Musing on Music

[anarchist_nomad]

I have been thinking about earworms recently. In particular, I have been wondering two things:

1. Why does a particular song sometimes get stuck in my head? Sometimes I wake up and find that an earworm has taken hold overnight, with no apparent rhyme[*] or reason.
   
2. Why do I get recurring earworms? There are several songs that just come back to me from time to time. For instance, I frequently find Suddenly Seymour, from Little Shop of Horrors, floating through my brain.

Does anyone else find themselves vulnerable to these things? Or is it just me?

While I am on the topic of music, here is another "Is it just me?" question: It seems that, for every romantic relationship of significance that has ended in a break-up, I have a song that conveys the spirit of the relationship ending[**]. Is this normal? Or is this just me being weird?

---

[*] Besides one that might be in the song itself.

[**] And, no, I am not going to share the details of the relationships, or the songs, on LiveJournal. Though I might spill the beans if you strike up a conversation about it in person.

Comments

[skitten.livejournal.com]

I wake up with a tune in my head nearly every morning... *lol* sometimes it takes a while for them to go away...Bu is very good a getting a *much* worse one stuck there instead...

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

You know... it just doesn't surprise me to learn that about Bu! *grin*

[envoy.livejournal.com]

It took me a long time to reclaim St. Patricks Day by John Mayer.

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

I understand. To this day, I cannot listen to Vertical Horizon's Everything You Want. Although most of the time, I find that my break up "theme songs" are not terribly painful... but more bittersweet sad, if that makes sense.

[winewiskeywomen.livejournal.com]

La Vie En Rose was bouncing around upstairs for 3 days last week- and that answers both questions.

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

Brevity is the soul of wit, old friend! And you are witty, indeed!

[imandunewen.livejournal.com]

the small part of "a little priest" from sweeney todd that i know has been harassing me for the better part of a week now and won't leave. it's starting to bother people around me. i need help.

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

I am embarrassed to admit that I am not yet familiar with Sweeney Todd, despite having imported the MP3s from the original cast recording onto my iPod. Also, I didn't get around to seeing the movie while I was in the States, and it won't open here until the end of next week. But, hey, if you are going to get an earworm, Sondheim is a good choice!

[bammba-m.livejournal.com]

It's because your iBrain only came with "repeat" and not "shuffle"

The recurrence of the same particular earworms is probably because your iBrain came with a faulty or cheap or beta version memory set with regards to the repeat function. Alternatively, you might be trying to use a PC memory set with your iBrain, which is only compatible with MacMemory.


(duh)


i find trying to think up another song, or listening to the offending song usually banishes annoying earworms.

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

I'm just going to sit over here and watch your brilliance in rapt admiration. Any wit I could attempt in response would just pale by comparison.

(And I know I've said it before, but I do love that icon!)

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Whatever it is that makes a song "catchy" is the same thing that turns the song into an earworm. And, of course, the composers of popular music want their songs to be catchy, or at the very least to have a good "hook" (the musical phrase that gets stuck in your brain).

The only way to get rid of an earworm is to replace it with something worse. Useful songs for that are things like "Yummy Yummy Yummy (I've Got Love In My Tummy)", "The Song That Doesn't End", the chanted ending of "Hey Jude", "99 Bottles Of Beer", or almost any song by Nirvana ;-)

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

Possibly an example of the cure being worse than the disease! *grin*

[squeektoy42.livejournal.com]

Ooooo...*cracks fingers* ;-)

Well...there are lots of theories on the reasons why songs get stuck in our heads. Neurologically speaking some believe that because the general person can't help but have an emotional response to music that whenever the emotion evoked by a song is felt or sensed(even in our subconscious) that the song/songs we have associated with that emotion will come back to us. And if there is a particular song that you like AND that evokes a common emotion for you, that song will pop up often. Also, waking up with a song in our heads is thought to maybe happen because we hear something that reminds us of it in our sleep, or in dreams something happens that the same effect. Realize, of course, these are all theories that people who study the brain/music have come up with because it's a rather hard thing to really nail down a concrete answer, or even how to organize a study. (But that doesn't keep us crazy musician types from still talking about this and trying to study it!)

It seems that, for every romantic relationship of significance that has ended in a break-up, I have a song that conveys the spirit of the relationship ending[**]. Is this normal? Or is this just me being weird?

I have a theory on this...there are more good songs written about the end of a relationship than about the beginning/existence of one. Hence why it is easier to find the right one for when a break-up happens. I don't understand why composers have such a difficult time but seriously...throughout most genre's of music it's really difficult to find really great, honest love songs that don't drive you nuts. But the end of love...there are some incredible songs out there.

And I hope I haven't gone too crazy in my response...

[posicat.livejournal.com]

I'd guess because the beginning of love only lasts for a short time, while the end can stick with you for years.

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

Too crazy in your reply? I don't think so! Yours competes with that by Posicat (below) and Bamm (above) as the best reply to this entry.

So you "crazy musician types" talk about this thing often, then?

I like your theory on end-of-relationship songs versus beginning-of-relationship ones.

By the way, speaking of earworms, I've been having some OMD floating through my synapses of late.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

*gasp* "Suddenly Seymour" has been a reliable if sporadic earworm for me for *years* in spite, probably because of, how horrible it is.

HOW DID YOU KNOW??

