Earworm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Earworm (disambiguation).

An earworm, sometimes known as a brainworm,[1] is a catchy piece of music that continually
repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing.[2] Phrases used to describe an
earworm include musical imagery repetition, involuntary musical imagery, and stuck song
syndrome.[1][3][4] The word earworm is a calque from the German Ohrwurm[5] and, according
to Oliver Sacks, was first used in the 1980s.[1]
Researchers who have studied and written about the phenomenon include Theodor Reik,
[6]
Sean Bennett,[7] Oliver Sacks,[1] Daniel Levitin,[8] James Kellaris,[9] Philip Beaman,[10] Vicky
Williamson,[11] and, in a more theoretical perspective, Peter Szendy.[12] The phenomenon is
common and should not be confused with palinacousis, a rare medical condition caused by
damage to the temporal lobe of the brain that results in auditory hallucinations.[13]
Contents
[hide]

1 Research and cures

2 Notable cases

3 In popular culture

4 See also

5 References

6 Further reading

7 External links

Research and cures[edit]

According to research by James Kellaris, 98% of individuals experience earworms. Women
and men experience the phenomenon equally often, but earworms tend to last longer for
women and irritate them more.[14] Kellaris produced statistics suggesting that songs with lyrics
may account for 73.7% of earworms, whereas instrumental music may cause only 7.7%. [15]
In a 2006 book by Daniel Levitin entitled This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human
Obsession, he states that research has shown musicians and people with obsessive
compulsive disorder (OCD) are more likely to suffer from earworm attacks. An attack usually
involves a small portion of a song, a hook, equal to or less than the capacity of one's auditory
short-term memory. Levitin reports that capacity as usually 15 to 30 seconds. Simple tunes are
more likely to get stuck than complex pieces of music. He also mentions that in some
situations, OCD medications have been known to minimize the effects. [8] In 2010, published
data in the British Journal of Psychology directly addressed the subject, and its results support
earlier claims that earworms are usually 15 to 30 seconds in length. [10]

Scientists at Western Washington University found that engaging the working memory in
moderately difficult tasks (such as anagrams, Sudoku puzzles, or reading a novel) was an
effective way of stopping earworms and of reducing their recurrence.[16][17] Another publication
points out that melodic music has a tendency to demonstrate repeating rhythm which may lead
to endless repetition, unless a climax can be achieved to break the cycle. [18]
Research reported in 2015, by the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences at
the Universoty of Reading, suggested that chewing gum could help.[19]

Notable cases[edit]
Jean Harris, who murdered Herman Tarnower, was obsessed by the song "Put the Blame on
Mame", which she first heard in the film Gilda. She would recall this regularly for over 33 years
and could hold a conversation while playing it in her mind. [20]

In popular culture[edit]
This article may contain excessive, poor, or irrelevant examples. Please improve the
article by adding more descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. See
Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions. (January 2015)
Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Imp of the Perverse" (1845) has the following:
It is quite a common thing to be thus annoyed with the ringing in our ears, or rather in our
memories, of the burthen of some ordinary song, or some unimpressive snatches from an
opera. Nor will we be the less tormented if the song in itself be good, or the opera air
meritorious.
Mark Twain's 1876 story "A Literary Nightmare" (also known as "Punch, Brothers, Punch") is
about a jingle that one can get rid of only by transferring it to another person.
In Robert Graves' memoir Good-Bye to All That (1929) he recorded that as he marched to
battle in September 1915, "The men were singing...comic songs... Slippery Sam, When we'eve
Wound up the Watch on the Rhine, and I do like a S'nice S'mince Pie. The tune of S'nice
S'mince Pie ran in my head all week and I could not get rid of it." During the battle he wrote,
"We waited on the fire step...for the order to go over. My mind was a blank, except for the
recurrence of S'nice S'mince Pie, S'nice S'mince S'pie. The men laughed at my singing. The
acting C.S.M. said: "It's murder, sir." "Of course it's murder, you bloody fool," I agreed. "But
there's nothing else for it is there?""
In Henry Kuttner's short story "Nothing but Gingerbread Left" (1943), Kuttner imagines a secret
allied effort against Nazi Germany using a catchy rhyme to break the opposition's
concentration.[21] English speakers were safe from the earworm, as the text did not scan in
English.
In Alfred Bester's 1953 novel The Demolished Man, the protagonist uses a jingle specifically
crafted to be a catchy, irritating nuisance as a tool to block mind readers from reading his mind.
In Arthur C. Clarke's 1957 science fiction short story "The Ultimate Melody", a scientist, Gilbert
Lister, develops the ultimate melody one that so compels the brain that its listener becomes
completely and forever enraptured by it. As the storyteller, Harry Purvis, explains, Lister
theorized that a great melody "made its impression on the mind because it fitted in with the
fundamental electrical rhythms going on in the brain." Lister attempts to abstract from the hit
tunes of the day to a melody that fits in so well with the electrical rhythms that it dominates
them completely. He succeeds and is found in a catatonic state from which he never awakens.
[22]

