No Cure for Songs Stuck in Your Head

ALBANY, N.Y. - Unexpected and insidious, the earworm slinks its way into the brain and refuses to leave. Symptoms vary, although high levels of annoyance and frustration are common. There are numerous potential treatments, but no cure.

"Earworm" is the term coined by University of Cincinnati marketing professor James Kellaris for the usually unwelcome songs that get stuck in people's heads. Since beginning his research in 2000, Kellaris has heard from people all over the world requesting help, sharing anecdotes and offering solutions.

"I quickly learned that virtually everybody experiences earworms at one time or another," he said. "I think because it's experienced privately and not often a topic of conversation, maybe people really long for some social comparison. They want to know if other people experience what they experience."

Kellaris, whose most pervasive personal earworm (Byzantine chants) likely has something to do with his wife's job as a church choir director, has been interested in the topic of earworms for decades. As a musician who now studies how marketers reach the public, he began wondering how widespread stuck songs really are, and began doing small surveys in 2000.

Last year, he surveyed about 500 students, faculty and staff on campus asking about the type, frequency and duration of earworms, and possible causes and cures. Among the songs respondents picked as most likely to become stuck were: "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," the Chili's restaurant "baby back ribs" jingle and "Who Let the Dogs Out."

But the choice that topped the so-called "playlist from hell" was "Other," meaning the majority of those surveyed chose a unique song of their own as the most probable earworm. That led Kellaris to conclude that stuck songs are highly idiosyncratic.

"There are certain tunes that we would describe as catchy that are more likely to become one, but just about anything can become an earworm," he said.

The study, presented at conferences of the Society for Consumer Psychology in 2001 and 2003, showed:

"People with higher neuroticism scores tend to react to the onset of an earworm by saying 'Oh no, here it goes again, I wonder how long this is going to last,'" Kellaris said. "That fretting about it, I think, exacerbates it."

The atmosphere is ripe for earworms at Last Vestige, a music store just west of downtown Albany. As customers flipped through compact discs and records with markers displaying such subjects as "Elvis the Pelvis" and "Beatles Cash-in Copycats," employees Jim Kaufman and Charles Monroe ruminated on recent bouts with earworms.

"Top 40 pop, usually — stuff you wouldn't catch yourself listening to at home," said Kaufman, who named Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny From the Block" as a past stuck song. "Or stuff you're ashamed to admit listening to at home."

Both men said they get rid of earworms either by trying to ignore them or by playing a tune they enjoy. Monroe said an earworm "usually happens when I only hear the song for like a second, like if I go to the laundromat and I'm kind of in and out."

Kellaris heard similar stories after news of his study reached the public. He got hundreds of e-mails from the Philippines, South Africa, Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany, Argentina and all over North America. Among the messages:

_A company that provided background music for retail stores wanted to know how to avoid using music prone to becoming an earworm.

_Sufferers of a psychiatric condition where patients hear music when none is playing sent queries and case histories hoping Kellaris had found a way to cure or treat the disorder. The professor said the two are unrelated.

_Personal stories about earworms haunting individuals for weeks, months or years.

_Suggestions of how to cure an earworm, including chewing on a cinnamon stick, passing the earworm on to someone else or erasing the offending song by singing the theme from "Gilligan's Island."

For marketers, earworms can be a "double-edged sword," helpful if consumers look upon a memorable jingle favorably but with the potential to breed negativity toward a brand if the stuck song is viewed as annoying or unwelcome, said Larry Compeau, a marketing professor at Clarkson University and executive officer of the Society for Consumer Psychology.

"I think the trick with earworms or with any kind of piece of music in advertising is to make sure the music is going to trigger the kinds of emotions or feelings you want the consumer to experience," he said.

He said one theory is that stuck songs are "the brain's attempt to resolve missing information," and that retrieving the forgotten lyrics of a song will provide closure that "unsticks" an earworm.

In the same vein, there is a Rhino album (Rerun Rock) of "original" recordings of tv themes in the style of hit songs. It is not entirely successful in its efforts:

A similar project which *is* quite successful in its artistry is a series of playful albums by Delos International, which normally produces "serious" classical albums. I own their "Heigh-Ho! Mozart" and "Mozart TV" albums, and they're great. The first is 16 "Favorite Disney tunes in the style of Great Classical Composers", the second is 15 "Favorite TV tunes" (i.e., TV series theme songs) done the same way.

They're a real hoot, but done with enough skill and virtuosity that they're amazing. It's fun to listen to them without reading the track list first -- it's often surprisingly difficult to recognize TV jingles when they're performed in a manner outside their usual context. Then when you finally do recognize them, it's like a bomb going off in your head. It's also fascinating to see what a vast difference musical style can make to what is nominally the same melody, and how even the most insipid ditty can become something glorious if handled with artistry.

Besides being a lot of fun, these albums (and several others in the same vein by Delos) are practically a painless class in musical appreciation.

