Soft on the Ears: The Earworm Effect
Last Updated: May 16, 2016
The Earworm Effect: A blog about ear worms and how soft music can help prevent them.
Earworms are songs that get stuck in your head, replaying over and over again, often when you don’t want them to. The name comes from the German term Ohrwurm and was coined in 1976 by German psychologist James Kellaris, a professor at the University of Cincinnati who specializes in psychology of music. The commonality of earworms is nearly 100 percent as reported by Kellaris in his research. Although nearly everyone has experienced this phenomenon at one time or another, there is little research on what triggers earworms, what prevents them and why some songs are more likely to become an earworm than others. This blog will explore all these topics and more with the hope of helping to alleviate this unwanted auditory hallucination that has been known to plague people for days or even weeks on end.
The term “earworm” is a translation from the German word Ohrwurm which literally means “ear worm”. A worm is a parasite that can invade its host unnoticed while still causing damage and irritation. Similarly, an earworm can be described as an unwanted piece
You’ve probably heard the term “ear worm” before. An ear worm is a catchy piece of music that repeats in your head long after you stop listening to it.
Most of us have had one stuck in our heads at one time or another. They are usually not terribly annoying and they often don’t last very long but they can sometimes cause a great deal of distress, especially if the song is not one that you like.
They can also be very hard to get rid of!
Ear worms are common, but why do some songs stick in our heads more than others? A recent study suggests that it might be because of how we listen to them.
In the study, researchers asked people to rate the familiar and unfamiliar songs on their ability to stick in the mind (their “stickiness”). The researchers found that soft music was less likely to stick than loud music and that songs with an interesting or complex rhythm were more likely than simple songs to become an ear worm.
This seems to make sense: soft music is easier on the ears and so we’re less likely to listen closely enough for it to get lodged in our brains. But what about those other variables? Why would some rhythms be more sticky than others?
The answer seems to lie in how
Earworms. You know you’ve had them, and now you have an easy way to get rid of them! Soft Ambient music has proven to be a solution to the ear worm problem.
Earworms (also known as stuck song syndrome [SSS]) are those songs that you can’t get out of your head. They are usually catchy and simple, and often from a popular radio hit or commercial jingle. Earworms are a little like dreams and memories in that they can pop up when you least expect it. While some people might love getting their favorite song stuck in their head, other people find it downright annoying. But how does one go about remedying this condition?
New research suggests that soft ambient music can help stop earworms, especially if the music has lyrics that are different from the song that’s trapped in your head, according to a recent study by students at Durham University in England. This might seem counter-intuitive, but if you think about it, it makes sense.
The researchers also found that people who use earworms as a way to deal with boredom or loneliness may be more likely to experience these episodes more frequently than others.
Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? Maybe you were humming a tune all day, maybe you couldn’t get a catchy jingle out of your head, or maybe you just kept singing the same line from a song over and over. These annoyances are known as earworms, or involuntary musical imagery. Earworms affect 98% of people and can last for hours (1).
Why do we get earworms? Why does that one catchy riff always pop back into our heads when we’re trying to work? There are three main theories about what causes earworms. The first is that an external stimulus, like hearing a catchy tune or seeing a commercial with a jingle, triggers the earworm (2). The second is that an internal stimulus causes the earworm. For example, maybe hearing music reminds us of something else that then gets stuck in our heads (3). Finally, it could be random mental activity that results in an earworm.
If we can figure out why we get earworms and what kind of music triggers it, we can find ways to get rid of them! In this blog I’ll explore these three theories and tell you what kind of music you should listen to if you want to prevent earworms
Soft Electronic Music is a blog dedicated to helping you clear your mind and relax when necessary. We help you learn how to prevent earworms and listen to them, if need be.
Earworms are the songs that are stuck in your head. They can get caught in your brain for many reasons, ranging from repetitive music all the way to poor mental health. Whatever the cause may be, it is important to know how to remove these earworms from your brain so that you can think clearly again.
Soft Electronic Music helps you by providing many different types of playlists and sounds for each individual situation. If you need to concentrate on work and cannot get over the song stuck in your head, we have a playlist for that. If you are having trouble sleeping at night, we have another playlist for that as well. The list goes on and on!
If you find yourself constantly struggling with earworms, let us help you today!
It’s that earworm that just won’t go away.
The mystery of earworms, and how to get rid of them.
A lot of people out there know how it feels to have an earworm. That is a song which gets stuck in your head on repeat mode and will not leave you alone!
It happens most often when we are in a dull moment at work or home, or when we’re on the train or in the shower, or even at night time as we try to get off to sleep. It happens when our brain is not engaged in any mentally challenging task and so is free to re-play old melodies. We can find it annoying, but for those who suffer from tinnitus (ringing in the ears) it can become distressing.
So why do these melodies get stuck in our heads? And what can we do about it?
Earworms are caused by a change at the junction between short term and long term memory. Normally our short-term memory only retains information for a few seconds. But if we hear something at just the right moment, when our brains are almost asleep, then the music can slip into long term memory and become an earworm.
Earworms, or musical imagery repetition (MIR), are those annoying songs that get stuck in your head and just won’t leave you alone. For example, right now you may be singing “It’s a small world after all” over and over again. Earworms are spontaneous, involuntary musical experiences. Research shows that they are common, occurring in 98% of the population.
So what causes an earworm? The first step is to remember a song. This can be triggered by hearing the song again or seeing something that reminds you of the song. Once that happens, you can’t stop thinking about it because your brain keeps trying to predict when the next note will come up.
Earworms usually last from a few seconds to five minutes. They can be caused by moods or feelings such as anxiety, sadness, or restlessness. But the most common cause is simply exposure to music for long periods of time, especially if you hear a catchy tune!