Can you work hard while listening to music?

Yeah, for me it has to be wallpaper. If it involves me almost at all, it's distracting me too far from what I'm doing.

And these days, I have so many meetings and conference calls that I can't even have it on at all, even though I work mostly from home.

How could I have forgotten "I've been working on the railroad"?! Somebody slap me!

TWL -- You also forgot Devo: Workin' in a Coal Mine.....but I meant this to be a serious thread.

Has anyone heard about research done on the effect of various composers on intellectual development? Or is the baby Mozart stuff just some hoax marketed to striving yuppie parents?

Also, I seem to recall a couple of things that were apparently composed for insommnia? I don't want to fall asleep at my desk, but at least this type of music might not agitate or distract me. Bach's Inventions?

I would also greatly appreciate any suggestions on softer meditative jazz especially performed by the great giants -- I might get sacked if anyone heard Kenny G wafting out of my office....

I find it depends on the environment. When I was in an office with a lot of noise and other people talking around me, the music helped keep me focussed on what was important. Phone conversations do not work with music--for obvious reasons, but some of the time I really did not want to be talking to the person and would prefer to be listening (or concetrating on the music) and would tune the person out. That's really not a very good idea. Frequently I can get so absorbed in a project, even mathmatical proofs--I'll stop for a second and say--gosh I wish I had listened to that last track. As to the baby mozart--there are studies that have shown increase intelligence (there are studies that show just about anything you want them too--if you give enough of just about anything to a rat it will eventually die of cancer too). That being said, our toddler loves those videos and actually interacts with them--talks, counts, etc. as opposed to almost any other video. So I personally think there is something to them (but I have absolutely no qualifications here other than being a Dad).

Okay, CW, sorry about the "working" songs. To your point, I have found that I like to listen to soothing music while working. Something that doesn't require much attention. The hard rock stuff, although I enjoy it, has an agitating effect on me, and I get short tempered. I have found that "smooth jazz" is about right for me while I'm working. As for babies, anything that you expose them to will have some kind of effect on them, just as it does on us. They will view it differently, though, since they have limited experiences to relate it to. And BTW, I thought of "Workin' in a Coal Mine", but I couldn't remember it was Devo. :^)