I listen to music non-stop while writing. This is because I live in a very noisy location, a flat above a petrol station on a busy road, with a car repair workshop twenty yards from where I sit. To add to the noise, the descent flight path to Newquay airport runs parallel to the site, about 500 yards away. If I had the funds, I'd move, but in the meantime I drown out the racket of revving engines, hammering mechanics, car horns, reversing beepers from lorries, screaming exhausts and turbo-prop passenger planes by piping loud music into my brain through earbuds.
I find that I can work if I know what sound is happening next, whereas random bangs, crashes and honks startle me. I listen to a wide range of music, including jazz, world, rock, film soundtracks, folk and heavy metal. I thought that I was perverse for being able to do this, but then found while reading Stephen King's On Writing that he does exactly the same thing!
I'd love to live somewhere peaceful, but I wonder if the quietness would be more disturbing to me than listening to Metallica.