The Wall Street Journal has an article on recent research into “earworms,” those songs that you cannot get out of your head. Usually, as we all know, those songs tend to be ones that we just hate!
I propose a diabolical discussion, one that is so fiendish that it will be the closest thing this blog will do to a Halloween observance: In the comments, name songs that get stuck in your head. I daresay that the very mention of them will get the tunes playing in the mental jukebox that is your brain, to your great torment.
If the prospect of that is too horrible for you, DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS.
From Melinda Beck, Why You Can’t Get That Song Out of Your Head – WSJ:Ever had a song stuck in your head, playing on an endless loop?
Scientists call them “involuntary musical images,” or “earworms,” and a wave of new research is shining light on why they occur and what can be learned from them.
Some neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists are studying earworms to explore the mysteries of memory and the part of the brain that is beyond our conscious control.
“The idea that we have full control over our thought processes is an illusion,” says psychologist Lauren Stewart, who founded the master’s program in music, mind and brain at Goldsmiths, University of London, where recent research has taken place.
[Keep reading, for a series of studies done on the phenonemenon. . . .]
