You can give it a try with the amazing Infinite Jukebox! Here's a perennial favourite, "Call Me Maybe": http://labs.echonest.com/Uploader/index.html?trid=TRORQWV137...

(I will not be held accountable for your resulting lapse into total insanity after 20 minutes or so.)

I remember spending a shift (in a kitchen) listening to nothing but "Going Loco Down In Acapulco". The challenge being to not break before someone else did.

You gotta just commit to the song.

The only song I can do this with is "My Favourite Game" by the Cardigans. Spent too much time as a kid playing long races on Gran Turismo 2, and it was always my favorite track.

I think it's because there are really only about 2-3 parts to the song. It doesn't really build up or down... it's a bit flat. And given that it's flat, you almost don't notice when it loops.

I think it more about placating part of your brain so the other bits can get on with the task at hand.

Number 2 is the default way I listen to music - I put a song on a loop and change it when I grow tired of hearing it. For new songs this means couple of hours to couple of days; for the ones I'm familiar with it's usually something around an hour.

I've done 2(repeat same song or a couple songs) for a few hours with early foo fighter while coding.

Repeating "X-Static" and "Exhausted" which have a slow plodding droning kind of sound worked for grinding out some lotus script (that was a while ago....)

I can’t recall if it was like hell getting into this habit at first. But it’s so ingrained now that it’s kind of like greasing the pan before you start cooking.