I've known this since I was 7 and started reading books, and couldn't sit in the living room because either (good) pop music was playing or the TV was on. Especially with my ADHD I take in a lot of the ambient world around me.

When I was reading books or anything as a teen in the 80's I started listening mostly to instrumental music, such as Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, ZTT 12"es with lots of instrumental content (FGTH/Propaganda/Art Of Noise etc.), Windham Hill albums, etc.

I've always told people to use instrumental music when doing cognitively demanding tasks, especially anything to do with language and words.