There have been lots of research done in terms of music and its ability to increase a person’s productivity and concentration in certain tasks, although no clear conclusion has been achieved. As it stands right now, it just seems as though those who are already reliant on music (and music is a part of their every day life) work better with music, while others simply don’t.

For those who already have music as an established part of their life,  it’s only natural that working in a quiet environment wouldn’t suit them. Having beats and rhythms fill your easrs when you walk to school, when you’re on the bus to work, whenever you have free time and you’re not conversing with anybody. Music is part of many people’s background noise, and it’s hard to adjust at the absence of it. 

Often people aren’t even paying attention to the words or the music. But rather, its familiar to have sound in the background hta you can just ignore, but you’re subconsciously aware of. 

In the same line of thinking, those that normally listen to music will find their concentration weakened at the presence of it. I know that for myself, someone who hardly listens to music – I don’t even have an ipod/mp3/whatever – always get distarcted when I do. If I’m trying to do a math problem and music is there, I find myself concentrating on the words and writing what I’m hearing instead of ignoring it and letting it blend in as white noise in the background. 

Also, for those not immune to the affects of rhythmic music, it’s difficult to keep still while something with definitive beat is playing. Techno music, fr example, is impossible to listen to without bobbing your head or moving around. 

One of the only types of music that I can listen to without it affecting me much is music without words. This is because I find it very hard to find the passion or the emotion in a piece if I’m not hearing their voices displaying it, or if I can’t see their expressions as they’re actually playing. 

An example of a pretty, slow song with words that I can simply never get myself to fade in the background is DBSK’s Love in the Ice. Perhaps it’s because I love the band and can hear the genuinity (<– possibly not a real world but whatever) in their voices as they sing and they do have such beautiful voices. However, I will be the first to admit that had this been just an instrumental that I was hearing through a CD Player, then I could tune it out. 

(If anyone is reading this, just watch between 3:39 to 4:15 if you want to hear some real talent. These guys are just so talented in their ballads. ♥)

So yes. I think this is a rather interesting topic of study, but it’s not really… Basically, I think it really depends on the individual and his or her environment and lifestyle. Someone who lives beside a subway station can probably sleep soundly throught the rattling of the wheels on the tracks. But wouldn’t someone who just moved in have difficulty going to sleep?