It happens to the best of us. You hear a few bars of an old commercial jingle or a pop song on the radio, and suddenly it's on repeat in your head. You're washing dishes, pulling weeds, or trying to fall asleep, and that same little tune just won't quit.
These are called earworms, a word borrowed from the German Ohrwurm. Scientists describe them as a kind of involuntary memory: a catchy bit of music that keeps replaying in your mind long after it stopped playing. They're extremely common. By one researcher's count, 98 percent of people experience them. They're often set off by hearing music, but a word, a few notes, or even a feeling linked to a song can bring one back.
What Makes a Song Stick
Researcher Vicky Williamson at Goldsmiths, University of London, found that earworms are tied to music exposure, but they can also be triggered by anything that sparks a memory of a song. Seeing a word that reminds you of the lyrics can do it. So can an emotion you connect with the tune.
Interestingly, the songs in her study didn't share any special pattern, except that they were popular. Another researcher, James Kellaris, found that songs with lyrics account for most earworms, about 74 percent, while instrumental music causes far fewer.
Earworms also tend to be short. A 2010 study found they usually last 15 to 30 seconds, so your brain tends to replay a fragment, not the whole song. People who are more interested in music seem to get them more often.
Who Gets Them Most
Men and women get earworms about equally often. But according to Kellaris, they tend to last longer for women and bother them more. Happy, calm tunes and sad or angry ones can both get stuck, though one study found that the gloomier tunes caused more distress and showed up less often.
How to Get Rid of One
Good news: you have options. Scientists at Western Washington University found that giving your brain a moderately challenging task, like a crossword, an anagram, a puzzle, or a good book, helps stop earworms and keeps them from coming back.
Here's the surprising one. Researchers at the University of Reading reported in 2015 that chewing gum can help. It seems to interfere with the part of your short-term memory that silently "rehearses" sounds, the same system that keeps the tune spinning.
Because earworms are usually just a snippet, listening to the whole song from start to finish can also break the loop. Some people use a "cure song" to push the old one out. Choices like "Happy Birthday" are popular.
Most earworms are harmless and fade on their own. But a tune that won't go away for more than a day can occasionally be linked to medical problems, so if that happens, talk to your doctor.
A Very Old Annoyance
Earworms aren't new. Mark Twain wrote a story in 1876 called "A Literary Nightmare" about a jingle so catchy that the only way to get rid of it was to pass it on to someone else. Plenty of us have tried that trick ourselves.
So the next time an old tune sneaks into your head while you're gardening, don't fight it too hard. Grab a puzzle, unwrap a stick of gum, or simply hum it all the way to the end. And if all else fails, enjoy the free concert.
