# Music when you're working your brain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 9, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-when-youre-working-your-brain/815758 "2018-06-09T14:36:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-when-youre-working-your-brain/815758/21 "2018-06-11T05:14:45Z")
Depends on what I need. If it’s to block out extraneous noise (open-plan office + colleagues who, some days, don’t have inside voices = me having a hard time sometimes) and I’m otherwise in a good mood, then loud rock, especially if I need the energy. If I’m frustrated already and in a loud environment, then rock annoys me; I need something more measured and I usually go to something like Bach concertos or Zoe Keating’s multi-tracked cello work and noise-cancelling headphones. If it’s just for general company in the background, then something familiar that I don’t have to think about. I spent time as a radio announcer in the nineties/early 00s, so a lot of pop/rock from that era. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-when-youre-working-your-brain/815758/22 "2018-06-11T05:28:20Z")
I have tried, but when I concentrate on something everything else gets filtered out. I may listen to some of my favorites before I sit down to work, Doo-Wop, British Invasion, a small amount of 70s rock sometimes, that gets me going, but as soon as I’m looking at code on the screen I don’t hear anything. I recall now that Picabo Street would stand in the gate with headphones on while her trainer pump hard-driving rock into her head, then they’d pull off the headphones and she’d try to kill herself by skiing down the side of an icy mountain. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-when-youre-working-your-brain/815758/23 "2018-06-11T05:57:40Z")
Nope. I’ve already got two people in my brain. Both of which have very little interest in what the other is doing. Last thing I need is a third element in there mucking things up. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-when-youre-working-your-brain/815758/24 "2018-06-11T12:40:41Z")
If I’m taking in (reading, absorbing lecture) I need quiet. If I’m producing something, crunching numbers, analyzing stuff, composing letters, etc. I like the music (punk or classic rock) loud in the earbuds. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2018, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-when-youre-working-your-brain/815758/25 "2018-06-18T04:37:57Z")
_Pennants_ **Steve Howe** Music to get shit done by. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-when-youre-working-your-brain/815758.md?page=1)