Excerpt from the liner notes:

Mr. Ed - in the style of Joaquin Rodrigo
Grant Gershon: The "Rodrigo" is right up there with I Love Lucy as -- on the surface -- the most unlikely combination of TV theme with composer invoked... to fashion Mr. Ed into a Rodrigo style guitar concerto! And yet, when I actually heard what Donald had done with it, it made perfect sense. It has a terrific amount of charm and wit. It invokes the Spanish style of guitar playing with fabulous integrity, and is a great display for the talents of Scott Tennant.
Donald Fraser: Mr. Ed is wonderful. It's done with tremendous fun and with character. At first, the tune suggested a bassoon. But you try out various things. Then someone rings up and suggests a guitar concerto! So it's a combination of the practical and the inspirational -- a balance.

The most ambitious piece on "Mozart TV" is a Mozart-styled piano concerto using Hill Street Blues for the first movement, M*A*S*H ("Suicide is Painless") as the slow movement, and The Brady Bunch as the Rondo/third movement.

Grant Gershon: The Brady Bunch is the perfect wedding of a goofy tune and a lighthearted form. The rondo movement of a Mozart piano concerto is always playful, always has a lot of wit and panache. The Brady Bunch tune is intrinsically Mozartian in a way: it's quite diatonic, and it's got a strong rhythmic flavor to it. It works very convincingly as a movement of a Mozart piano concerto.

Complete Contents

Friends (I'll Be There for You) in the style of Vivaldi
The X-Files in the style of Hovhaness
The Brady Bunch in the style of Mozart
M*A*S*H (Suicide Is Painless) in the style of Mozart
Hill Street Blues in the style of Mozart
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Love Is All Around) in the style of Satie
Cheers (Where Everybody Knows Your Name) in the style of J. Ireland
Mr. Ed in the style of Rodrigo
Bewitched in the style of Debussy
Jeopardy (Think Music) in the style of Handel
Star Trek: Voyager in the style of R. Strauss
Taxi (Angela's Theme) in the style of Villa-Lobos
I Love Lucy in the style of Purcell
Green Acres in the style of Joplin
The Jetsons in the style of Britten

Complete Contents

COLORS OF THE WIND from Pocahontas, in the style of Dvorák: New World Symphony I / Slavonic Dances (5:12)
HEIGH-HO! from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in the style of Mozart: Early String Quartets / Eine kleine Nachtmusik / Flute Quartet (2:44)
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in the style of Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Variation XVIII / Prelude in D, Op. 23 (3:58)
THE SECOND STAR FROM THE RIGHT from Peter Pan, in the style of Tallis: If Ye Love Me (2:10)
UNDER THE SEA from The Little Mermaid, in the style of Joplin: The Entertainer, Maple Leaf, and other rags (2:56)
I WANNA BE LIKE YOU from Jungle Book, in the style of Villa-Lobos: Choro No. 1 for Guitar / Bachianas Brasileiras (4:03)
CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT from The Lion King, in the style of Tchaikovsky: Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra / Swan Lake (4:59)
WITH A SMILE AND A SONG from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in the style of Chopin: Prelude in G, Op. 28 / Mazurka in g, Op. 67 No. 2 (2:36)
WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF? from The Three Little Pigs in the style of J. Strauss: Pizzicato Polka (2:39)
A DREAM IS A WISH YOUR HEART MAKES from Cinderella in the style of Grieg: Holberg Suite / Norwegian Dances (2:43)
MAIN STREET ELECTRICAL PARADE (BAROQUE HOEDOWN), Disneyland (tm) in the style of Vivaldi: Double Concerto for Guitar (Mandolins) / Concerto for Piccolo / Concerto in g for 2 Cellos (5:17)
FEED THE BIRDS (TUPPENCE A BAG) from Mary Poppins in the style of Brahms: Quintet in b for Clarinet and Strings / Quartet No. 3 in c for Piano and Strings (3:36)
LITTLE APRIL SHOWER from Bambi in the style of Handel: Harpischord Suites in g & E (Harmonious Blacksmith) / Entry of the Queen of Sheba (2:36)
WINNIE THE POOH in the style of Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf / Cinderella (2:32)
PRINCE ALI from Aladdin in the style of Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra / Allegro Barbaro / Hungarian Dances (3:04)
WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR from Pinocchio in the style of R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben / Also sprach Zarathustra / Der Rosenkavalier (4:55)

Other musicians (most notably jazz) have also been known to work up arrangements of songs. Dave Bruebeck did a whole album of Disney songs back in the 1950s and even Miles Davis covered "Someday My Prince Will Come". Davis also covered Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time and made a respectable song out of that.

I saw Clarence Gatemouth Brown this weekend at a free outdoor festival. He's 79 years old (and been recording for 56 years). He plays blues, country, cajun, zydeco, jazz, and swing (and guitar, fiddle, and manolin). In his performance, his songs made slight detours and musical references to "Pop Goes The Weasel" and "Georgia". Even his extended instrumental version of Unchained Melody is uniquely his.

I've also heard a good arrangement of Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are" as recorded by Frank Sinatra (and later Sam Butera).

By and large, today's "a-list" performers are nobodies. If the older practice of a "hit" being considered a "standard" (which everybody recorded) were still in effect, how many of these stars would be out classed and outsold by other artists doing their material? If a song is taken on the merits of the recording (and not the strength of the lyrics or musical hooks), would we still have the same "stars"?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.