Why is this song stuck in my head?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science, Technology

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You have probably experienced an ‘earworm’ - a catchy bit of music that plays round and round in your head and won’t go away – at least for a short while. But why did it pop up in the first place and how did it get stuck?

CrowdScience listener Ryota in Japan wants us to dig into earworms, so presenter Datshiane Navanayagam bravely puts on her headphones to immerse herself in the world of sounds that stick. She meets with a composer of children’s songs as well as music psychologists to find out if there is a special formula to creating catchy songs and probes if this musical brain quirk serves any useful purpose. Datshiane then explores whether some people are more prone to catching earworms than others. Finally, for those who find this phenomenon disturbing - she asks is there a good way of getting rid of them?

Come join us down the audio wormhole - disclaimer - the BBC is not responsible for any annoying earworms caused by this broadcast.

Presented by Datshiane Navanayagam and produced by Melanie Brown

Interviewees: Kelly Jakubowski – Assistant Professor in Music Psychology, Durham University Bill Sherman – Musical Director of Sesame Street Ashley Burgoyne – Computational Musicologist, University of Amsterdam

[Image: Audio Cassette. Credit: Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
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0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.5	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds
0:30.7	September 1949, four years after atomic bombs devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
0:40.0	specially equipped US Air Force planes have detected radiation in the atmosphere.
0:47.0	There can only be one explanation.
0:50.0	The Soviet Union have exploded an atomic bomb of their own.
0:54.9	A bomb they were thought to be years away from developing.
0:58.8	How can this have happened?
1:00.8	The answer is chilling.
1:04.0	Season 2 of the bomb, a podcast from the BBC World Service,
1:08.0	uncovers a gripping true story of espionage
1:12.0	at the very heart of the British American nuclear bomb
1:15.4	programs. Search for the bomb wherever you found this podcast. Hello, I'm Daciani Love Naeagum and welcome to Crowd Science, the show that takes your questions
1:28.1	about anything and everything and goes in search for the answers.
1:32.2	But first, a disclaimer.
1:33.9	This episode of crowd science
1:35.4	may contain musical parasites caused by catchy music
	...

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