Everyday Mysteries: Why songs get stuck in our heads By Science Friday, adapted by Newsela staff on 02.17.17 Word Count 923 A man listens to an ipod MP3 player through earphones in Sydney, Australia, August 17, 2005. Ian Waldie/Getty Images Question: After listening to a new song, why do we get it stuck in our heads? Answer: A song stuck in your head is called an "earworm." This is a song that replays on a loop in your head. A study shows that earworms are quite common, but the reason for them remains a mystery that researchers are still trying to solve. The Song Remains The Same Can t get that new song out of your head? You ve probably got an earworm. According to scientist Elizabeth Margulis, an earworm "tends to be this little fragment, often a bit of the chorus of the song, that just plays and replays like it s stuck on loop in your head." The quirky YouTube hit What Does the Fox Say? by Ylvis and The Baha Men s Who Let the Dogs Out? are just a couple tunes known to spawn earworms, according to Margulis. Earworms are quite common. A study found that more than 91 percent of people reported having an earworm at least once a week, while about 25 percent had them more than once a day. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 1
Magical Mystery Earworms As frequent as earworms may be, however, what causes them is still a mystery. That s mainly because earworms which tend to last eight seconds are by definition involuntary. They seem to pop up out of nowhere. This makes tracking them in a scientific setting nearly impossible. Researchers have yet to develop reliable methods for inducing earworms in test subjects. The information that researchers have collected so far comes from surveys of a few thousand people or from small diary studies, in which test subjects take notes on their own experiences. But participants are not very reliable at recalling how often they get earworms, how long the earworm lasts, and what they were doing when they first noticed the earworm. Research suggests that earworms could have something to do with how music affects the brain s motor cortex. This is the part of the brain that controls movement. When people listen to music, there s a lot of activity in regions of the brain that plan and carry out motion, Margulis says. People are often imaginatively participating even while they re sitting still, she adds. Play It Again, Sam Repetitive listening could also breed earworms. Indeed, 90 percent of the time, we listen to music we ve heard before, says Margulis. Once you've heard a song four or five times, the sound of one note reminds you of the next note. "You can almost feel exactly what s going to happen next," Margulis says. A song s structure might contribute to brain burrowing, too. There are general patterns of characteristics for songs that frequently get stuck, says James Kellaris, a professor who has studied the influence of music on memory. For example, songs that are simple and repetitive, and that have an unexpected part are more likely to become earworms, according to Kellaris. A Simple Melody In one study, researchers led by scientist Victoria Williamson studied more than 50 different musical characteristics. They found that earworm songs tend to have notes with longer durations but smaller differences in pitch. Pitch is how high or low the notes are. A flute, for example, makes a sound with a high pitch, while a bass makes a sound with a low pitch. Williamson says it makes sense that note length and pitch affect whether a song will become an earworm, because these are two main features that make songs easier to sing. Fundamentally, an earworm is your brain singing, Williamson says. Earworm songs also have a certain amount of predictability, combined with just enough novelty to stir a listener s interest. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 2
Second Verse, Same As The First Almost everyone gets earworms at some point. But Williamson s research has found that people who experience certain symptoms of obsessive compulsion tend to have earworms more often, and for longer periods of time. Obsessive compulsion can cause someone to have repetitive, excessive thoughts that lead to repetitive behaviors. These people tend to have more repeated thought processes in general," Williamson says. "So it s perhaps not a huge surprise that these are reflected in their experiences of mental music as well." Experiencing earworms also seems to involve being in the right mood at the right time. In addition to the qualities of the song and of the person, "situation comes into play as a third factor, Kellaris says. He added that earworms seem more likely to "bite" when someone is tired or stressed out. Picking Up Good Vibrations? Despite the complaints of sufferers, however, the majority of our earworms are actually somewhat enjoyable or neutral experiences, according to Williamson. Her research has shown that people consider only about 30 percent of earworms to be annoying. We re more inclined to remember the things that annoy us, she says. So if you ask somebody about an earworm, they ll tell you about the one that annoyed them yesterday. They won t tell you the three or four they briefly had in their head which they didn t really notice. Once an earworm lodges in your brain, how do you get rid of it? Williamson says the best method is for people to distract themselves with other music or to do something that involves language, like a crossword puzzle. A second method may surprise you: Williamson suggests engaging with the earworm song by listening to it repeatedly. This might exhaust the earworm or complete it, says Williamson. Because earworms are only fragments of music, listening to the entire track might relieve a person of repeating the same part in her head. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 3
Quiz 1 Which two of the following sentences from the article include central ideas of the article? 1. A study shows that earworms are quite common, but the reason for them remains a mystery that researchers are still trying to solve. 2. When people listen to music, there s a lot of activity in regions of the brain that plan and carry out motion, Margulis says. 3. Once you've heard a song four or five times, the sound of one note reminds you of the next note. 4. But Williamson s research has found that people who experience certain symptoms of obsessive compulsion tend to have earworms more often, and for longer periods of time. 1 and 2 1 and 4 2 and 3 3 and 4 2 Which statement would be MOST important to include in a summary of the article? People are not very reliable at recalling how often they get earworms. Earworms might have something to do with the brain's motor cortex. Note length and pitch affect whether a song will become an earworm. Research has been done on the number of earworms that people find annoying. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 4
3 Read the paragraph from the section "Second Verse, Same As The First." Experiencing earworms also seems to involve being in the right mood at the right time. In addition to the qualities of the song and of the person, "situation comes into play as a third factor, Kellaris says. He added that earworms seem more likely to "bite" when someone is tired or stressed out. How does this paragraph help contribute to the development of the article? It suggests that experiencing earworms is less common than previously thought. It suggests that being in a good mood makes people try to remember earworms. It indicates that people who are tired or stressed out are unlikely to experience earworms. It provides some information about a factor that can result in earworms. 4 Why does the author include the section "Magical Mystery Earworms"? to emphasize that earworms happen quickly and frequently to establish how difficult it is for scientists to study earworms to make a connection between earworms and listening to music to explain how scientists are developing tests for earworms This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 5