Your brain handles thousands of thoughts every day: deadlines, practices, relationships and so much more. Yet somehow it finds the time to replay 15 seconds of a song you don’t quite know the words to.
Scientists call this phenomenon “earworms.” Earworms impact 98% of people in our world and are catchy sections of songs that repeatedly occupy a space in your head. They can be triggered by emotions, associations with the particular song or by simply hearing the melody. For example, if you hear “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons when you walk into a gas station, going back to the gas station could trigger the beat of that song to repeat again and again. The stronger the memory tied to a song, the harder it is to shake. Your brain is not merely replaying the music but also the memory of the moment associated with the song. But why is your brain doing this in the first place?
Here is what is really happening: your brain has a region called the auditory cortex that can replay music on its own. This part of the brain may connect a song that feels repetitive or unfinished with an unsolved puzzle. One thing your brain hates is an unfinished puzzle, causing those songs to become stuck. But what establishes the difference between an earworm and a forgettable song? It comes down to a few characteristics. Songs that typically become earworms have a fast tempo, a simple repeating melody or an unexpected note that your brain just cannot quite let go of. This explains why earworms happen, but what can you do about them?
As it turns out, kennedy-center.org has looked into this, finding a few simple methods to prevent songs from repeating in your head. The first method used by many people and often seen as effective for ridding yourself of earworms is listening to the song all the way through. This works well because it signals your brain that the “unfinished” song is now complete, letting your mind move past the earworm. Another effective method, as researchers have found, is to engage your mind in something, like reading or a puzzle. This will distract your brain from its focus on the looping melody and replace it with an activity that stimulates your brain. Researchers also suggest replacing the tune on repeat with a different song. In doing so, you are distracting your brain with a different tune; this is less effective, since it could cause a chain of different songs to become more prominent earworms. Of course, by the time you finish reading this anyway, your brain probably has a new earworm ready to crawl into place.