In Fritz Leiber's Hugo Award-nominated short story "Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee" (1959),

the title describes a rhythmic drumbeat so powerful that it rapidly spreads to all areas of human
culture, until a counter-rhythm is developed that acts as an antidote. [23]
In Joe Simpson's 1988 book Touching the Void, he talks about not being able to get the tune
"Brown Girl in the Ring" by Boney M out of his head. The book tells of his survival, against the
odds, after a mountaineering accident in the remote Siula Grande region of South America.
Alone, badly injured, and in a semi-delirious state, he is confused as to whether he is imagining
the music or really hearing it.[24]
In the Seinfeld episode "The Jacket" (season 2, episode 3), George Costanza (Jason
Alexander) walks around singing "Master of the House" from the musical Les Misrables,
telling his friend, Jerry Seinfeld, that he cannot get the song out of his head. Later, Costanza
accidentally sings the song in front of their friend Elaine's hard-nosed father, Alton Benes
(Lawrence Tierney), prompting Benes to quip, "Pipe down, chorus boy." At the end of the
program, Benes is shown singing the song while driving home alone, having apparently
"caught" the earworm from Costanza.[25][26]
In episode 20 of season 7 of SpongeBob SquarePants, entitled "Ear Worm" (2010),
SpongeBob gets a song stuck in his head called "Musical Doodle". [27] The episode refers to the
earworm as a physical creature that enters one's head upon listening to a catchy song.
In Dexter's Laboratory, Season 4 Episode 13 entitled "Head Band", a contagious group
of viruses force their host to sing what they are saying to the same "boy band" tune. The only
way to be cured of the Boy Band Virus is for the viruses to break up and start their own solo
careers.[28]
In the Married... with Children episode "Oldies But Young 'Uns" (Season 5, Episode 17; airdate
March 17, 1991), Al Bundy becomes obsessed with finding out the name of a song that has
become his earworm (originally he can only tell people the nondescript misheard lyric "hmm
hmm him"). It turns out to be "Anna (Go to Him)" byArthur Alexander.
E.B. White's 1933 satirical short story "The Supremacy of Uruguay" (reprinted in Timeless
Stories for Today and Tomorrow) relates a fictional episode in the history of Uruguay where a
powerful earworm is discovered in a popular American song: "thanks for unforgettable nights I
never can replace." The Uruguayan military builds a squadron of pilotless aircraft armed
with phonographs playing a highly amplified recording of the earworm, and conquers the entire
world by reducing the citizens of all nations to mindless insanity. "[T]he peoples were
hopelessly mad, ravaged by an ineradicable noise ... No one could hear anything except the
noise in his own head."[29]
An article by ZME Science identified the following as factors of a song being catchy: longer and
detailed musical phrases; higher number of pitches in the chorus hook; male vocalists; and
higher male voices with noticeable vocal effort. Using these factors, it was concluded that
British rock band Queen's "We Are The Champions" is the catchiest song in history.[30]

See also[edit]

Ide fixe (psychology)

Phonological loop

Tetris effect

References[edit]
1.

^ Jump up to:a b c d Sacks, Oliver (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. First
Vintage Books. pp. 4148. ISBN 978-1-4000-3353-9.

2.

Jump up^ "Oxford Dictionaries: "earworm"". Oxford University Press. Retrieved July
4,2013.

3.

Jump up^ Liikkanen, L. A. (2012). "Inducing involuntary musical imagery: An

experimental study" (PDF). Musicae Scientiae 16 (2): 217
234.doi:10.1177/1029864912440770. edit

4.

Jump up^ Liikkanen, Lassi A. (2008). "Music in Everymind: Commonality of Involuntary

Musical Imagery" (PDF). Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Music Perception
and Cognition (ICMPC 10) (Sapporo, Japan): 408412. ISBN 978-4-9904208-0-2.

5.

Jump up^ "earworm", wordspy.com

6.

Jump up^ Reik, Theodor (1953). The Haunting Melody: Psychoanalytic Experiences in
Life and Music. New York: Grove Press.

7.

