Finding my Rhythm - playing music at work

Last weekend we were at a science museum, where the main theme was about music. This was a hands on sort of museum (not the "look and say ahhh!" sort), and it set my synapses firing rapidly.

Here's the proposition - playing music at the workplace helps make tedious tasks easier, and makes work more enjoyable. However, in the modern era, we're missing a soundtrack for the computerized/blackberry-ized workplace. What we have are 100 million ipods, with presumably gazillion songs inside. I'm not saying that there's a shortage of music that can be played at work. What I'm saying is that in a workplace that lacks rhythm, there is no one piece of music that can match the rhythm of work and elevate the quality of work. The modern workplace is like a communist gulag simply because of this lack of rhythm and music.

Having a soundtrack for one's life is not a strange idea at all, especially for those of us who grew up on bollywood fare. Depending on the time of day, the mood, the sunshine, the friends one has, the music that plays in the backdrop will change.

Having a soundtrack that matches work rhythm is not a strange idea either. Arguably, all rhythmatic music is designed for a specific type of work. Grain threshing, coal mining, rail-riding (remember Ashok Kumar's awesome "Rail Gaadi" song?), car driving, mail stamping, hunting, cooking, meditating, praying, rocking and rolling (er...baby making), ...you get the general idea. The musical rhythm needs to match work rhythm, making repetitive tasks easier to do over long periods of time.

Today's workplace is more "interrupt driven" than ever. That automatically means that there is no set rhythm to work. Conference call, email, IM, call, email, IM, call, call, lunch, coffee, call, IM, IM, email, call...there's no pattern. Where there is no pattern, there is no music - there's only noise.

Where there's no rhythm, there's no joy.