Earworm, earworm, earworm.
For the best part of a week now I’ve had Om’s ‘At Giza’ stuck in my head. Just the guitar riff. It’s cut a swathe through Christmas music and party sounds and this morning, back at work in a clean and sparkling new year, it’s still bloody there. That slow, slow stoned and soupy riff. I’m going mad, the earworm is eating my brain like a horrible sci-fi maggot. And according to academic research, you and I, dear 17 Dots readers, are the most likely to suffer from songs, jingles and riffs implanting themselves in our heads and not letting go.
Because although around 98 per cent of the world’s population will get a musical brain itch at points, musicians and music lovers suffer from it the most. Women get earworms more than men and those with neurotic tendencies suffer more than those without. I’m assuming we all fall into the first category, but I’ve got a three out of three strike. Well, two and a half, I’m not that neurotic. I think.
Psychologist Professor James Kellaris is number one in the charts when it comes to earworm research; the above findings come from a paper he presented to the Society for Consumer Psychology in 2003. So what of my Om problem? Is there anything in this research that can help?
For starters, Om are not exactly what you’d call a catchy band and I’m not a huge fan. But, as Professor Kellaris told BBC Worldwide, “Any tune is prone to become an earworm, it’s highly idiosyncratic.” One of the keys is, unsurprisingly, repetition. So at least now I can blame my boyfriend, the Om fan in my life, for my torment.
And the cure? I’ve known people swear by implanting a different song, but according to Professor K, there’s no failsafe strategy. Yeah, cheers for that.
Previous terrible earworms in the Anna world:
The perky jingle that announces ‘Washing machines live longer with Calgon!’
Wreckless Eric’s ‘Whole Wide World’ – I love this song, but after once making some hummus from scratch a jar of tahini remained in the fridge for ages. So every time I went for the milk, I’d see it and substitute the word tahini in the lyric “and she probably lives in Tahiti.”
“It’s a small world after all” – I haven’t even been to Disney World, someone sent me a YouTube clip to show me how annoying it was.
Camera Obscura’s ‘Country Mile’ – which I have a feeling is being used as a music bed on a TV trailer at the moment. There’s no other explanation for it cropping up so often.
The Inchworm song – Ironically every time I think about earworms. “Earworm, earworm, measuring the marigolds…” makes a change from Om anyway.
Though not Jewish, I have spent the entire last month with my brain playing an endless repetition of The Dreidel Song, but with lyrics rewritten for whatever I’m doing at the time (usually related to my baby daughter.)
Oh, I have a little diaper. I wear it all around.
And if I did not wear it, my butt would hit the ground!
Oh Diaper Diaper Diaper!
My diaper covers me!
Diaper Diaper Diaper!
In diaper I do pee!
Please . . . let it stop!
I had a real problem with “Tom Sawyer” from Rush for a while. Haunted my brain every time I heard it. Also, I consider it to be the worst song ever recorded.
Perfect solution is to listen to ‘Girl from Ipanema’ it will obliterate whatever is stuck in your head. Can’t guarantee you won’t end up with Ipanema stuck there instead though, but at least it’s good LOL.
“Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” which I know primarily from a Casio keyboard preset. Acres of early-’80s soft rock and adult contemporary that my mom used to listen to on the radio; I can access the complete hits of Air Supply with very little trouble. I think this is why I became a rock critic: to banish those goddamned songs from my head. I hasn’t worked as well as I’d have liked, though.
Now I must here this amazing riff, before it’s banned under the Geneva Convention and/or used to soften-up prisoners at Guantanamo. But eMusic doesn’t seem to carry any sludge-metal band called Om.
I get little temporary earworms, especially while semi-awake in the morning, but they usually dissipate before they drive me insane. Some of the common ones are “Substitute” by the Who, and “Airwaves” by Thomas Dolby, which are fortunately both songs I like. But for a while in summer 2002, “Fixed Income” and “Giving Up The Ghost” by DJ Shadow were getting pretty obsessive in a scary way.
I think Earworms are nesting in my brain. I spend half the day listening to snatches of songs that i just can’t shift. As i type this message, i’m stuck on The Capricorns “The First Broken Promise”. Not one for relaxing to…..
And now you’ve mentioned Thomas Dolby, i’ve got “windpower” to contend with. ta very much snej…
Ode to Joy. I seem to recall hearing that’s the most common earworm, just my luck to be common. Layla & Bell Bottom Blues seem to bubble up less as time goes by. Earworms seem to attack at work when the jobs so boring the rest of your brain decides to amuse itself.