Background
The background (aka wallpaper) of a website is an important part of the overall design. You don't want something to take away the readers eye from the content of your page, but on the other hand a nice background can add greatly to the design.
Background Color
To place a background with color use the code: bgcolor: #000000 within the <body> tag where #000000 is the name or hexidecimal (aka hex) you wish to use. Such as <body bgcolor: #000000>.
Some useful hex colors are:
#000000 = Black
#FFFFFF = White
#FF0000 = Red
#0000FF = Blue
#FFFF00 = Yellow (Not recommended for backgrounds)
#008000 = Green
#800080 = Purple
Background Image
To use an image as a background use: background: cow.jpg within the <body> tag like this: <body background: cow.jpg>. Where cow.jpg equals the url which the image is located. Use this within the <body> tag as well.
You may also repeat or norepeat the image for a tile effect or have a fixed position using CSS.
Background Music
If you wish to use background music, which I can't say too often that it is NOT recommended, please use this code: <bgsound src="yourmusicfile.mid" loop="infinite">.