driving taxi has some similarities.

-you can sometimes hear cars as they approach (windows down helps). don't merge into them.

-your attention is split between music and dispatch radio. listen to one or the other too much and you won't make money.

-people screaming at you. sometimes they are trying to hail your cab. who knew?

I disagree. Riding while listening to a music device on busy roads or where there are lots of people/cars around is dangerous. But listening to music say riding on a trail or bike track is perfectly fine. In fact
this has been discussed many times, and music is great for bike riding. It helps maintain speed and 'stamina', and makes riding more fun.

Yeah, your right there, just using a music device where traffic is and possibly other riders could be is a hazard. Riding with your music device at your local off road is fine, but if you have friends with you, make sure you can see where they are going, don't let the music distract you that much!

gotta love the trouble funk on the road.

I was considering getting an MP3 player at one time (even through trails have signs posted NOT to wear headphones).

Then one day I nearly had a nasty accident because I didn't hear a guy coming up from behind who did signal he was on my right. I realized that with headphones I surely WOULD have had an accident, so that's when I decided (even though it would be nice), I had to go without tunes.

I ride with headphones routinely in all kinds of conditions. Contrary to what the party line appears to be, heavy traffic seems to be the safest place for headphones that I have experienced.

I actually don't wear headphones out in the country anymore. Out there, there is rarely a shoulder, and you can hear cars coming a mile away. (literally sometimes) MUPs I try to avoid too, since there is some verbal communication that goes on between the users of the path. People passing me isn't a problem, since I ride on the right side, except when passing, in which case I have to do a visual check anyway. In heavy traffic though, it's almost impossible to get any useful information from sound. If I'm surrounded by dozens of cars, I'm not going to hear that a car is about to cut me off. The sound of cars can alert us that they are there, but in heavy traffic, we already know that there are cars everywhere. I guess if you like listening to the drone of engine noise go ahead, but I'll take music.

FWIW I've never been involved in a collision that was related to the headphones.
The most serious one I was in was a low speed collision when someone illegally (against a posted sign) right turned on red in to my path. Actually, I only hit them after they saw me and slammed on the brakes, and then it was too late. I saw them start moving and was planning to duck behind them, but when they abruptly stopped, I had nowhere to go.

hip hop/r&B... but only on trails... I don't listen to music when on open roads and in neighborhoods.