In fact, the debate about whether we should listen to music while working and studying has been going on for decades.

This matter can be traced back to 1940, when the Second World War was in full swing. The Germans had invaded large swaths of the continent, 10,000 British soldiers had been captured in Normandy, and the country's morale was low. At this time, the BBC provided help. Its powerful intervention is completely invisible, yet it is able to penetrate the minds of thousands of people across the country at once.

The BBC launched a "Listening to Music at Work" program on June 23 of that year. This idea came from the British government. The British government believes that playing upbeat music twice a day in munitions factories may help speed up the pace of work and provide the army with much-needed ammunition.

In a report about the programme, BBC executives claimed to have received numerous letters from factories across the country. Some of them described the impact of this program as "immeasurable", while others said that after listening to the music for about an hour, the output of their factory increased by 12.5 to 15%. Over the next few years, it could be said that the BBC helped to rebuild Britain's morale. Speaking more broadly, the victory of anti-fascism may not be possible without this small program.

Therefore, the saying that music can stimulate people's enthusiasm for work once became mainstream.

However, times have changed, and now the work scene is more often placed in the office, where one task after another is handled through reading and writing, which is more similar to the scene of writing homework. Therefore, the previous statement no longer seems to apply. Instead, people feel that listening to music while working and doing homework interferes with their thoughts.

A more rigorous study in 2011 showed that background music disrupts the reading process and has some negative effects on memory, but has a positive impact on emotional responses. Listening to music while exercising can improve exercise effect. This may explain why the BBC found that their wartime music programming increased productivity, as making munitions was tedious physical labor rather than intellectually challenging work.

It also suggests that music may not be very helpful in the more mentally demanding modern workplace and homework situations – it just makes us feel good.