That song that's stuck in your head: the psychology of music

This!!!
And it hasn't left in [I]YEARS!!!!!!![/I]

Kid's TV show theme songs have a horrible way of getting stuck in your head. Like this one:



Watch at your own risk.

a reply to: Stormdancer777

Chicken Fat is actually on an advert/commercial at the moment in the UK, so it's on fairly often.

Good tune

originally posted by: skunkape23
Few things more annoying than a bad ear worm. I sometimes wake up with a tune that I haven't heard in ages playing over and over in my head. Often it's some tacky 80's pop music or 70's rock. I wish I could find a switch to turn it off. Damn it. Just thinking about it turned one on. Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' just turned on. I'm going to crank up some Slayer to drown it out.

Me too, some random song from some old movie, I'm thinking , where did that come from?

As a musician, the "hook" is the HARDEST thing to create. Mastering your instrument is so much easier.

If you explore music's purely mathematical side you see how the major and minor chords are created, how tension is resolved. Putting that together well and BAM you have the outro to Hey Jude.

As a musician I completely LOATH(ED) Mozart's music. Why? It isn't technically challenging or melodically interesting (to my ear) but it is very recognizable by non musicians. If I had my druthers, it would be JS Bach, or Nicolo Paginini or Rode or even John Coltrane (talking 20th century and newer music).

Derek

I had a surgery a couple weeks ago on my deviated septum, had to take a bit of meds for a couple days.

During that time I had this piece of music I had written last May, in my head, it just would not go away.

soundcloud.com... it starts at around 0:53 seconds to like 1:06

in my head it would loop over and over and over..... driving me insane lol, it stopped when I finished the meds.

and mostly happened when I was trying to fall asleep

originally posted by: blupblup
a reply to: Stormdancer777

Chicken Fat is actually on an advert/commercial at the moment in the UK, so it's on fairly often.

Good tune

we exercised to this when I was in school, like a hundred years ago

a reply to: yourmaker

Sometimes I force myself to think of another tune, sad.

a reply to: g146541

when my husband and I listen to some of the old music we listened to and loved when young, I hate it, I tell him, that was really awful wasn't it?

a reply to: Stormdancer777
Awful but in just the last 10 years it has turned to absolute (due to T$C I cannot place the word).
Just a bunch of no talent disney performers...

a reply to: DustbowlDebutante

How stupid does it look for a grown woman to be walking around, singing "Been all around the world, don't speak the language/ But your booty don't need explaining" under her breath in the office?!?

About as much sense as a grown man covered in tattoos walking around with Sam Smith Stay with me in my head..... And trying to hit the high notes to annoy the kids.

originally posted by: Stormdancer777

originally posted by: blupblup
a reply to: Stormdancer777

Chicken Fat is actually on an advert/commercial at the moment in the UK, so it's on fairly often.

Good tune

we exercised to this when I was in school, like a hundred years ago

Same here! It was only the first line when I looked at my wife and said, "Sgt. Chickenfat!" And she had no idea what I meant. It wasn't an insult I swear- she weighs a hundred pounds.

I'm glad this subject came up, I've had the horrible "Let it go" stuck in my head, it's like a migraine for the cortex. To me, the voice is irritating and nasel, and I really hate the song.
You do anything to crowd out the internal radio constantly playing it, but it's in the quiet of the morning, first thing of the day, it barges in, thus spoiling the day for you as you Rush around, putting on music to block it.

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
a reply to: yourmaker

Sometimes I force myself to think of another tune, sad.

lol trust me I tried, eventually I just gave in and let it have at me until it went away

a reply to: jaynkeel

Lol, that's awesome. When I really want to torture my kids in the car, I turn on bluegrass

I love it (some of it, anyway), but they think it's worse than death! I think they hate Old Crow Medicine Show the most!

One song that gets stuck in my head for days whenever I hear it, is this.



Everything would've been fine, except my boss was telling us about it this morning, and to be a jerk, decided to play it while we're doing cycle counts. lol

I think this sums up the psychology behind hits.

originally posted by: g146541
a reply to: Stormdancer777
Awful but in just the last 10 years it has turned to absolute (due to T$C I cannot place the word).
Just a bunch of no talent disney performers...

True.

It's neurological. Whether you love or hate the song, the melodies and tunes increase Serotonin within your brain. A lot of it has to do with the type of person you are or what mood you are in. People with depression or anxiety have low Serotonin levels. Typically upbeat songs (usually the annoying repetitive songs) will increase their Serotonin levels causing a mellow/tranquil state of mind. But anyhow to answer your question, I don't necessarily believe there's a formula for the 'perfect pop song'. Everyone has different Serotonin levels causing the affects of the music they are listening to, to affect every person differently.

a reply to: SuigenerisLooper

There's more to it than just that. It has to do with how the brain deals with hearing patterns in the fundamental sound wave of the song (key) and not liking out of phase wave forms messing with it. check out my post at the bottom of page one that nobody read.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

I'm afraid I disagree. These 'explanations' are just after-the-fact rationalizations that go the rounds among people who have a strong need to explain how music works. They are, in a word, pseudoscience.

Neither a degree in music nor a degree in psychology are any use at all in understanding music. If they were, the Billboard charts would be full of B.Mus's and Ph.D's. The truth is, no-one really knows, in a scientific way, how music has the effects it does. I think this is something we can all be thankful for.

But nearly everyone understands intuitively how music works. Some people understand it so well they can create wonderful music. But even these talented people — songwriters, composers, virtuoso improvisers — don't really know how they're doing it. Listen to them talk about composing or improvising and you realize that it's almost as much as a mystery to them than it is to us. And though each has his or her favourite composing or improvising 'tricks', these very rarely work for other people.

*

There is a group of researchers at Goldsmith's College in London who are trying to put our understanding of how music affects us on a scientific footing. They've begun by studying the very thing this thread is about: the songs that get stuck in your head, or, as the group calls them, earworms (from the German Ohrwurm, which means the same thing). Along with thousands of other people around the world, I participated in the group's research by answering an online questionnaire.

I wonder now whether I should have: no doubt the group's findings will one day be used by marketers and political strategists to manipulate consumers and voters, and to produce cannonfodder for wars. But then, music has always been used in those ways, and maybe the knowledge of how it works will have more benign uses too.

The work of the Earworm Group was reported on in this misleadingly headlined BBC article, which is how I first heard of it.