What Causes Songs to Get Stuck in your Head?

I know everyone has experienced this before. A part of a song will constantly just keep replaying in your head and there is nothing you can do about it.

What exactly causes this? It is happening to me right now.

I don't know.
and I'll have the most RANDOM song get stuck in my head. It could be a choir song that we sang 4 years ago, a song that I sang for music class in elementary school, christmas songs, random songs that I like now.
and I don't know how some of those really random ones pop up xD.
I've practically ALWAYS got a song stuck in my head.
I'm a music junkie.

Listen to this song...



Now you don't have that other song in your head, do you?

You can thank me later.

Originally posted by ANOK
Listen to this song...

Now you don't have that other song in your head, do you?

You can thank me later.

What...
the crap...
did I just listen to?


Ahem, anyhow... You know, i had a thought about this quite some time ago, and came up with an answer of my own.

It always seems that he song that goes through my head relates to something going on in my life, like a question I am having or whatever. Something in the song is the answer to the question I am having or situation I am going through.

Always seems to work out that way for me, anyhow, but it's only to those songs that pop up randomly out of nowhere. Not applicable to songs stuck in the head due to having just heard it or something.

reply to post by SolarE-Souljah


Research "earworms" lol, it will answer all your questions about why songs get stuck in your head!

Link

It's a "rouge wave" of synapse activity much like a tornado. The structure of the tornado supports the kinetics of the tornado, which supports the structure of the tornado, which supports the kinetics. Other synapse current must be imposed (your over-ride consciousness) puts out the "fire" or it runs out of energy after some time (time being the most corrosive element in space-time).

adit- association.

It's good you come up with that. Was planning to start a thread with a similar metaphysics question.

These songs played over and over in one's head. Who sings them?

His ego? His self?

When one starts to hear silences in his head it is said that he's actually meditating because ego-thoughts are off. BUT when silence is disturbed by mind-singing all the time, is it an ultimate ego's attempt to try to corrupt one's meditation? Or is it the sign of a peaceful mind?

Do you get my point?

Peace

reply to post by ANOK


Nah that hurts my earholes.

But nice try!

How about...

You cant beat this....

there is hints of what is going on in this article.

www.cracked.com...


music is mostly used as a tool of manipulation.

Originally posted by SolarE-Souljah
I know everyone has experienced this before. A part of a song will constantly just keep replaying in your head and there is nothing you can do about it.

What exactly causes this? It is happening to me right now.

Emotional Expression in Music and Speech Share Similar Tonal Properties

ScienceDaily (Mar. 14, 2012) — Music is a very strong emotional communicator, and different cultures have different emotional associations for different musical "modes." Now, a new cross-cultural study shows that tonal trends used to express feelings in music are consistent in different cultures and are similar to those used in speech.

www.sciencedaily.com...

To keep it simple, it's about emotion and empathy.

Heh, what happens to be me alot is if im alone in my house random lines from songs will be sung in my head voice(the voice in my head didn't break...Dunno why) for example "There is someone, walking behind you.." "They'll be slaughtered, corpses, left to rot in their graves like filth" "Dead end street, dead end street"

Most of the time it's just music I like that I want to listen to in my head, luckily i'm very musical minded and can do full songs in my head

The reason you keep thinking about it, is because of its simplicity.
Mostly when you get a song in your head, its only the simple part you get stuck with.

Most new singers take advantage of this, like Lady Gaga, Nicky Minaj and so on.

Take MGP as an example, try and go listen to some of that, you will see how easy it is to get one of those songs into your head, even though they suck like hell.

Its all about simple tones and simple text.

I heard once or three times or so... that our life force is made up of vibrations or vibrational patterns. We vibrate at a certain range when young and old... which is why children and old people see ghosts more readily.... and we vibrate at different levels as adults and at different stages.

As such, depending on your mood or vibrational level... some songs or melodies with certain keys or chords will resonnate with you.. especially those with repetitive notes/ keys/ chords.

Studies have shown that certain melodies/ rhythyms can increase heart rates, metabollic rates, alertness... and likewise slowdown and soothe the body and mind.

Ever wonder why you immediately like a certain person or song or melody... having never met or heard it before? Vibrational resonnance. Same reason for immediately being repulsed by a certain person or song.

So, depending on how you are "vibrating" that day determines which melodies just stick with you.

For me, when I get motivated or determined...it's "Panzer Leid." An old WWII German Panzer Tank song.. the one in the old war movie...Battle of the Bulge with Henry Fonda. don't know why... but it does.

Another one that is infectious is that hypnotic Christma melody from Charlie Brown with the high pitched voices of children and a jazzy undertone..." Christmastime is here..." Damn thing goes on forever...

I find that the likelihood of a song getting stuck in your head is inversely proportional to how good the song actually is...

I have a theory.

Hearing certain music creates different emotions in us.

When a person connects with a song they attach memories to that song.

Now it may be that the memories or the emotions trigger the thought of the song.

Or vice versa the song triggers the memories or emotions.

Which ever way it occurs the person is perhaps subconsciously trying to recreate or recapture a relevant moment from ones past experiences.

Whether it made you happy or sad or taught you something valuable.

Perhaps you just needed something to distract you from boredom or depression.

Repeating a song in your head is practice. Practice makes perfect.

Practice for dealing with real life.

It is not just songs that get stuck in the head. Phrases and all thought forms are like echos, i'm sure you have heard the sentence 'your naughty' appear in the mind or 'now there will be trouble!'
Thoughts, like songs, keep repeating.

Originally posted by theRhenn
reply to post by ANOK

 

Nah that hurts my earholes.

But nice try!

Yes it is a horrible annoying song, but I only heard it once and couldn't get rid of it for days, drove me nuts.

That is why I posted it. It must be just me eh? Songs I like never get stuck because I can resolve it, but that songs chorus just goes around and around, with no way to resolve it. That is a true earworm.

I don't even know if the audio in that vid is any good, because I won't listen to it lol. Just handling the file is dangerous.