
Why songs get stuck in our heads - fogus
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/songs+stuck+heads/3092137/story.html
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mcantor
Did anyone else get a vague sense of terror at the possibility of their heads
exploding as they read through the list of songs-likely-to-become-earworms,
worrying that reading the title would start each song playing in their head,
one-by-one, until nothing could be perceived or contemplated over the roaring
cacophony of 25 songs now all simultaneously stuck?

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dabent
I didn't get all 25 at once, but I could come up with the melody to the the
ones I did know immediately. How does the mind do that? It amazes me that I
have some kind of mp3 player in my head that can recall parts of a song I
haven't heard in years just by seeing the title.

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stcredzero
I bet you didn't have them playing concurrently.

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dabent
They weren't concurrent, but they came to mind quickly just by seeing the
words of the title.

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inimino
Synopsis: We still have no idea why songs get stuck in your head, but maybe it
has something to do with positive emotions.

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Freebytes
Exactly. I got nothing out of this article. I did not even get a song stuck in
my head. It does not answer the question the title poses, and it does not even
acknowledge that it is unable to answer it. In addition, it does not
contribute anything useful (or anything at all for that matter) to the subject
in terms of expanding the knowledge of the way the mind works.

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goodside
See also Greg Egan's short story "Beyond the Whistle Test", in which a team of
neuroscientists invent a song that, when heard once, remains stuck in your
head for the remainder of your life.

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jcl
Or Twain's short story "Punch, Brothers, Punch", about a song that only leaves
your head when communicated to someone else:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Literary_Nightmare>

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mootothemax
A friend once told me the the cure for this: hum the introduction to Led
Zeppelin's Kashmir inside your head. Gets rid of _anything_ :)

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mojuba
... and in case Kashmir gets stuck in your head, use a metacure such as Bach's
intro for Johannus Passion :)

Seriously though, I think we use music to reconstruct emotions, mostly (but
not necessarily) positive ones. In fact we use every possibility to
reconstruct emotions, e.g. scents, views, someone's voice, but music seems to
be the simplest "hook" that works on its own, without the help of external
stimulus, like with scents for example.

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stcredzero
If a song can get stuck in your head, you have some musical talent. (In the
same way, if you can cook something yummy for a friend or family member, you
have some culinary talent.)

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BrandonM
So you're saying that 98-99% of people have some musical talent?

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stcredzero
Yes. We didn't always have radios and iPods. In much of the 1800's almost
every American household had a musician of some kind. Back then, if you wanted
food, someone had to make it from scratch. If you wanted music, someone had to
sing it or play it.

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eru
And piano manufacturing was one of the major industries in America.

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powrtoch
One day, I would love to read an article that actually answers this question.

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abstractbill
I can't remember a time when I have _not_ had a song stuck in my head - I go
from one song to another every few days and have done for as long as I can
remember (today, _Whiter Shade Of Pale_ is just starting to leave after nearly
a week of being firmly lodged in my brain, and I'm now moving on to _Magic
Carpet Ride_ ).

It's not unpleasant for me though - the article makes it sound like it might
be for other people?

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rodion_89
i was afraid that i would click on the link and get rick rolled.

