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We’ve all been there. You hear the sound of a catchy tune and suddenly it’s stuck in your head for hours, maybe even days.

Whether it’s a snappy lyric or a striking melody, these seemingly never-ending loops can range from relaxing to downright irritating. But why do songs get stuck in your head? To find out, �鶹�� Bitesize spoke to Dr Kelly Jakubowski, an Assistant Professor in Music Psychology at Durham University.

What are earworms?

It’s highly likely that the song you’ve had on repeat in your head is an earworm - but don’t worry, we’re not talking about real creepy-crawlies. Earworm is a term translated from the German word ö����ɳܰ��� and describes the experience of getting a piece of music stuck in your head on loop. It is also referred to as ‘stuck song syndrome’, a ‘cognitive itch’ and ‘musical imagery repetition’.

Earworms typically occur as a fragment of music, consisting of three or four bars, that go round in a loop. This involuntary repetition is out of anyone’s control and can become quite annoying. The phenomenon is very common, with 90% of people reporting to experience it once a week.

Dr Jakubowski explains that there are a number of potential causes for earworms. “The most common of these is having heard a song quite recently or repeatedly.

“Even if you’ve not heard a song in a long time, just hearing a notable word from the lyrics, or being in a particular mood that you were in when you previously heard a song can be enough to trigger an earworm.”

Science shows that earworms operate in the auditory cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for processing sounds. But why exactly do they happen?

Some scholars believe that earworms may form the much larger phenomenon of involuntary memory. This refers to a trigger in everyday life that reminds you of something in the past without conscious effort.

Can't get you out of my head

Some sources of earworms appear to be more common than others. In a survey led by Dr Jakubowski and her colleagues, she asked 3,000 people to identify which songs they most frequently experienced as earworms. The research concluded that among the top offenders were Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, Don’t Stop Believing by Journey and perhaps unsurprisingly Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.

TV and radio advertisements are also some of the biggest earworm culprits, due to their memorable hooks and upbeat jingles.

But once a tune becomes stuck in our heads, how can you get rid of it? In a separate study, Dr Jakubowski and her colleagues discovered that the most common method is the “let it be” strategy, which involves trying to ignore it until it fades away on its own. However, others preferred to engage with the earworm song.

“Those who chose to engage with the earworm song itself often found that doing something like listening to the whole song all the way through to break the loop or identify some unknown element, such as lyrics or song title, helped to get rid of the earworm.”

Other research efforts have noted that chewing gum can decrease the occurrence of earworms. This is likely to be because chewing gum interferes with the articulatory muscles that are need to mentally ‘sing’ a piece of music.

Dr Jakubowski also highlights that something like the earworm experience may have existed since the early days of music. This is because before notation, music was learnt and transmitted orally, resulting in a greater reliance on the mental rehearsal of music.

Early literature has also been interpreted to reference earworms, including Edgar Allan Poe’s 1850 short story The Imp of the Perverse and Mark Twain’s 1876 A Literary Nightmare. This suggests that earworms were around before the advent of modern recording technology and are not just a contemporary phenomenon.

This article was published in March 2023