Jenny Cruise has been blogging about the curious nature of EARWORMS.
No, not crawly multilegged beasties – EARWORMS are the annoying songs that you cannot get out of replay in your brain.
It turns out the reason you can’t dump them is that your brain pays more attention to unfinished things. Apparently the key culprits are simplicity, repetition and circularity, and the worst of these is circularity; a song with a circular structure – verse/chorus/verse/chorus- will just cycle in your head endlessly eating its own tail while your brain tries to find the place that it ends.
And evidently almost all brains do it.
It is well possible that the reason that some babies cry and cannot sleep all night long is that the earworms are repeating bits and pieces of the latest Christina Aguilera song in their heads.
Which songs are the worst offenders? YMCA? The theme tune from your fav TV ad? Movie? Something you just caught a snatch from the radio?
Ah – that is up to you!
What’s playing on my YouTube right now? ‘In the Deep’- North and South. [Perfect match of lyrics and video.] http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DnJLgyonhNA