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.
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.
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.
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.