This is a subject that I've given considerable thought to. I can't listen to music and do anything that requires real concentration. Even driving, I have to be very selective about the times that the radio goes on.
Shopping in a large store is a misery for me - if I have to listen to that liquid s
e that they pump out at their customers. However, some people are different. I would suggest that they have little appreciation for good music, and they just let the trivial dross flow past them unprocessed - at any significant level at least.
Flying takes concentration of a particular sort. Critical phases, we all know that if you have a moment to spare, you shouldn't have...but even in the cruise, part of the mind needs to continually be soaking up all the clues. Until you are experienced, that will mean not diverting your attention, however boring that bit of the flight seems.
Even when experienced, part of the mind has to be permanently open to the more obscure clues that might be a portent to aviation's gotchas. These become automatic to some extent, but this is where the difference in people starts to show. I really concentrate on music...it soaks up far too much of my tiny brain. Mind you, if I heard a 100 year old Bosendorfer, I would know it's thick and thunderous tones immediately. I pride myself that I would also know if it was in tune. Too much of a diversion for me.
I would suggest, that while learning, or in the early stages of professional flying, NO being tempted by entertainment devices of any sort. Even the time messing with it's controls, might be a moment you'd wish you hadn't.
The first time I can remember putting my head down into the office of my training aircraft, was nearly catastrophic. When I looked up, the tail of a Tri-Pacer went under me, close enough for the aerial to touch. I was under radar control, and they hadn't seen him. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate, until you've developed a part of your brain that does it automatically.