Why Do Tunes Get 'Stuck In Your Head'?

[Always Free]

After I have listened to a new cd for a couple of days I can't seem to get the songs out of my head. As I wake up in the morning, there they are. I try not to think of them or sing along but they are with me at least until the middle of the day. It becomes annoying sometimes but it doesn't affect the way I like the music as it can do if I play it too much on my cd player.

Anyone else experience this or have an explaination for it?

[Deetee]

Its an "ear-worm", part of a memetic complex.
Why it perseveres in an individual I don't know, but it is fortunately self-limiting.

[Psiload]

Why Do Tunes Get 'Stuck In Your Head'?

Why do birds suddenly appear?

Every time...

you are near.

There... you'll need an ice pick to dig that one out of your head.

[Rolfe]

No explanation, but I get this all the time. Didn't realise until I read the post, but right now it's that boring theme tune from Chariots of Fire - because it was one of the chosen records on Desert Island Discs yesterday morning.

There's one tune that has been a regular for about 35 years. I had no clue what it was - I even recall looking it up in musical theme dictionaries we had at school to try to track it down, to no avail. Then one day while I was writing up my PhD I borrowed some tapes from the library to play in my walkman while I was writing. The tune turned up on one of them. I've forgotten again what it was, but it's something by Haydn. Must have encountered it somewhere when I was a kid.

Rolfe.

[athon]

It's definately a memetic thing, and seems to be related to being social animals.

The brain is essentially a pattern making machine. Better patterns establish themselves faster into the brain. Some patterns are more easily recongnizable than others, such as those to do with communication. If you recognize within a social structure a communicated pattern faster than others, you will climb the hierarchy and make better use of your human resources.

Today, we can see this in advertising, media, catchphrases, language dialects etc.

Athon

[Always Free]

Deetee--"Its an "ear-worm", part of a memetic complex.
Why it perseveres in an individual I don't know, but it is fortunately self-limiting."

I'll have to look that one up.;)

Psiload--"Why do birds suddenly appear?

Every time...

you are near."

That's an oldie but a goodie. This only happens with brand new songs for me.

Rolfe--"Must have encountered it somewhere when I was a kid."

Did you like this music all those years ago and do you still enjoy it now?

[Always Free]

Originally posted by athon
It's definately a memetic thing, and seems to be related to being social animals.

The brain is essentially a pattern making machine. Better patterns establish themselves faster into the brain. Some patterns are more easily recongnizable than others, such as those to do with communication. If you recognize within a social structure a communicated pattern faster than others, you will climb the hierarchy and make better use of your human resources.

Today, we can see this in advertising, media, catchphrases, language dialects etc.

Athon

And music.

The music that effects me this way only occurs when I hear new songs from the one singer that I like above all others. Wonderful sounding voice. Can't get enough of it.

[Hawk one]

Originally posted by Psiload
Why Do Tunes Get 'Stuck In Your Head'?

Why do birds suddenly appear?

Every time...

you are near.

There... you'll need an ice pick to dig that one out of your head.

Just like me

They want to be

Close to you! (Psi)


There... Now I've given Psiload a horrible mental image to deal with in addition to the song.

[malaka]

Worse is when you only know 1 or 2 lines from the song, and those same lines are repeated (ad nauseam) in your head, rather than the complete song.

"Let the good times roll, let them knock you around..."
"Let the good times roll, let them knock you around..."
"Let the good times roll, let them knock you around..."
"Let the good times roll, let them knock you around..."

Ahhhh!

[Deetee]

Originally posted by Rolfe
The tune turned up on one of them. I've forgotten again what it was, but it's something by Haydn.


"The Creation?"
;)

[Rolfe]

Originally posted by Deetee
"The Creation?"
;) Nope. Orchestral thing. Neither like nor dislike, except that it's only the very beginning of it that gets stuck in my head, which occasionally gets irritationg.

Since mid-afternoon, Chariots of Fire has given way to the end of the Beethoven 9th, for no readily apparent reason. Maybe I'll switch to "Vollendet is das grosse Werk" now, just for the fun of it. (Hours at choir, emphasising all the "h"s in "der Herr allein, ist hoch erhaben", now that was a barrel of laughs....)

Rolfe.

[Rolfe]

On the same topic, I realise this is why I don't like muzak, or people playing radios or other music sources in inappropriate places. It interferes with whatever I happen to be playing in my head at the time.

("Alles lobe seinen Namen...." is now in full flight, that worked!)

Rolfe.

[Just thinking]

Originally posted by Rolfe
Nope. Orchestral thing. Neither like nor dislike, except that it's only the very beginning of it that gets stuck in my head, which occasionally gets irritationg.

Well, with over 100+ Symphonies and countless concerti (maybe the concerto in E-flat for trumpet? -- very famous) perhaps you can give us some hints. Have a keyboard handy?

[Correa Neto]

Memetic, whatever, so be it, but why the lame ones are so easily stuck in to my mind?

Because they are more frequently hammered through my ears?

[Rolfe]

Originally posted by Just thinking
Well, with over 100+ Symphonies and countless concerti (maybe the concerto in E-flat for trumpet? -- very famous) perhaps you can give us some hints. Have a keyboard handy? Actually, thinking about it, it's more baroque, probably Handel.

I should have written the title down when I discovered it.

Rolfe.