I have had a Kacey Musgraves song
stuck in my head for two weeks, and it's making me crazy. Why is this
happening?
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First, some reassurance. You're
not alone. Research suggests that catchy songs that get lodged in your head -
colloquially known as earworms - are common, and can happen to people weekly or
even daily.
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"Some people wander around
with music in their head kind of constantly" said Ira Hyman, a
psychologist who studies the phenomenon at Western Washington University.
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Scientists don't fully understand
why earworms are so hard to shake. But certain songs are more likely than
others to set up shop in our heads. And the propensity to catch them can depend
on what you've recently listened to and what you're doing.
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It probably comes as no surprise
that the songs that insert themselves into our brains are typically songs we've
recently listened to.
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But it's also possible to get an
earworm after hearing a word or sound - or even experiencing a situation - that
reminds you of a particular song, said Callula Tingly, a postdoctoral research
fellow who studies earworms at the Queensland University of Technology in
Australia.
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Perhaps someone mentions Madonna,
and then you find yourself humming "Material Girl." Or you take a
bite of linguine that tastes exactly like the pasta you ate just before a
Taylor Swift concert, and suddenly you're singing "Shake It Off."
(While writing this piece, I couldn't stop singing Kylie Minogue's "Can't
Get You Out of My Head.")
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But don't expect to always
understand where the earworm originated. Often, it's "hard to know what
got it started," Dr. Hyman said.
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Research suggests that songs with
faster tempos - or longer, more sustained notes - are more likely to get stuck
in our heads.
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Yet songs usually only tend to
cause earworms when you're doing certain activities, Dr. Hy-man said. In one
small study of 16 undergraduate students, for instance, researchers had them
listen to a well-known song. The next day, the researchers asked them under
what, if any, circumstances the song had popped back into their heads. The
songs were most likely to arise as earworms when the participants were doing
tasks that typically cause the mind to wander.
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Sometimes it's a bit too easy to
create the right condition for an earworm. Dr. Hyman said. His colleagues have
approached him at the end of the day, right before his bike ride home, and have
sung "Who Let the Dogs Out" just to get the song stuck in his head
and it has worked. "I'm like, 'Stop that, I hate you," he said.
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Research suggests a few ways to
rid yourself of earworms. Gum chewing is one potential option. In a study
published in 2015, researchers had 18 undergraduates listen to a popular song
and then asked them to try not to think about the song for three minutes. Half
of the participants were given gum to "vigorously chew" during the
three minutes, and half were not. The participants who chewed gum were less
likely to report hearing the song in their heads.
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Emery Schubert, a psychologist at
the University of New South Wales, Australia, says earworms can proliferate
when our minds are unoccupied. So, it may help to put yourself in a different
state of mind - for instance, by entering a mildly stressful social situation.
"Start talking to someone you don't know very well," he said.
"If I had an earworm now and I spoke to you, I'd probably lose it."
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Melinda Moyer
