Here's one more data point: I enjoy a full range of musical genres and I typically go in cycles. I'll go for a week or two on trance/progressive (A State of T

Here's one more data point: I enjoy a full range of musical genres and I typically go in cycles. I'll go for a week or two on trance/progressive (A State of Trance Episodes 300-450). Then I might switch to technical death metal for a bit. Even though they typically sing in English, it turns out that the lyrical content of this type of music is hardly discernable. I also happen to enjoy a lot of punk and hardcore music. I find that if I already know the words to the music, then sometimes it's not as distracting as other lyrically-heavy genres. Also, I'd suggest investing a pair of good over-the-ear headphones (if you can tolerate them) or at least a pair of good in-ear earphones. You might also consider an amplifier as well. With my iPod classic, an amp, and my Beyerdynamic DT-770s, the music sounds so damn good. The seal on my ears is so tight that I'm basically isolated from my environment.