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Catchy tunes sometimes stay with us for days: but how do they come about? Why do we just can’t get some songs out of our heads?
Sometimes it’s maddening: Everything in our body resists, but our head has decided to play Polonäse Blankenese continuously. When this happens, we talk about having an earworm.
Earwigs can be persistent
The insect, which really does exist, is said to crawl into people’s ears at night and make itself at home there, just like the music that seems to sit in our ear canal and apparently wants to stay there.
But what in our bodies makes us simply not want to get certain melodies out of our heads? If you have an earworm, your brain is to blame.
How does an earworm develop?
An earworm is particularly likely to pop up when your mind is idle. It doesn’t have to be dead silence; it’s enough if your brain cells are on the back burner due to your activity, such as going for a walk or doing the ever-popular ironing.
Your brain gets bored and tries to keep itself awake. So it decides to play the last song you heard on a continuous loop in your head.
Monotonous songs are particularly dangerous
You may have noticed that the songs, particularly those stuck in your head, are monotonous. And not without reason. Even if Despacito isn’t really your thing, your brain loves the song.
The reason for this is the rhythmic and melodic repetition of the song. The music industry likes to take advantage of this: If a song is reasonably repetitive, there’s a good chance it will stay in your head for a long time.
What can you do about catchy tunes?
You can, for example, try to occupy your brain in a different way or simply listen to the song until the end. Chewing gum is also said to have freed some people from annoying earworms.
Or find a new hobby. People who listen to a lot of music also seem to have earworms more often. Unfortunately, this is anything but nice with some songs.
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