I find it somewhat different for myself, Steve. I can read to most soft music of genres in which I'm not particularly interested. Interestingly enough, I can also read with Baroque music playing even though that's one period of music in which I'm quite interested. But if folk, blues, jazz, Medieval, Renaissance, Classical or Romance music are playing, I find myself listening to the music either for the "message" or for the interplay of the various parts. Loud rock or heavy metal, I can usually just not abide.

When I read the title of this thread, I assumed that it referred to music that gets played automatically when one enters a web site. I find this annoying for two reasons. First, it's often music that I don't enjoy anyway and, second, it happens all too often when I have my speaker volume set way up because I was listening to something quiet shortly before. Since I don't keep my volume control in the tray, it can take some seconds before I can adjust the volume or mute the sound. It goes without saying that I don't look too kindly on web sites that inflict sound on you without any action on your part.