A good question. People all have the right to possess some form of opinion over this and in my personal views of this, I think music occasionally should be listened to whilst working. Why? There are times when music in my opinion should not be listened to. When I mean appropriate times, I am talking about not listening to music when you're doing a past exam paper for example. You don't get to listen to music during an exam so obviously, it is better to reserve the music for later and adopt to the exam atmosphere to feel more comfortable in your actual exam so you maximise your potential.
However, times will be appropriate when you should listen to music and do work. For example, I don't see any problem listening to some form of music which you enjoy and aren't distracted by whilst you're doing your homework or assignment work. So long as you're completing the work which meets your expectations, i'm sure music isn't a problem. However, if you were listening to music and you weren't accomplishing what you expected to be done in that time frame, I would definitely recommend doing work in silence. I've been told that the greatest music in the world is indeed silence. We've all heard the common phrase 'Silence is golden'. In some cases I'm sure the phrase is right, but it all depends on the person's personal preference to music and work.
