Posted on 02/24/2003 8:26:14 PM PST by InShanghai
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.
". . . you sure do shine."
Both done by. . . ?
... Seals and Crofts - our favorite music Bah'ais! Isn't Seals the brother of England Dan? I used to listen to them a lot in my mellow high school days. :-)
LOL! I told my husband the same thing when he bought me my little baby grand QRS Pianomation. It rocks!
sw
That is a favorite "bus song" at my daughter's summer camp. Other all time greatest hits include "99 bottles of beer on the wall" with the Muppet Treasure Island variation of "99 pieces of cheese", and "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves." Being stone deaf must be an occupational qualification of a camp bus driver.
I'm going backwards in time. My husband's giving me a harpsichord for our 25th anniversary. Since all I play is Baroque music anyhow, it should work out just fine.
Sugar Hill Gang - Rapper's Delight. Thanks a lot. (grin)
Could have been worse...."Its a small world, after all!"
I just drove 18 hours straight on Friday from FloriDUH, while my daughter watched "SpyKids 2" in the back seat...4 times...she mixed Cinderella 2 in between a couple of times... at this point, I can recite dialogue. :o(
There are portions of my brain devoted to "My Little Pony", that I will never have normal use of again.
You bastard - I'm pulling out the secret weapon:
Billy, don't be a hero, come back to me....
Aack.
The world is black. The world is white.
It turns by day, and then by night...
Evil, yes, but it's already been posted.
Hit me with something new. Like, say...
Ben, you're always running here and there.
You feel you're not wanted anywhere...
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