Do you listen to music while you study? I did. I watched movies, too. And even now, when work calls for some late-night overtime, I still do.
Do you think it's a Gen Y 
thing? Or just a way some people tune out the noise by choosing their own tunes?
In college, my four roommates and I would put on a movie — one we'd all seen hundreds of times — and work away on papers and flashcards, only pausing every now and then to throw out a line like, "You must chill! You must chill!" , "I carried a watermelon" or "Aspen! Mmmm California. Beautiful."
Recently, my dad called me to discuss this very topic. One of his employees was listening to the radio at his desk. My dad asked him to turn it off and told him that music in the workplace is inappropriate.
I told my dad he should stop asking the reverend from Footloose for business advice.
He ended up reading the copy of When Generations Collide I had bought for him, and a compromise with his employee was somehow made — but not without a reminder of how dancing to my iPod in my cubicle truly does contribute to my success.
Tonight I put on a recorded episode of Austin City Limits : Aimee Mann followed by Iron & Wine . What a glorious evening.
Sometimes, it just takes a good groove to get in the groove.
Most of my school career was spent writing or researching, so I opted for a two-tier approach. During the research and the writing portions, I opted for orchestral type music. The only thing I happened to have at that time was the soundtrack for The Usual Suspects (I later upgraded to some Bach). In between the research and the writing though, I would go for Eye of the Tiger type stuff to get myself pumped up for the actual writing. Also the importance of cheap 7-11 coffee at 10pm cannot be stressed enough. Lots of cream, lots of sugar.
I'd say that music in the workplace is inappropriate if your colleagues/neighbors can hear it. I might not want to listen to my neighbor's Guns-n-Roses or church music; she might not like my folk or Sibelius. If you can listen with headphones and still hear the phone if it rings, then I'd say there's generally no problem.