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[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"39611","attributes":{"class":"media-image","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":"Why do songs get stuck in my head?"}}]] “That song is stuck in my head again!”
We’ve all been there. You’re going on about your day when you realize you’re singing, humming, whistling, or silently mouthing the words to a popular song. Now you can’t stop. That tune, also known as an earworm, is lodged into your brain, and there’s no way of knowing when it’s coming out. “Whyyyyy does this happen?” you ask. Today, we answer this question with help from Science Friday.
There is still much to be learned about earworms, but scientists are beginning to understand this annoying little trick our brains play on us.
While we might not be dancing or singing along when we listen to music, our brains are still actively participating. Elizabeth Margulis, director of the Music Cognition Lab at the University of Arkansas and author of On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind, explains to Science Friday, that “when people listen to music, ‘there’s a lot of activity in the motor planning regions.’”
Chances are the song you’re listening to is one you’ve heard before. And when we listen to a song over and over again, we begin to anticipate the following lyrics and melody. Even if you don’t hear a song in its entirety, your brain fills in where it left off and occasionally sets the song on repeat.
But it’s not just the number of times you listen to a song that causes your brain to press play and repeat. The songs that stick often have similar qualities. According to Science Friday, one study, led by Victoria Williamson, a visiting professor at Switzerland’s Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, found that earworms “tend to have notes with longer durations but smaller pitch intervals. This makes sense, she says, because these are two main features that make songs easier to sing, even for the musically untrained. ‘Fundamentally, an earworm is your brain singing,’ Williamson says.”
Williamson also points out that your brain might start singing most often when it is tired, stressed or not doing much else.
So how do you stop it?
Distract yourself. Try listening to another song or playing a crossword puzzle. If that fails, listen to the song that is stuck in your head. According to Science Friday, “because earworms are only fragments of music, listening to the entire track might relieve a person of repeating the same part in her head.”
Looking for more Never Stop Asking "Why?" questions? Catch up on all of the past "Whys" on the blog!
