Background Music

I was finnicking around with my Rubik's cube, trying to solve it as fast as I can. I wanted to time myself, so I used the easiest and simplest method I knew of. Start playing a song in iTunes, and when you solve the cube, see how far into the song you are.

Not suprisingly, I solved the cube 30 seconds faster when listening to Archetype by Fear Factory than Alone in Kyoto by Air. (Bonus points for citing a band no one's heard of! Ka-Ching!) That's death/industrial metal versus ultra-light electronica, for you mortals, err, non-geek-types. You could argue that I got a much better starting position with for my shorter, 2-minute time, but I was definately moving/thinking faster.

I love to stream online radio when I'm doing homework, playing poker online, or doing other stuff on the computer. One of my favorite stations is Groove Salad from Soma FM, which describes itself as "Ambient Chill". I can just zone out for something like an hour while playing poker and listening to it. (Kinda freaky when you wake back up and realise, "Son of a mother, I'm 30k down!")

I'm curious to know the extent that background noise or music can affect the brain.