Have you ever found yourself with a song "stuck in your head". No matter what you try, you just can't seem to shake it! This catchy little ditty is often called an <em>earworm</em>.
Have you ever found yourself with a song “stuck in your head”. No matter what you try, you just can’t seem to shake it! This catchy little ditty is often called an earworm.
Often it is created from a song you just heard. Perhaps you were driving to the grocery store, and once inside, you find yourself pushing the shopping cart to Everybody Have Fun Tonight, by Wang Chung. What can be worse than that? A song you like even less such as the Silver Convention’s West German Euro disco hit with likely the most agonizing lyrics in the history of music… maybe even all time – the song: Fly Robin Fly.
According to folks who research this, nearly 98% of people have had this happen. Popular earworms according to Professor James J. Kellaris, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati, include Chili’s Baby Back Ribs jingle, and the Baha Men song Who Let the Dogs Out. Kelleris said songs with lyrics come in first as being stuck, then commercial jingles, and finally instrumental pieces, or tunes without words.
Here is a top-ten list of earworms from his studies:
1. Other. Everyone has his or her own worst earworm.
2. Chili’s “Baby Back Ribs” jingle.
3. “Who Let the Dogs Out”
4. “We Will Rock You”
5. Kit-Kat candy-bar jingle (“Gimme a Break …”)
6. “Mission Impossible” theme
7. “YMCA”
8. “Whoomp, There It Is”
9. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”
10. “It’s a Small World After All”
Also, he found, earworms irrated women more significantly than men, and episodes were for frequent and lasted long for musicians and music lovers. (“Slightly neurotic people also seemed to suffer more.”)
I get them all of the time! Let’s go with the reason is because I love music, though some may describe me as slightly neurotic – especially do to my life’s recent events.
While there is no known cure for this burrowing menace, many people try to finish the song in an attempt to get rid of it. My daughter can not remember the lyrics past the part that gets stuck in her head. I simply turn on the radio and find a better song when the earworms irritate me.
