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Why You Can’t Get That Song Out of Your Head
Rachel Feltman
: For
Scientific American
’s
Science Quickly
, I’m Rachel Feltman.
You know that feeling when you just can’t get a song out of your head—just a short part of it playing over and over? Right now my brain is chewing on the
Muppet Show
theme ’cause I just watched a live-stream charity event where a bunch of my favorite comedians, including some from Dropout, which longtime listeners know I’m a huge fan of, did a onstage reading of
The Muppet Show
, so right now it’s just, you know, “It’s time to play the music / It’s time to light the lights,” over and over again. So thanks for that, folks.
A lot of people call those annoying little ditties “earworms”: fragments of songs that crawl into your mind and just don’t want to leave. And scientists have actually done quite a bit of research to figure out why some tunes wriggle their way into our heads better than others.
You’ve probably dealt with your own share of earworms. In fact, in a few previous episodes, I asked all of you to send in some of your favorite or most infuriating examples, and a whole bunch of you were kind enough to sing into your phones for us.
Here’s Kerry from New Orleans.
Kerry
: I have had this earworn in my head for literally at least 20 years before I go to bed at night—Whitney Houston.
[CLIP: Listener Kerry sings the chorus of “I Want to Dance With Somebody,” by Whitney Houston.]
Feltman
: And a listener named John shared this classic.
[CLIP: Listener John sings the chorus of “Wonderwall” by Oasis.]
Feltman: And here’s Jim from Massachusetts.
[CLIP: Listener Jim imitates the music in “Angry Again” by Megadeth.]