Jump up^ Bennett, Sean (August 30, 2002). Musical Imagery Repetition (Master).
Cambridge University.

8.

^ Jump up to:a b Levitin, Daniel (2006). This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a
Human Obsession. New York, New York: Dutton, Penguin. ISBN 0452288525. RetrievedAugust
7, 2012.

9.

Jump up^ Kellaris, James J. (Winter 2001). "Identifying Properties of Tunes That Get
'Stuck in Your Head'". Proceedings of the Society for Consumer Psychology (Scottsdale, AZ:
American Psychological Society): 6667.

10.

^ Jump up to:a b Beaman, C. P.; Williams, T. I. (2010). "Earworms (stuck song

syndrome): Towards a natural history of intrusive thoughts". British Journal of
Psychology 101(4): 637. doi:10.1348/000712609X479636. edit

11.

Jump up^ Chatterjee, Rhitu (6 March 2012). "Earworms: Why songs get stuck in our
heads". BBC News. Retrieved 7 March 2012.

12.

Jump up^ Szendy, Peter (2012). Hits. Philosophy in the Jukebox. translated by William
Bishop. Fordham University Press.

13.

Jump up^ Moore, David R.; Fuchs, Paul Paul Albert; Rees, Adrian; Palmer, Alan; Plack,
Christopher J. (January 21, 2010). The Oxford Handbook of Auditory Science: The Auditory
Brain. Oxford University Press. p. 535. Retrieved July 3, 2013.

14.

Jump up^ Adams, Cecil (October 16, 2009), "Why do songs get stuck in your
head?", The Straight Dope

15.

Jump up^ Hoffman, Carey (2001-04-04). "Songs That Cause The Brain To 'Itch': UC
Professor Investigating Why Certain Tunes Get Stuck In Our Heads". University of Cincinnati.
Retrieved 2012-08-06. Of the 1,000 respondents, the kind of music respondents said they got
stuck on most recently were songs with lyrics for 73.7 percent, jingles or ads for 18.6 percent
and an instrumental tune for 7.7 percent.

16.

Jump up^ Gray, Richard (24 March 2013). "Get that tune out of your head - scientists
find how to get rid of earworms". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 25 March 2013.

17.

Jump up^ Got a song stuck in your head? Solving an anagram can help get rid of it,
Daily Mail, 24 March 2013

18.

Jump up^ Levitt, Stephan M. (1993). Machine Models of Music. MIT Press.
p. 174. ISBN 978-0-262-19319-1. |first2= missing |last2= in Authors list (help)

19.

Jump up^ [1]

20.

Jump up^ Daz de Chumaceiro, Cora L. (October 16, 2004). "Jean Harris' Obsessive
Film Song Recall". PsyArt.

21.

Jump up^ "Nothing but Gingerbread Left" (BLOG), Tenser, said the Tensor, May 23,
2004

22.

Jump up^ Chorost, Michael, "The Ultimate Melody by Arthur C. Clarke", The Web site
of aleph

23.

Jump up^ Pretor-Pinney, Gavin (2010), The Wavewatcher's Companion, Bloomsbury

Publishing, p. 218, ISBN 978-0-7475-8976-1

24.

Jump up^ Simpson, Joe (1988). Touching the Void.

25.

Jump up^ Michael Dunne, "Seinfeld as Intertextual Comedy", Seinfeld, Master of Its
Domain: Revisiting Television's Greatest Sitcom (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010), p. 51.

26.

Jump up^ "The Jacket", Seinfeld Scripts. Retrieved: 4 June 2014.

27.

Jump up^ "Ear Worm: Musical Doodle". Nick.com. Retrieved July 18, 2012.

28.

Jump up^ "Dexter's Laboratory: Head Band / Stuffed Animal House / Used
Ink". TV.com. Retrieved 29 May 2014.

29.

Jump up^ "The Supremacy of Uruguay". www.armandobronca.com. Retrieved January

17,2014.

30.

Jump up^ Puiu, Tibi (October 3, 2011). "ZME Science". Retrieved September 23, 2012.

Further reading[edit]

Vadim Prokhorov (22 June 2006), "Can't get it out of my head", The Guardian

Divya Singhal (December 8, 2011), Why this Kolaveri Di: Maddening Phenomenon of
Earworm

External links[edit]

Lassi A. Liikkanen, The World of Involuntary Musical Imagery Research

"Earworms in TV and pop culture". TVtropes.com.

Margulis, Elizabeth Hellmuth (January 16, 2014), "Why Songs Get Stuck in Your
Head", The Atlantic
[hide]

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