Rolling-Stone Foundation: November 2016
You could start this text with a whole series of sample songs that everyone knows and all hate because one or the other melody could fall asleep this evening before or go home in the shower tomorrow morning. Nobody can want that.
For years, scientists have been trying to find out why some songs are stubborn in their heads. However, because this is difficult to measure methodically, the phenomenon has not yet been finally clarified.
Now psychologists from British Durham University have named several properties that characterize an earwig. Kelly Jakubowski and her colleagues published them in the article “DisSecting to Earworm: Melodic Features and Song Popularity Predict Involuntary Imagery” in the specialist magazine “Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts”. “Involuntary Musical Imagery” are called catchy tunes in English technical language, otherwise in everyday language there is talk of an “earworm” or, far more common, of a “sticky song” – the song really sticks to the ear canal.
The 5 catchy tunes
The researchers asked 3000 participants to see which songs they most likely remember and then examined them for similarities.
The following characteristics can be summarized:
1.) simplicity. Ooldwigs are mostly catchy melodies with changing pitches, comparable to children’s songs. Above all, these get stuck sustainably when the tones rise and then fall, similar to “Move Like Jagger” by Maroon 5.
2.) Repetition. The more often a hook is repeated in the song, the better the chances that it will get stuck. As a result, the brain knows what comes next and can then reproduce this in the head itself. Because of the concise guitar reef, “Seven Nation Army” from the White Stripes is only so difficult to get out of the skull. In addition, this in turn is simple (1.) enough to roam them even after the third beer in the football stadium. And songs that are successful in the charts have a higher chance of becoming a catchy tune because they are played so often that you can hardly escape them.
And what else?
3.) Surprise. It is not that easy with the hit guarantee either, because for success a song also needs that certain something. Interestingly, an overly simple song gets less likely in mind than an unusual intervals and surprising sound jumps or rhythm changes. “My Sharona” by The Knack is such a case.
4.) Speed. A brisk cracker just gets stuck lighter than an elegiac piece.
5.) Text. With the help of language, a melody remains easier in memory than a pure instrumental piece. In other words, it can be assumed that the Nibelungenlied or the Odyssey became healthy – no one can remember that much text.
Music producers are likely to cut their ears at this point. “Our results show that it can be roughly predicted whether a melody is caught in the minds of people”says psychologist Jakubowski. “This could help songwriters or advertisers to write Jingles that everyone will remember for days and months.”
However, there is only a recipe for the perfect hit to a certain extent, since the success of a song depends on many factors, for example on mood, fashion or sympathy for the voice of the singer.
The list of the most frequently mentioned songs of the test subjects shows: Lady Gaga is the queen of the catchy tunes:
- Bad Romance by Lady Gaga
- Can’t Get You Out of My Head by Kylie Minogue
- Don’t stop Believing from Journey
- Somebody that i used to know from Gotye
- Moves Like Jagger from Maroon 5
- California Gurls by Katy Perry
- Bohemian Rhapsody from Queen
- Alejandro from Lady Gaga
- Poker Face from Lady Gaga
An earwig: a kind of masturbation?
Most of the time, an earwig in the head is haunted in a situation in which the brain is idle, i.e. rinsing dishes when driving, rinsing dishes or in the shower (so there is no cliché to sing there). One of the brain sings something to the other hand, says a theory. Incidentally, musicians are most often affected because they deal with music and self -contained people, because they eat their experience more out of themselves than extrovert.
An earwig: an unfinished fact!
But why does an catchy tune keep returning? For this, the so-called point-arnic effect provides an explanation: This says that the brain remembers interrupted thoughts and unfinished tasks better than those closed, because a finished task is ticked off internally, while an unfinished creates a tension: the brain wants to end the song. Most of the time, however, only a shred in the piece of music in the back of the head is triggered because you often cannot complete the song in my thoughts without being distracted. However, since the brain only gives peace when it is satisfied with its completion, it always reports to the annoying doodle.
The harshness for attention
This helps to end the catchy tune in the head. Because on command, the torture spirit disappears as well as the request: “Be spontaneous!” functions. But it can help to hear other, “real” music that distracts the brain. Or you can chew a chewing gum, since the mouth movement supposedly inhibits acoustic memory.
Some scientists stand in the tradition of Sigmund Freunds and see a deeper message in the recurring song: there is something in the subconscious that begs for attention. Maybe the song is linked to a place, an event or a person to whom you should devote yourself.
It is tricky: the smallest key stimulus can trigger an earwig. You could swear that you haven’t heard “breathless” by Helene Fischer for months and yet the alleys haven’t let go of the alley? Perhaps the singers’ pictures on the fan mile in front of the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the 2014 World Cup title in 2014 burned themselves into their memory, and every time they see someone in the Germany jersey, the melody shoots into their heads without hearing them recently. Because acoustic memory triggers strong feelings similar to smells.
Music as torture
However, the researchers from Durham want to have proven that you remember songs that you like more often. Another thesis from neurology, however, says that it is easier to remember a song from which you are annoyed, because aversion draws attention to a certain extent.
Incidentally, the Guantánamo prison camp was used as a “soft” torture method, especially by volume. Among other things, songs from Metallica or AC/DC should drive the prisoners crazy there.