Well the science is pretty clear that it helps performance. So when you think about +~2% more performance compounded over many workouts the advantage is probably clear. I’m just saying, I totally get why somebody would elect to leave the earbuds out. 
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I find music or even podcasts while riding indoors to be incredibly boring. Being able to binge watch a new TV show has really made indoor training very tolerable if not more enjoyable than ever.
Outside, I’ll listen to podcasts, books, or music on long solo rides. (Bone conduction headphones so I can hear cars and things.)
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I’m a huge music guy. So much so that I can’t enjoy a ride or any other activity when there is music on that I don’t enjoy. A lot of people slag on Peloton for various reasons, but I gave up on them years ago simply because I couldn’t stand their playlists any more. I don’t mind a song or two that I don’t like, but 45 straight minutes of music I don’t enjoy feels like 4 hours.
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I’m a music guy but I actually have more than a few friends that aren’t really into it, as in they literally don’t listen to music when alone, or have any favorite artists/songs. It’s really strange to me, given my own personal connection to music (I’m not a musician, played piano as a youngster), but these people do exist. One friend I have that works out a lot like me, he doesn’t listen to music on runs, for example, which is crazy to me. Not only do I listen to music on runs/TR, I have various playlists and various tracks depending on the type of workout or mood I’m in, etc
I’m at the point now where I’m even listening to music almost all the time I’m riding outdoors. Mainly because my outdoor rides are mainly training - I’m riding the same routes over and over - so I’m not there for scenery (it is very nice, it’s just not new) and riding with my bone conduction headphones has been great, especially when you’re doing some hard effort up a hill or putting down the gas on a flat and your favorite hype tune comes on.
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They are usually the same people that won’t pet a friendly dog.
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I suppose if there are loads of people that look at art and “meh” it’s conceivable a few do the same with music.
It’s just really hard to imagine.
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I think it’s a spectrum. I’m definitely towards the ‘not form emotional connection with music.’
I generally dont listen to music more than a couple days a week. I’ll put some on during brutally hard interval workouts like VO2 work where I cant really focus on anything, or maybe once a week in the car. Typically I’m watching shows/movies while on the trainer, and podcasts is I’m in the car or on a long solo bike ride. I’ll go to a concert maybe once a decade.
Zach Bryan
I love listening to music, but I am mostly a melody guy. Poetry and such doesn’t do much for me either, it just doesn’t click. I remember having to analyze a short story in high school, and my teacher was amazed that I noticed the two characters had been mirroring each other, and I deduced there was an attraction between them. (Really, me noticing that blew my teacher’s mind apparently.) But I didn’t “get” the rest of the story, so I got a D+ or C-, don’t remember.
Poetry, how about raw emotion? I still remember the first time hearing Montrose and AC/DC in a buddy’s basement and we used pool cues as guitars. Or during a 1991 business trip, sitting in a Stockholm hotel and turning on MTV and seeing Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and thinking OMG thats going to be a huge hit. Still gives me goose bumps, like remembering the party where I first heard the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Blood Sugar Sex Magic. I could go on and on…
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The melody carries most of the emotion for me. I remember a few songs blowing my mind with how the different layers interacted with one another. Cosmic Baby’s Both Sodes of the Atlantic or Ken Ishii’s Extra are sublime.
Occasionally, lyrics touch me deeply. Sarah McLachlan comes to mind, although I wouldn’t want to listen to her music on the bike.
And I’ve had workouts where I can’t tell you what was playing even if my life depended on it, but I can’t workout without music. I’m in the ‘angry music team’, and will sometimes play some very crazy hard music for tough workouts, and yet after it’s over, unless it really claws out of the effort, I won’t remember it. Pepper from Butthole Surfers was such a song actually.
It’s not that I think I have no emotional reaction, I just get into the combination?
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I’ve been a runner longer than a cyclist and it’s really common to come across the “Listening to music is for people who don’t like running and can’t be alone with their own thoughts” attitude. People are different and I’m not here to tell other people how to enjoy their own hobbies, but I struggle to not find statements like that more than a little pretentious. Dude, even me and my 3 sketchy brain cells can entertain both thoughts and a sweet jam at the same time. Music can help clarify and strengthen thoughts and emotions, which can be used to tackle a workout or failing that, put a productive spin on tough ones. Music is also a big interest of mine and a run is often the only time I’m able to listen to a complete album with few distractions, or the time a song finally ‘clicks’ and I see it in a whole new light. Brains are complex, interconnected things and finding a few things that become more than the sum of their parts is both powerful and pretty damn cool.
That being said I do have a rule about commencing vomit-inducing max efforts for the entire duration of Ace of Spades whenever it comes on shuffle and in absolute disregard for the intended session, so I’m not the guy to be harping on brains here.
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Arms of an Angel is perfect for hard efforts. I remember back in the 90s I used to workout at a gym full of powerlifters and one night the gym was playing a top 40 station and Jewel’s Foolish Games came on. Some beast covered in chalk turns to me and say he thinks he might start crying. 
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Ruined by those horrendous commercials
That’s interesting…what do you mean when you say “see a song in a whole new light?”
Cleary I’m not a music guy haha. There’s such a flood of new music as to be overwhelming honestly. I listen to the same bands i listened to in high school in the 90s for the most part. Should probably look for some new material…but the effort for reward has never really looked appealing to me.
Whatever gets the job done is fine in my book! 
One thing I noticed is that for intervals I prefer simpler music where neither the melody nor the lyrics (if there are any) are complicated.
Hehe!
It’s fascinating, isn’t it? Music has such a powerful impact on most of us, evoking emotions and memories. But yes, there are some people who might not experience strong emotional reactions to music, and that’s completely okay.
Just like how different foods appeal to different tastes, emotions triggered by music can also vary from person to person. It could be due to various factors like personal experiences, cultural background, or even how our brains are wired.
By the way, have you heard the bodhran drum sound? It’s an Irish drum with a unique rhythm. I get goosebumps every time I hear someone playing it.
I am sure it helps some people, but I have run for 25 years now and have never bothered even trying to take music with me. I have tried music on the indoor bike, but I found that during a harder effort I more or less tune it out as I get so focused on the effort itself. Or worse, songs I might otherwise find enjoyable begin to annoy me. Seems I just don’t have the mental bandwidth to absorb the music during a hard effort.
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