Earworms…
On several occasions I have written about my insanity resulting from songs that play and replay ad infinitum in my head. You know the feeling … your head is going to explode on the 736th iteration … all efforts to divert your attention and shift your thinking have failed…
Now comes news from Richard Lawrence Cohen that this annoying and distracting phenomenon actually has a name … earworms. Eeeuuuwwwww… Not a very pleasant thought! Then again, it becomes quite an unpleasant experience when you’re entering your third day of continuously looping American Pie.
This probably happens to me about once every couple of months and lingers for a couple of days. The song may be anything - current pop, 80s country, an old hymn sung by my grandma as she busied herself with household chores, the melody from a Vivaldi classic. I usually have no idea what the trigger point was, or what dark corner this particular song was crouched in, waiting for me to show a vulnerability, a moment of distraction, allowing an opening for it to crawl into my head and become an … earworm …
Some songs revisit from time-to-time, while others once gone, have never returned. No log has been kept, but I remember the most frequent visitors as Rainbow Connection (sung by Kermit, hisownself), Old Rugged Cross (gotta be Grandma), Don McLean’s American Pie, Jim Croce’s Bad Bad Leroy Brown, anything from the Beach Boys, and Marilyn Monroe crooning Happy Birthday Mr. President to JFK. With this little bit of information, an analytical advocate of abnormal psychology can most likely write my one-way ticket to the state home for the terminally baffled.
What are your experiences with earworms? What song or songs do you most often hear? Share your tricks for finally ridding yourself of an occurrence and returning to your own edition of reality.
(… and he ambled on down the street, singing screaming far too loudly and with no sense of melody, ” … drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry…”)
10 Comments so far
hmmm, don’t know if I should share this or not but the other night my 17 year old was being a turkey and said “yeah, we’re going to hang out at the beach tonight, mom” and then clicked the music on the laptop on to a song called “Sex on the Beach”, just to be a smart ass. Well, do you think I can get that damn chorus out of my head??? I found myself actually humming the tune the other night in line at a store. Oy… I can’t even tell you who sings it!
House of the Rising Sun (Animals’ version)
Neat word and never heard it before. I do ‘it’ most frequently when nobody is around to say it’s driving them nuts; and like you, it could be any of many. The one that first comes to my mind (and even thinking of it means I have to get me some) is from a CD of western movie soundtracks and the particular one is from Red River. That music always has me wanting to head for the open country, imagining cowboys rounding of strays and me waiting on the porch like the little good western heroine– or in the wagon or… Wait, these days, out rounding up strays too!
With whatever I get the desire to hear a lot of, I play it until my teeth begin to hurt which tells me (the same as when I’ve had to much sugar) that brain damage is probably setting in; and I have to go find something more conducive to clear thinking– like that favorite Gary Allan CD *s*
Well Winston, is it possible that you and I share at least one of the same earworms? Busy little fellow! Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and American Pie are often rattling around in my head too….don’t know why. Among my other “earworm hits” are: Benny and the Jets, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (good ‘ol Elton), Cast Your Fate to the Wind (Vince Geraldi), You Make Me Feel Brand New (Hall & Oates), Amazing Grace….and that’s just the ones I can remember off hand. Pretty eclectic, huh? Well at least now I know what the heck I’ve got roaming around up there….earworms….OOOO, YUCK! BYW, I NEVER return to reality…that I’m aware of.
Dang it all, Joy! You had to go and mention the one that I had purposely avoided, because just the mention of Amazing Grace will have it going in my head for the next couple of days, often on bagpipes. There it goes, ” … how sweet the sound…”
every since i started the music, my life reviews from 1960 to 1983 i have been swamped with emails of people whining and complaining that certain songs that i mentioned is not stuck in their head..especially after i did that one on the lyrics of american pie..jugas priest thing eveyone including me was singing that song…
hmmm. earworms huh?…actually i kinda like that…
Earworms…how disgusting and yet perfectly descriptive! Yes, I’ve had my share of earworms too. I’ve heard that the quickest way to dispel the music in your head is to listen to another song as soon as you can. Play the radio, deliberately begin singing or humming something else, etc. I’ve tried this a few times and it seemed to work. Good luck!
And why is it that the songs that get stuck up there in our ears are so often the ugliest ones? See Joy’s comment for examples (except “Amazing Grace,” of course). “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” — ugh! But now I’m going to have trouble getting rid of it.
I’ve been waking up with an earworm almost every day for weeks: today’s it’s the old 80’s power-pop song “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”(George Michael?).
I’ve found that a good earworm-killer is classical music. In most cases the melodic lines are too long to lodge comfortably in the ear; yet the works are beautiful enough to drive out other music. It’s music that’s not hook-based. Vivaldi might be an exception that proves the rule since he’s relatively melodic. The Pachelbel Canon of course is a big exception that proves the rule.
Thanks for the link, Winston!
I have been told by a lady DJ that to rid yourself of earworms, sing the song for the TV show, Green Acres. When you are finished, the song is gone.
And I have no idea why certain songs get stuck in my head. Usually its just a single line or two. The other day it was the first four words of a Sweet Honey in the Rock song. {insert deep African woman’s voice}No mooooorrrrreee….auctiooooonn……blah-ah-ahk”
Actually, now that I think about it. Those four words are the only words in the song. Over and over.
I once had “Itsy Bitsy Spider” in my head for almost a week.
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