OK, the Mozart effect has been disproven si-yuntifickly, and shown to be just a marketing gimmick. But anecdotally … there are very few things that kick my torpid, ADD-y brain into gear than certain music.
My work involves deep concentration and ‘flow’. Fortunately my boss understands that baby editors have the concentration spans of eight year olds and tolerates the frequent coffee and fresh air missions and the headphones. I’m a manuscript machine when the stars are aligned, the sugar and caffeine levels are just right and I have the right neurons bopping away to the iPod.
What do you put on your headphones, desk jockeys, that stimulates your brain yet doesn’t distract you? I’ll show you mine (my playlists) if you’ll show me yours.
Ironically, the more discordant and noisy the music is, the more I tend to concentrate on my task. When I was cramming at university, fueled by the ungodly combination of cheap amphetamine and cannabis, I would listen to The Birthday Party at full volume.
I wish I could work with music on the 'phones or in the background, because it seems like a very pleasurable thing to do. But I just can’t. Doesn’t matter what it is, it’s too distracting.
Even Eno’s Music for Airports takes my mind off of what’s in front of me because I begin anticipating the various sonic changes.
Actually, tangentially to this, how do you get music out of your head? If I take a fancy to a song it goes on in a loop, and it’s all I can do to stop obsessing over it. And the thing is, I play all of the different instruments in my head, too, save for the voice (interesting, that). I can rarely just enjoy music in a detached way, I have to play the instruments for the soundtrack in my mindspace.
Actually, come to think of it, I’m talking about pop music in general, and this might be why I find classical music so enticing and yet so daunting–the actual performance of most any of the instruments is beyond me, so I can’t imagine blowing on the oboe or sliding up and down the cello to Beethoven’s Fifth or whatnot. Hmmm…I need therapy.
Flow is a big deal for me too. Silly bouncy pop music seems to work best – right now the playlist has Ok Go, Yes, The Raconteurs, Elvis Costello, The Magnetic Fields, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Flaming Lips.
Funny, I always use the Music for the Mozart Effect Vol.1–Strengthen the Mind to settle down/focus. Also, the Dr. Jeffery Thompson’s Alpha Relaxation System is always foolproof.
If I listen to something while I work, most often it’s Bach, esp. the Well-Tempered Clavier (Glenn Gould). But I also listen to a lot of Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi…
I’ve found that if I need a dose of adrenaline I can occasionally work to some rock/pop, such as parts of the Beatles’ Revolver (esp. “Taxman”) and Yo La Tengo’s And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (esp. “Cherry Chapstick” and “You Can Have It All”).