Dragaera

Music while reading (wasRe: A different Track)

Steve Simmons scs at di.org
Thu Dec 5 10:36:51 PST 2002

There is foreground music and there is background music.  I mostly prefer
foreground music -- it has something to say, and if it's any good, you
will be paying attention.

But background music has its times.  The most common is when you're in
an environment that has intermittent attention-grabbing noise.  When
the schoolbus comes, there's a raft of various age kids talking as they
walk home past my windows.  Conversation is attention-grabbing.  Old
Motown records that I've heard 100 times aren't.  Putting them on keeps
the kids from distracting me.

So if you live in an environment with attention-grabbing noise, background
music is a good thing while reading.
-- 
  "In the 60's people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world
is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal."  -- author unknown