(The breakup song thing sounds quite normal, though)

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

Okay, I am duly impressed. You're a fellow Anarchist and you also have Suddenly Seymour as a recurring earworm. We may be the only two humans on the planet who satisfy both criteria! :-) Clearly we need to hang out at some point...

And, of course, this conversation puts said song right back into my head!

Lift up your head,
Take off your mascara.
Here take my Kleenex,
Wipe that lipstick away...

Here we go again! *grin*

[blur01.livejournal.com]

I dont listen to the LSoH sound track that often so I dont know those songs off the top of my head so they rarely get stuck for me. For other reasons I do sometimes get the dentist's song going in my head. *smile*

The other songs / music I like to call "the sound track to my life". For a while I would post what song I woke up from my dream singing. Not that the songs have stopped but I have stopped posting them.

I was explaining to someone the other day, as I pulled my ear buds out of my ears and paused the iPod...Im pretty sure that I would sieze up and fall over if I had to go for too long without music. Its such an important part of my life and has been since almost as early as I can rememeber. At the age of 4 I was given my own radio and told I could tune to any radio station I wanted. So I did.

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

The dentist song is just such a wonderful classic! I can completely see why that earworm might strike you. I think of it every time I go to get my teeth looked at.

I like your description of the "soundtrack to your life." cheshcat has something similar -- she takes significance from the random songs she encounters, thrown her way by the Sound Designer of her life.

Given a radio at the age of four, huh? Better than setting a kid down in front of the television!

[posicat.livejournal.com]

I would guess that certain patterns in the music reinforce neural connections that recognize patterns. This may be one of those structures that have evolved in our mind to remember music, it is a method of archiving information in tribal man (us included). If this pattern is sensitive enough random background noise may trigger the neurons to fire rather than the song itself. Remembering the song itself may trigger that memory over and over as well, making the connection even stronger, this would be useful for archival as the song (in theory stored information) would be self-reinforcing. (Yes, I took an AI programming class in college, why do you ask?)

So, essentially we're neural-net core memory re-freshing it's memory state.

This has no basis in cold hard fact, but it seems a likely theory of the nature of the phenomenon.

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

Dude, what do you do professionally? And why isn't it cognitive psychology??

Sesame Street songs

[frogcastle.livejournal.com]

Oh, also Sesame Street songs can be fun earworms to torture other people with. I can't tell you how fun it is to start singing "C is for Cookie and that's good enough for me" and then have people singing it days later. *insert maniacal laughter here*

Re: Sesame Street songs

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

Many of the Sesame Street songs are awesome! Consider me a lifelong fan! Sure, there are classics like Rubber Duckie and C is for Cookie... but there are a lot of other good ones out there, too. I was particularly fond of the Bert & Earnie Sing-Along (http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Bert_and_Ernie_Sing_Along) album -- released the year we were born -- and can sometimes find some of these rarer songs (not re-released elsewhere) popping into my head.

And, and about your deliberate attempts to infect people with earworms... Well, all I can say is "Wow." That is so uncharacteristically evil of you! :-)

Another Solution

[frogcastle.livejournal.com]

But if you don't want earworms - and I still think that term is awful and reminds me of a nasty parasite - another solution is to stop listening to the same music over and over. That's a habit that's just asking for it. I mean, come on! Doesn't it get on your nerves the 5th time you hear a song in the same day? It makes me want to bite someone's head off, which is another huge reason I subscribe to xm radio.

Re: Another Solution

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

But if you don't want earworms another solution is to stop listening to the same music over and over.

You've got a point. You also have a much larger taste in music than I do. (Which most people seem to, I think)

Doesn't it get on your nerves the 5th time you hear a song in the same day?

Depends on the song. Sometimes I like to listen to the same song, or playlist, several times in a row. For instance, when I start listening to the list of our songs, I can go through it more than once easily... because it makes me think of you, and that is a very happy thing!

It makes me want to bite someone's head off, which is another huge reason I subscribe to xm radio.

Hee, hee! You sounds like a commercial!

(Love you!)

[chezelliott.livejournal.com]

I am currently subjecting myself to the ultimate earworm generator: VH1's Greatest Hits of the 80s (you should know that "Time After Time" is #19). I must also confess a secret weakness for VH1's "One-Hit Wonders" and some of the Time-Life music informercials, mostly because they make me reminisce, in a good-ish way.
And I love "Suddenly Seymour." Ellen Greene has the most amazing set of pipes, and I love the way the song goes from kitschy to almost operatic.
Go see "Enchanted." It's a bit predictable, but who can pass up watching Disney poke fun at themselves? And there's a dragon!

[anarchist-nomad.livejournal.com]

I am currently subjecting myself to the ultimate earworm generator: VH1's Greatest Hits of the 80s

Now that sounds like something I would very much enjoy!

you should know that "Time After Time" is #19

Very cool -- it is a great song! Also cool that you have a comment referring to two entries! Very meta! :-)

And I love "Suddenly Seymour." Ellen Greene has the most amazing set of pipes, and I love the way the song goes from kitschy to almost operatic.

I know! She has a fantastic voice... and spends most of the show pretending to be this ditsy little squeeker! Then suddenly she lets it all go! How can you not love that?

Go see "Enchanted." It's a bit predictable, but who can pass up watching Disney poke fun at themselves? And there's a dragon!

Okay, will do!