Song Stuck in Your Head? You're Not Alone

Reuters ^ | Monday, Feb 24, 2003 | Alison McCook

[InShanghai]

 

Song Stuck in Your Head? You're Not Alone

By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The vast majority of people say they have been mentally tortured at one point in their lives by a song that keeps repeating itself over and over in their heads.

And new research shows that people most frequently plagued by this phenomenon are those with slightly neurotic tendencies , and people who enjoy and listen to music often.

These mental broken records are also more likely to play the first or last song we hear in different situations, such as the first song that comes on in the morning alarm, or the last song playing before we turn off the car, study findings show.

Songs that topped the list as being most likely to stick around in someone's head included the Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out?" and the Chili's restaurant jingle about Baby Back Ribs.

But the number one song rated most likely to cause this phenomenon, referred to as an "earworm" in Germany, is "other"--indicating that many different songs can become stuck in our heads.

"Just about anything can get stuck in people's heads," study author Dr. James Kellaris of the University of Cincinnati told Reuters Health.

"We each have our personal demonic tunes that get stuck in our heads, I guess," he added.

Kellaris presented results from his current study on Saturday at the Society for Consumer Psychology Winter Conference in New Orleans.

Kellaris's previous research into the phenomenon of earworms revealed that "sticky" songs are those that are relatively simple, repetitive, and contain an element that surprises the listener. This incongruous element can be an interrupted pattern, or something that violates expectations of what comes next.

During the current study, Kellaris distributed surveys to 559 people aged 18 to 49 asking them about their personalities, how often tunes got stuck in their heads, how long the episodes lasted, and when the phenomenon was most likely to happen.

Ninety-eight percent of respondents said they had experienced stuck songs. Most said the episodes occurred "frequently," and lasted an average of a few hours.

Songs with lyrics were most often the culprits, a trend that Kellaris said is not surprising. Often what gets sticky is not just a tune, but also lyrics, a trend he calls "stupid lyrics syndrome." Combining a tune and lyrics ups the chance of song snippets staying with the listener for hours, he said.

Episodes of earworms also tend to strike people with neurotic tendencies more often. These people are not seriously neurotic, Kellaris said, but may simply be more prone to worrying and anxiety, and may have neurotic habits like biting pencils or tapping fingernails.

Women were more likely than men to report feeling annoyed, frustrated, or irritated about having songs stuck in their heads--a trend Kellaris said he is hard pressed to explain.

In terms of how to protect yourself from earworms, Kellaris recommended that people not worry about a stuck song as soon as it appears, and perhaps avoid listening to music for a spell if it becomes too sticky.

Strategies people report using to rid themselves of stuck tunes involved trying to listen to something else, distracting themselves with another activity, and trying to erase the repetition of one song snippet by singing the song all the way through.

"If they can't remember the lyrics, sometimes it helps for them to sing through the entire song, and then it will go away," Kellaris said.

Kellaris said he has also heard a "folkloric" recommendation of chewing on cinnamon sticks to rid the brain of a sticky song.

"Some people swear that will unstick a stuck tune," he said.

[Marauder]

Roger Miller also had a tune called "In the Summertime" (I had forgotten about Mungo Jerry) and it was in the same type of staccato lyrics as he was always writing:

IN THE SUMMERTIME

In the summertime, when all the trees and leaves are green
And the redbird sings, I'll be blue
'Cause you don't want my love ...
Some other time, that's what you say, when I want you
Then you laugh at me and make me cry
'Cause you don't want my love.

You don't seem to care a thing about me
You'd rather live without me, than to have my arms around you
When the nights are cold and you're so all alone
In the summertime, when all the trees and leaves are green
And the redbird sings, I'll be blue
'Cause you don't want my love.

[InvisibleChurch]

...and bingo was his name-o

[Darnright]

"Syl-VEEEE-Ah's Motherrrrrr...." La la la

No kidding, I was just humming this tune under my breath (Ok, so I'm neurotic).

[A2J]

"I'm a joker, I'm a toker..."

[steve-b]

They're coming to take me away, ha ha....

[InShanghai]

Ohh Yuck! Rapper's Delight! My sister bought that album and played it over, and over, and over, and over....

That and the Village People's "YMCA"

[conservativejunkie]

They certainly are! The cats in the cradle. Ugh!

[Interesting Times]

See #104.

