Can you write with music playing? I can't.
I'd love nothing more than to compose sentences about product liability insurance, say, with Bruce Springsteen or Jimmy Buffet playing the background. But it doesn't work. I can listen. Or I can write. Not both. It's like trying to shave with one hand while combing your hair with the other. I envy my right-brained designer and photographer brethren who can get a day's work done with their iPods on.
It's not just the lyrics that interfere. Even distinctive instrumentals -- such as a drum solo by Ginger Baker -- are distracting when trying to pick words out of a hat.
But we writers aren't doomed to labor in silence. There are a few types of music compatible with writing copy.
I wrote a pile of case studies to the music of composer Philip Glass. You might call his work minimalist, or monotonous, depending on your point of view. Anyway, it doesn't short-circuit the word-juggling process. I like his Violin Concerto and his soundtrack to the movie Notes on a Scandal. The latter seems to help me increase the RPM when I'm on deadline.
When staring at a blank screen, try streaming the Drone Zone from SomaFM. It's more of an audio texture or an environment than music. It can, however, sometimes relax me into a stupor. Drone Zone is also streamable through the Radio feature of iTunes.
Try Sky.fm for their Solo Piano, Ambient, and New Age channels. Simply Soundtracks is like being at the movies, but without the dialogue or pictures. I like Uptempo Jazz, but it tends to make me riff uncontrollably at times. Not good for insurance content.
Classic FM is helpful, except when it launches into opera or clashing symphonies. They do interrupt for commercials, but since they're in Dutch or Czech, it's the same as white noise to me.
