Opinion

Music to Listen to in Order to Boost Your Mood While Playing Games

March 25, 2026

Gaming is more than just pressing buttons and completing levels—it’s about immersion, focus, and enjoyment. One surprisingly powerful tool that can enhance your gaming experience is music. Whether you’re playing fast-paced action games, strategic RPGs, or relaxing puzzle titles, the right soundtrack can elevate your mood, sharpen focus, and even improve performance.   In this article, we explore the types of music that are best for gaming, explain why they work, and provide examples that can transform your next gaming session. Why Music Matters in Gaming   Music affects the brain in profound ways. Scientific studies and psychological research show that listening to certain types of music while gaming online like Tongits, it can:   Increase focus and concentration: Steady rhythms and instrumental tracks can help players maintain attention during complex gameplay. Elevate mood: Upbeat and familiar music triggers the release of dopamine, making games feel more enjoyable. Reduce stress[...]

Can Music Improve Your Gaming Skills? Science, Focus, and Performance Explained

January 19, 2026

Music has long been part of the gaming experience. From epic orchestral soundtracks in role-playing games to lo-fi beats playing in the background of competitive matches, many gamers rely on music to stay focused and motivated. But beyond personal preference, an important question arises: can music actually improve your gaming skills?   This article explores the science behind music and performance, how different types of music affect focus and reaction time, and when music helps—or hurts—your gaming performance.   Meanwhile, if you want to find isang sikat na Tongits game sa Pilipinas, GameZone could be the answer to your prayers. Check out their collection of Tongits games plus more.    The Science Behind Music and Cognitive Performance   Music has a measurable effect on the brain. Studies in neuroscience show that listening to music can influence attention, memory, mood, and reaction speed, all of which are crucial for gaming.  [...]

Why Building a Custom Home in Buffalo, NY Is a Smart Long-Term Investment

January 19, 2026

Building a custom home is more than just a real estate decision. It’s a deeply personal investment in your lifestyle, your family’s future, and your financial security. For people in Buffalo, NY, choosing to build a custom home means creating a space that grows with you, stands the test of time, and truly reflects your unique vision.   At first, building a custom home might feel overwhelming. There’s a lot of money involved, time to manage, and the possibility of things not going as planned. That’s why working with a trusted Custom Home builder in Buffalo, NY, such as Modish Custom Homes, can make a huge difference. Their approach goes beyond construction. They guide you through every step with care and clarity, turning what can be a stressful process into something much more manageable.   Why Choose Custom in Buffalo?   Buffalo is full of charm with its rich history[...]

Why Slow Days Matter Just As Much As Busy Ones

July 16, 2025

(Photo by furkanfdemir) Some days fly by before you’ve even had a chance to stop and think, but other days… well, they stretch out, and you look up and it’s still early, and you’re not sure what you’ve actually done yet. It’s easy to think of those slower days as wasted ones, but they’re not really most of the time.    The fact is that even when things feel quiet or aimless, your mind and body are still doing something, including processing, recharging, catching up, and those things are important. So keep reading to find out more about why slow days are actually important.    The Pressure To Be Busy    We’ve been taught to value packed schedules, fast responses, and endless productivity, and it’s true that sometimes that’s helpful because it gets things done, but when it becomes the default, and every moment is filled with tasks, there’s no[...]

How To Break Into Buffalo’s Local Music Scene

September 3, 2020

Have you been inspired by your favorite Buffalo artists? Many people dream of breaking into their local music scene — but whether you’re a Buffalo native or the new kid in town, it’s never easy to take those first steps towards a career in music.  In this post, we’ll be sharing some of our top tips for breaking into the music scene. Whatever your style, these ideas could help you find your feet and get the ball (rock and) rolling.  1. Read Your Local Newspapers — All Of Them  From searching for the best online piano lessons to signing a record deal, the road to becoming a professional performer can be a long and winding one.  One of the best strategies to break into music is to know your local scene inside out. If you prefer to find your news on social media, you might not have picked up a[...]

