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Auburn Annie · 12-30-2005, 06:34 PM

Those stick-in-your-head songs are called earworms (all together now: eeeuuuwwwww...)
From the - I kid you not - "Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter" August 2004, comes this explanation:

3. CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC: "EARWORMS"
Have you ever had a song get stuck in your head? It happens to most of us at one time or another. Dr. James Kellaris, a professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio), calls these annoying experiences "earworms."

When I heard about Kellaris' earworm work, I contacted him to find out if he had published any of his studies. He replied that his research has been presented at meetings, but he has not yet published a paper. Kellaris was kind enough to send me the results of work he presented at the 2003 Society for Consumer Psychology meeting.

In his presentation, Kellaris discussed the characteristics of songs likely to "get stuck." He surveyed 559 people (mostly college students) between the ages of 18 and 49 years old. Almost all (97.9%) had experienced an earworm. Women and musicians were found to suffer from earworms more frequently than men and non-musicians. Songs with lyrics were the most common (75.8%) type of earworm, followed by advertisement jingles (12.5%) and instrumental melodies (11.7%). Approximately 40% of all earworms lasted a few hours, but some people said that they had a song stuck in their head for more than a week!

Kellaris generated this list of sticky songs:

* Chili's (Baby Back Ribs) Jingle
* Who Let the Dogs Out?
* We Will Rock You
* Kit-Kat Bar jingle
* Mission Impossible Theme
* YMCA
* Whoomp, There It Is
* The Lion Sleeps Tonight
* It's a Small World After All

Although Kellaris says that there is no cure for earworms, a quick Internet search found these possible (untested) solutions:

* Listen to different music
* Distract yourself with a different activity
* Sing the entire song**

For more about Kellaris, see his web site at:

http://business.uc.edu/James-Kellaris
_______________________________________________

** which I suspect would NOT work with the song that never ends....

12-30-2005, 06:34 PM	#5
Auburn Annie Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Upstate New York Posts: 3,101	Those stick-in-your-head songs are called earworms (all together now: eeeuuuwwwww...) From the - I kid you not - "Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter" August 2004, comes this explanation: 3. CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC: "EARWORMS" Have you ever had a song get stuck in your head? It happens to most of us at one time or another. Dr. James Kellaris, a professor of marketing at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio), calls these annoying experiences "earworms." When I heard about Kellaris' earworm work, I contacted him to find out if he had published any of his studies. He replied that his research has been presented at meetings, but he has not yet published a paper. Kellaris was kind enough to send me the results of work he presented at the 2003 Society for Consumer Psychology meeting. In his presentation, Kellaris discussed the characteristics of songs likely to "get stuck." He surveyed 559 people (mostly college students) between the ages of 18 and 49 years old. Almost all (97.9%) had experienced an earworm. Women and musicians were found to suffer from earworms more frequently than men and non-musicians. Songs with lyrics were the most common (75.8%) type of earworm, followed by advertisement jingles (12.5%) and instrumental melodies (11.7%). Approximately 40% of all earworms lasted a few hours, but some people said that they had a song stuck in their head for more than a week! Kellaris generated this list of sticky songs: * Chili's (Baby Back Ribs) Jingle * Who Let the Dogs Out? * We Will Rock You * Kit-Kat Bar jingle * Mission Impossible Theme * YMCA * Whoomp, There It Is * The Lion Sleeps Tonight * It's a Small World After All Although Kellaris says that there is no cure for earworms, a quick Internet search found these possible (untested) solutions: * Listen to different music * Distract yourself with a different activity * Sing the entire song For more about Kellaris, see his web site at: http://business.uc.edu/James-Kellaris _______________________________________________ which I suspect would NOT work with the song that never ends....