I find music distracting when I work because I listen to it too actively, but I can imagine that a subtle regular pulse or beat might help. It would beed to be quiet and plain enough that it would not dominate my attention.
Even music without lyrics is distracting to me, but lyrics (if in a language I understand) definitely make it much worse.
Oddly enough, non-musical sounds (like birds or cars) don't affect me at all. I think it's the complex pattern-matching in music that is a problem for me. Of course, that's also what makes it so delightful to listen to.
For me it's more that the language processing centre in my brain is strongly single-threaded. Some non-verbal sounds do engage it, but there's a complexity threshold. Magpies chattering to each other do. Some classical music does, but not all by any means.