How Music Has Changed With the Emergence of New Technology

May 4, 2020

Technology has changed many aspects of life in a multitude of ways. The music industry has not gone untouched by the influence. Music is one way we use to express ourselves, and it has been changing for thousands of years. In recent decades, there have been numerous technological advances and innovations, which have led to a remarkable effect on modern-day music. Here are some of the ways music has changed with technology. Music Creation New technology has led to countless sound effects and opportunities for musicians. Effect pedals have allowed musicians to experiment with altering the pitch and variety of time-based effects. Timing effects, for instance, enable you to create an echo for a more textured sound.   There are new apps for musicians who are on a low budget. Downloading these apps enables them to experiment with sound creation affordably. With the introduction of new exciting sounds, music writing and[...]

From Techno to Classical, the Intangible Benefits of Music

March 1, 2017

Music is such a strong, influential tool in our lives. It has the power to induce certain emotions from us, and mold our habit of thinking in ways we least expect. Due to the philosophical hold it has, there’s an imperceptible bridge that connects us to different cultures, millions of people across the globe. More than providing entertainment and ambiance, music, as a whole, also impacts our overall learning and memory process. There’s a study on Academia about how music affects university students. As a matter of fact, actual music students, or those who took up art-related courses, have better GPAs and are mostly higher achievers than those who aren’t involved in the craft. The Netherlands, Hungary, and Japan, are just some of the countries that put a premium on this subject’s study and participation. Now for us to further understand the concept of music and its overall influence, let’s[...]

A Few Thoughts On Prince (1958-2016) [UPDATED]

April 23, 2016

I’m not even going to try cranking out an obituary for Prince, who died unexpectedly at age 57 Thursday. There’s already a tremendous amount of excellent writing out there marking this terrible and frankly surreal tragedy. So as staff Princephile, I’m just going to stick with a few thoughts on the great man, his music, and how it changed my life: I was a little too young to truly appreciate 1999 and Purple Rain when both took over the pop world in 1982 and 1984 respectively. I liked the singles and videos but I wasn’t tuned in enough to be down with Prince when he broke big time. But five years later I was a full blown teenager and in love with Tim Burton’s Michael Keaton/Jack Nicholson Batman movie, and I had no choice but to get both the Danny Elfman score and Prince’s album of original music for the[...]

A Very Murray Christmas

December 8, 2015

The A Very Murray Christmas special on Netflix is one of the greatest pop culture artifacts ever produced, and potentially the apex of human civilization. Crafted by international icon/spirit animal Bill Murray, Mitch Glazer and director Sofia Coppola for streaming whenever you like, it is an instantly classic one offmedia masterpiece that transcends film, television, and reality itself. Featuring preposterously bravura performances  from a multitude of talents that are soulfully beautiful, yet ironic without a trace of irony, it’s ridiculously heartfelt and brilliant. There, I said it. And the musical numbers supervised by Paul Shaffer are sublime from start to finish: the very first number “Christmastime Blues” featuring Bill with Paul at the piano in his suite at the Carlisle Hotel before Bill’s ill-fated live TV holiday special instantly recalls Nick the Lounge Singer while setting the slightly melancholic mood; a duet in matching Andy Williams sweaters of Bill and[...]

The Bandcamp Era

November 17, 2015

Car Seat Headrest recently rolled out a “Greatest Hits” of sorts. Well, the bandcamp lo-fi version of what a greatest hits compilation would be. The album is called Teens of Style and it raises at least a couple of interesting questions: What do we do with all this lo-fi music laying around Bandcamp that previously independent artists released, now that those artists are being signed? What does this mean on a greater scale, for artists and fans, as windows like Bandcamp are becoming a standard within certain genres? There have been a lot of irrelevant questions posed to these guys from different angles, mostly pertaining to the “pressures” of having a wider audience, having to work with other people, and all kinds of ridiculous questions that really stereotype people like Will Toledo (Car Seat Headrest) and Mat Cothran (Elvis Depressedly) as introverted guys who wouldn’t know how to make or perform[...]

