Tag Archives: chillstep

Chill out, with chillstep

Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten really into YouTube. So much so, that I started my own channel and started posting mostly vlog like stuff. But that’s a fairly advanced endevour that most people don’t do. For the regular YouTube user, it’s all about watching and discovering new content, and I still use YouTube for that.

Specifically, I’ve recent discovered a new “genre” (maybe it’s a “subgenre”, or a hybrid genre) of music called chillstep. Chillstep is basically electronic music, with some dubstep influences, geared more towards mellow vibes and slower beats. I love putting on a chillstep playlist on YouTube and just doing random things around the house. It’s also great for my job as a software engineer, because most of chillstep is very melodic, instrumental (minimal vocals), and a bit slower and rhythmic, almost like those brain wave noise making machines and apps.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about with the brain wave stuff, there’s a whole a concept in neurology that involves “brain waves.” I don’t know much about it beyond that, though I suspect it gets pretty technical and probably has something to do with the rate that neurons are firing on average across the entire brain. Any who, since I’m no neurologist, I won’t go any further than that… but what these machines and apps do is emit sounds which supposedly can put your brain into one of a few select frequencies with the idea that you can do certain things better when your brain is in one of these frequencies. The sounds are slow, drawn out tones and hums, which I find do actually work for me, but aren’t quite as interesting as chillstep. Chillstep does a very similar thing for me, but is just slightly more interesting. Of course, if you’re trying to study or focus on some very technical material, you don’t want it to be too interesting, otherwise you run the risk of having your attention diverted from whatever it is you’re doing. (That’s why vocals are bad for this purpose, in my opinion.)

So yeah! I’m actually listening to the chillstep playlist put together by Artic Empire as I write this, while on a short little break from work. I highly recommend it for anyone who needs some new beats to put on in the background for the purposes of chilling out!

What do you guys think? Is chillstep awesome, or what? What do you like to do while listening to chillstep?

Here are some other YouTube channels that feature great chillstep tracks. Go to their playlist section to find it organized, since these channels often feature all sorts of electronic music (not just chillstep).

Airwave Music TV
Artic Empire
Koala Kontrol
MrSuicideSheep
Pulse8
Ramese B