[Darnright]

"See #104."

Oh, man, someone ELSE has that wretched tune in their head? This thread brings up:

[Spoken:]
There's an old Australian stockman, lying, dying,
and he gets himself up on one elbow,
and he turns to his mates,
who are gathered 'round him and he says:


Watch me wallabys feed mate.
Watch me wallabys feed.
They're a dangerous breed mate.
So watch me wallabys feed.
Altogether now!


Tie me kangaroo down sport,
tie me kangaroo down.
Tie me kangaroo down sport,
tie me kangaroo down.


Keep me cockatoo cool, Curl,
keep me cockatoo cool.
Don't go acting the fool, Curl,
just keep me cockatoo cool.
Altogether now!


Take me koala back, Jack,
take me koala back.
He lives somewhere out on the track, Mac,
so take me koala back.
Altogether now!


Let me Abos go loose, Lou, *
let me Abos go loose.
They're of no further use, Lou,
so let me Abos go loose.
Altogether now!


Mind me platypus duck, Bill,
mind me platypus duck.
Don't let him go running amok, Bill,
mind me platypus duck.
Altogether now!


Play your digeridoo, Blue,
play your digeridoo.
Keep playing 'til I shoot thro' Blue,
play your digerydoo.
Altogether now!


Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred,
tan me hide when I'm dead.
So we tanned his hide when he died Clyde,
(Spoken) And that's it hanging on the shed.
Altogether now!

[Elsie]

MEOW,

 

MEow,

 

Meow,

 

meow

[THUNDER ROAD]

How about that old commercial for a childs toy.

Inch Worm Inch Worm,,,I'm Telling you True !
Inch Worm , I love you ,,,
Inch Worm I love you !!

There... that should ruin the rest of your day !

.....THUNDER......

[Tax-chick]

chug-a-lug chug-a-lug
make you wanna holler hi-dee-ho!
burns your tummy don'cha know
chug-a-lug chug-a-lug

(maybe) true story about "Dang Me,"
Roger Miller and Johnny Cash were driving across the desert from one show to another, and suddenly Roger Miller said, "Stop! I gotta do something." So they stopped, and he disappeared into the brush and was gone so long Cash went to sleep. He finally came back and said, "I had to write a song right away!" So Cash asked him to sing it:
"Dang me! Dang me! They oughtta take a rope and hang me!"
"Man, you need a doctor!"
(vaguely recalled from "Cash")

[bwteim]

LOL. I would have responded sooner, but now I have that darned Hey-la, hey-la on my mind.... :) Looks like you may have a winning hand.

[Chemist_Geek]

I ran so far away!

And I ran,
I ran so far aaaa-way
I just ran,
I ran all night and daa-y
I couldn't get away.

[AnAmericanMother]

o o o o . . . . Pachelbel's "Canon" .

Sorry, I'm just about maxed out on that one.

Our choirmaster does a "cocktail lounge version" of it that is lie down on the floor and howl funny. We told him he needs to put a brandy snifter on the corner of the organ for tips . . .

My problem with tunes stuck in my head is that I can't get rid of the Sunday anthems for a day or so afterwards. I don't much care for the modern stuff (Jane Marshall's "Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven" is pretty rough, that was last Sunday's offertory) but the real problem is that I sing alto, so the alto line is what's stuck. So sometimes it's not even really a tune. Fortunately, the communion anthem was Richard Farrant's "Hide Not Thou Thy Face O Lord" which is not only beautiful but has a delightful moving alto line. So I cheerfully carolled that all the way to work.

[beaversmom]

Yes, it was the Bilbo Baggins song--I couldn't think of the guy's name. Thanks. You know those things can drive you nuts if don't come up with the correct answer.

[bootless]

And what about The Hampster Dance tune.

You must have been listening to Radio Disney last night. After I gave up sitting at the computer very late last night, that's what they played! (heheheheheheh) My son loves it!

[bootless]

"You're the poetry man..."

Phoebe Snow. I *hate* that song!

[savedbygrace]

I got the first line wrong in #14, didn't I? Shouldn't it be, "This is the song that never ends"? That rhymes better with the second line, "It just goes on and on, my friends."

[bootless]

Sister Janet Mead, of course. It played incessantly my sophomore year of high school! Don't Say You Don't Remember" by Beverly Bremers?

I guess I don't remember! Lucky me! :-)