Why songs get stuck in our heads

Re:Why songs get stuck in our heads by pohl on Wednesday December 23, 2009 @12:25PM (#1012395)

It might also depend on the musical experiences of the person. (Edit: I finally got the article to load, and this is essentially what it's saying, I guess.) I can easily get fugues by Bach or Shostakovich fugues stuck in my head, or Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs), but I've been a student of music. For example, I had this stuck in my head, and I can - in my mind - hear this all the way through:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgre8dqZYa8

But what always gets me the most, it seems, are doomsday-calibre earworms like We Built This City or It's a Small World Afterall.

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Re:Why songs get stuck in our heads by aaronblohowiak on Wednesday December 23, 2009 @01:05PM (#1012456)

I think it is harder to have more complex tunes stuck in your head. I will sometimes recall fondly shotakovich (symphony 11, movement 3 usually) in my head for about a half hour or so, but that is nothing compared to the unrelenting mind-invasion that old-time (traditional appalachian folk) tunes have.

Regardless of the individual variance in the complexity of the "earworm", one of the very interesting things is this interplay between short-term auditory memory and the loop being replayed. It will be even more interesting to see if their are ways to exploit this to effectively keep more things in working memory.

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Re:Why songs get stuck in our heads by tjr on Wednesday December 23, 2009 @12:40PM (#1012417)

It's a Small World Afterall

Argh, no! I suddenly find myself transported back to 1986 watching the Disney Channel for the first time.

Which is another interesting phenomenon in itself, that hearing a piece of music can bring back a surprisingly wide range of in-depth memories related to previous times hearing the music. I've often wondered if this could somehow be harnassed on purpose, to help people, say, prepare for exams.

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