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

October 14, 2015

The Buffalo News via Buffalo.com reported Wednesday that the Common Council unanimously voted Tuesday to eventually move the wildly successful Canalside Concert Series somewhere not Canalside, a move that might potentially kill off the long running concert series just when it’s getting good. Apparently complaints about noise, traffic, and unruly young people by Marine Drive Apartments residents proved sufficient to precipitate this shock move, and now Canalside concertgoers get to look forward to the series moving to the Outer Harbor or Lasalle Park, and truthfully, I don’t think the series can survive a move to either. Let’s be honest: while summer was great, it hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for the “fun crowd” in Western New York, with the oncoming change in bar closing time in Erie County, which is totally happening by the way (you’ve been warned), and now word of a Canalside Concert move to the[...]

Dr. Dre and Detox

August 5, 2015

Last week, Dr. Dre, the notorious and elusive producer who had us salivating for 15 years for Detox, the final part of his solo album trilogy, announced that it has been scrapped. Instead, he is dropping Compton: A Soundtrack, inspired by the upcoming N.W.A. biopic on Thursday. Dre, who helped introduce a sort of street-level realism in the late 80s with N.W.A. and then came like a riot into white America’s living room with 1992’s The Chronic, is still perhaps hip hop’s most influential producer, despite ghosting out of the game entirely for the past decade. With The Chronic, Dre’s sun-bleached, 70’s funk samples mixed with surly, even darkly comic raps. For his sequel, Chronic 2001 or just 2001, he assembled a core of musicians, including studio-rat-turned-fallen-Greek-God Scott Storch, and bassist Mike Elizondo, to relaunch his brand of g-funk as airtight, cosmic and sample-less. He ended up going beyond what merely just passed[...]

The Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well: A View from the Couch

July 10, 2015

To many, a “couch tour” likely sounds like a grueling task of furniture shopping, visiting store after store, only to end up disappointed with the final choice. To those in the jam community, though, the experience is an opportunity to listen to and view the shows we would otherwise miss. Phish and Umphrey’s McGee are famous for this, streaming many of their shows while on tour. As for the Grateful Dead, the group has not played in an era where this technology was available, until now that is. The reunited core four, composed of rhythm guitarist and vocalist Bob Weir, bassist and recent vocalist Phil Lesh, and drummers/percussion members Bob Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, and joined by Bruce Hornsby on Grand Piano, Jeff Chimenti on Brent Mydland’s (former Grateful Dead keys player) old rig, and Trey Anastasio from Phish on lead guitar, played a total of fives hows together for[...]

Thursday at Canalside Report Card

April 30, 2015

The announcement of the Thursday at Canalside series, now years away from the cesspool that was Layfette Square, is one of Buffalo’s true indicators that summer is pretty much here. And with that announcement, comes lots and lots of bitching, at least normally. My fellow buffaBLOGGER Cliff Parks once told me “if you like three of the Canalside acts, then it’s a good year.” And you know what? The guy is 100% correct. What people don’t realize is that this FREE lineup isn’t made for you, or your parents, or a fan of one particular genre, rather, it’s made for everyone, which means multiple genres/bands/sounds will be represented, some to the pleasure and some to the disdain of those looking to spend a nice Thursday evening down on the water front. As per tradition, I have compiled my Thursday at Canalside Report Card, and before I go any further, please take[...]

Waka For President? Maybe

April 22, 2015

Over the past couple of days, “news” broke that Queens-born, ATL-based rapper Waka Flocka Flame is running for president in 2016. In a Rolling Stone video released on 4/20, Waka indulges in an L and runs through the driving points of his campaign. This includes the obvious mention of marijuana legalization and some more obscure topics like banning dogs from restaurants and people with feet over size 13 from sidewalks. The campaign continued again today with this video in which Waka collects signatures for a petition that will get him on the ballot However sincere this campaign actually is comes second to the idea that as far as rappers running for president go, Waka Flocka is actually a pretty solid choice. It’s easy to look at the lyrics of a Waka Flocka song and call it trash, but lyrics have never been his thing. He himself has admitted that he’s[...]