Why do songs get stuck in our head?
In: Biology
These songs are called earworms, or involuntary musical imagery. One of the reasons you’re even hearing the song is because it’s a popular tune, it’s created with a certain catchy rhythm or relatable lyrics that make them easy to remember and more importantly, hard to forget.
Perhaps you remember it because you’ve heard it so many times, or maybe its lyrics connect you with a strong previous memory of something else so it’s an easy mental pathway to follow. Sometimes your brain is tired so it just latches onto something easy to repeat and plays it over and over as sort of self-stimulation (aka stimming). Your brain is trying to relax you but may sometimes be driving you nuts instead. The more you try not to think about it, the worse it gets.
I have this happen to me all the time, every day. If I’m in a place where familiar background music is playing and I leave to a place where there’s no music, the last song I hear will repeat a chorus or phrase over and over again, and the only way I get rid of it is by listening to something else. I used to combat this by changing the lyrics in my head as I hear it… one of my favorite exercises is to pretend it’s being sung by cats and try to slip “meow” into the lyrics (Guns and Roses may sing “Where do we go? Where do we go, meow?”)
If you’ve never experienced this before with any intensity, allow me to introduce you to a song that’s become such an earworm to me that I try to not listen to it anymore. Enjoy!
[https://youtu.be/pK7MPFxw8w4?si=3UMI_accxaolasLw](https://youtu.be/pK7MPFxw8w4?si=3UMI_accxaolasLw)
Latest Answers