Originally Posted by Dreadnought

I do not listen to music while playing because it would cover up sounds I need to hear in game. However, I thought it would be interesting to share this. While taking a psychology class a couple years ago we somehow got on the subject of how music affects different activities. For example: Listening to different types of music makes you write different feeling stories when given a prompt and a blank sheet. We learned that most music affects what you think, but only one type of music actually measurably improves the speed and accuracy of your thoughts and actions. Short term memory greatly improved. Puzzle solving and typing moderately improved. Moderate term memory slightly improved. That type of music is Classical Baroque. (harpsichord type stuff) Pachebel, Vivaldi, Bach, and Handel are some good composers.

Now you may feel that you are different and some music makes you think faster; you may be right. This is the result of a study subject to the methods of scientific rigor. It measured people as a whole, and therefor is only applicable to a representative aggregate of people. However, if you normally listen to music for a perceived mental boost, I'd recommend this. For me, I believe that any slight advantage listening may give me is outweighed my the opportunity cost of missing any slight sounds in game.

But that's just me!

How about that did the same study many years ago when I was in pschology at U of Akron. Found the music that improves my ability is the classical piano: Chopin, Lizst, Tchiachovsky, Wagner, etc. It is pretty cool, always used it when cramming for a test or exam it really does work.