Having been bought up in the Quaker tradition I got used to silence early in life and when I was a little older I got into stillness as well (That's a Zen thing).

Stillness is what you need when those tunes that hook directly into your brain start keeping you awake at night.

Silence is what you need when you are trying to transcribe lyrics from a scratchy old LP and your teenager switches on MTV!

for those who have to have other peoples noise all around... "Alas for those that never sing and die with all their music still within them"