My alarm clock is my iPod connected to speakers blasting One Week by the Barenaked Ladies. It's never a problem waking up because I immediately start singing it when I do. I have had friends that have slept over tell me it's weird, actually, lol.
I was so desperate to make a "happy place" when I lived in North Hollywood that I had the computer play ocean waves over a network stream 24-7. Then I had the Chumby listen to that network stream, and I had a "go to sleep" timer and a "wake the fuck up" timer such that it would ramp it out and ramp it in over 15 minutes. And the Chumby was plugged into a spare 5.1 receiver with subwoofer set to Prologic IIm such that my ocean waves were in surround sound cresting all around me. It helped block out the constantly-circling ghettocopter.
No that's awesome. I've used music as an alarm, but picking a song that's irresistible to sing along with is a great idea.