The unexpected effects of certain music genres on statistical analysis

I really, really really can't tell you why power metal (at least that's how Youtube labels it) in general, and Nightwish in particular, has such an incredibly benevolent influence on my work morale. I really can't. It's not logical. But it works like a charm.

Thanks to the crashing guitars, the belting song, the massive drums and the more-than-overly-deathly-serious-and-poetic lyrics about anguish, nature, sirens, death, souls and bla bla bla, I am finally in work overdrive mode and have turned into a statistics-mangling zombie. You wouldn't recognize me, I become extremely focused on mobilizing statistical data with a concentration level higher than Macchu Picchu and/or Pete Doherty. Variables are being recoded! Categories are being identified! Conclusions are being drawn! Work is being done! And with an intensity heretofore unheard of in my office. It's a big relief to someone who's spent a year or so wondering what it is I actually get done at work (save organizing conferences, coaching students and so on... none of which counts.)

There's a downside though... I'm beginning to suffer from daily Nightwish poisoning. It's a kind of totality syndrome. At the end of each workday I pluck the earphones out and realize my mind is throbbing (from the intensity of thought or the bass guitar riffs, I'm not sure), my shoulders are cramped and my eyesight has gone slightly dim. Plus, the tunnel vision - effect of the music makes me lose count of the number of coffee cups that enter my circulation system...

I tend to interpret these minor inconveniences as a sign that I've been working diligently, but I know that I really should rethink the strategy.

As an antedote to my extreme concentration music, I have stumbled upon a Brooklyn band who play pubertal poprock (the genre's an invention of my own with no respect for established dittos, thanx) and who have the inversely fitting name "We Are Scientists". How fortuitous :)

Look'em up in the link-list to the right.
I can't work to their music to save my life, but I like 'em fine.