I've always found that not only do I work better to music, but I almost can't work without it if I hope at all to be productive. While I managed to get through school doing as little homework as possible, even thinking back through grade school the projects I worked on that were more intensive were always accompanied by some kind of music playing. For example, to this day I can't hear a song from the SSX Tricky soundtrack without thinking of "To Kill A Mockingbird", or think of the novel without recalling that soundtrack :P
There's been some studies on the effects of music for worker productivity, and it seems that there seems to be something valid to the idea that music and productivity can have a strong correlation, though these findings do come with some caveats.
Familiarity plays a role in the effectiveness of music on productivity, and this is something my own experience agrees with. New music is, well, new to your brain, which will naturally require more processing than hearing something you've listened to many times before. While I can sometimes get away with listening to new music and being productive, those cases are usually limited to instances when I've lost interest in the music but haven't bothered to change it. In that respect, I've effectively given up on processing the new music and have treated it more as ambient noise.
Similarly, music with a lot of lyrics, or lyrics that are more intricate or hooky in nature, can also undo any productivity gains for the same reason depending on the type of work you're performing. The structure, rhyme, meter, etc of these lyrics draw attention away from what you're working on and toward the lyrics, which increases the amount of processing required by your brain. This may be less true for familiar music, but even in music you've heard 100 times before some lines can manage to hook your brain and pull it toward the lyrics over your other tasks.
My Curiosities About Steemit's Music/Work Habits
Question 1:
Do you listen to music while you work?
Question 2:
If you do, what kinds of music do you find work best for you?
Question 3:
Do you switch up genres/styles if the context of your task changes enough to warrant a different style of music? If so, what kind of context and genre shifts do you find yourself doing?
Question 4:
Do the findings in the linked article/highlighted above match your experiences with working while listening to music?
Question 5:
Do you listen to much music outside of work, or is work a primary source for music listening for you?