I don't think I'd be able to listen to music of any sort, music is too important to me for that.

I worked in varying dishrooms as a dishwasher for about three and a half years. None of them allowed music to be played (of course when the managers left said **** THE MAN and put on my goddamn headphones) even though it's a goddamn noisy environment. Dishes, glasses, pots and pans clanking everywhere, the endless, angry drone of the dish machine spewing it's detergent vomit to cleanse the plates, drains draining and mop water being dumped...on and on and on.

I dunno, it might just be because I'm a fan of 'noise' (as a genre), that the workplace sounds never really bothered me.

Except for when the machine beeped to let me know it was out of detergent. I ****ing HATE THAT SOUND.

Is this some sort of implication that because I enjoy multitasking to music, I can't appreciate it while I'm doing so, or appreciate it on the same level as someone who only commits their full attention to listening?

And replacing one type of noise with what might be another for someone isn't an improvement. It's like people who spray around air 'freshener' (doesn't freshen anything) to cover up other smells, all of it is still in the air it doesn't get rid of anything. All it does is add to the smell (or noise in the case of sound).

I have absolutely no idea about your listening habits. I am speaking about myself only and that I wouldn't like some things even as background music. Everyone is an individual and will respond in their own way, which is part of my point. Take what I say at face value without adding implications or suppositions.

Background noises actually help mask disturbing sounds. In a very quiet environment, we get very alert. In an otherwise quiet environment, sounds stand out. If you have some kind of background sound going on, other sounds seem less loud.

By background sound, I mean a sound that you are not interested in. It's just present. It could be the hum of a refrigerator, rain, the wind in the trees outside your window, the sound from a fan in the room or even white noise. When the sound is labeled as insignificant, it is ignored by your brain by the same process that makes it so you don't notice every place on your body where your clothes touch you. To some degree, we focus on sensory input which is regarded as important and ignore that which is not.

So, sleeping with a noisy fan on can be a better way to get some quiet than sleeping in a quiet room. Any sudden noise will seem very loud in the quiet room, but next to the sound of the fan (which you will learn to ignore in no time), it will be much more quiet.

Fair enough, it wasn't clear whether it was a response to me or a general statement.

On that note, I'm guilty of using air freshener for the same reason; to give my senses a focal point other than that which I find unpleasant.

Ultimately what it comes down to is I am usually alone in my working environment, and I listen to whatever I want regardless of customer preference, because I'm the person who has to spend eight hours of their day there. A customer is not typically present for longer than 5 minutes at a time, and as such, their preferences are moot. If that's something others consider rude, so be it, but I will not decrease my enjoyment of my job for the sake of an opinionated individual who is experiencing a minor inconvenience for merely a minute out of their day.

That said, amusingly enough, I've had the most compliments with Rachmaninoff on the radio, and the most complaints about Sufjan Stevens. :laughing:

I'm completely missing the point of this thread, but doesn't the first post seem incredibly similar to what that idiot who claims to work at NASA goes on about in his blog? You know, about music being generally ****e because he's astoundingly clever and bla bla bla?

^ I can't help but read your posts in Bernards voice, it's...odd.

Ive been sleeping with a fan running through the night now for I don't know how long. But it has to be a very smooth running fan in order for it to work for me. If a piece of paper gets sucked against the screen or into the blades, thats it! I'm up outta bed right away. Or sometimes it will vibrate across the floor and get against the wall and start making a tapping sound, I'm up and awake. And when I travel somewhere and have to stay over night, I either have to bring along my own personal fan or go strait to wallmart and buy one. And in the winter time it can be very hard finding one in the northern states. Fairly easy in the southern states. I have left fans all over the east coast, motel rooms, friends places, Geesh!

I think you're a clever irish unicorn.

I find the sound of a blow drier or one of those little portable heaters infinitely relaxing. I could literally spend an afternoon sitting in front of one of those. Sleeping with that kind of background noise would be terrific.