about anything.

Bright Eyes for happy scenes
Bright Eyes for sad scenes
Bright Eyes for tragic moments
Bright Eyes for insane fallacies
Bright Eyes for character development
Bright Eyes for beginning moments/relationships
Bright Eyes for...well, everything. But of course, we can also delve into Commander Venus and Desaparecidos ^_^

And a bit of Regina Spektor is *never* bad either. The Hush Sound, like people have already said, is decent, but I fell of a swing whilst listening to it and it now has dramatic connotations.

XD Cheers to music, sustenance of all writers (that and late night caffeine).

My immortal by evanescence has got me through everything so far. Planning to go for must be dreaming by frou frou for a couple of chapters then Wake me up inside by evanesence

Cal's fan mixes, especially her FREAK fan mix. I mean... what's more to ask for?

Everything really. The Veronicas, Corbin Bleu, Vanessa Hudgens, Evanescence, Ashley Tisdale, The Fray, Jesse McCartney, All American Rejects, Shakira, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, and lots of others....

In my "writing" playlist, I have Phantom of the Opera, Moulin Rouge, Wicked, Backstreet Boys (...dun kill me XD), Avril Lavigne, Disney songs, Lifehouse...and as of last night I now have some other songs that were made for my mix that someone here made for me.