So, researchers have recently been looking at the phenomenon of music getting stuck in people's heads, which apparently has happened to 98 percent of the population at one time or another. I liked the term they introduced for it: they call it an "earworm."
What I found interesting about this is that I seem to have an extreme variation of this "problem," although it doesn't bother me much. There is just about always music playing in my head. I mean, quite seriously, just about every waking hour of every day. It feels weird when there's no music in my head. You can literally walk up to me almost any time and ask me what's playing in my head. As I'm typing this, it's In Memory of Elizabeth Reed by the Allman Brothers. Except it just switched over to the (second) theme song to Lost In Space by John Williams. For whatever reason, both are instrumentals, but musically, I've always been more interested in melody and beat than lyrics anyway.
Occasionally, if I'm concentrating very, very hard on something, the music stops. I rarely concentrate that hard--I have to be to the point where I've shut down the world around me and am completely focused on one thing. Which I've recently read is something men are more prone to do than women.
Anyway, sometimes I get a song stuck in my head that gets annoying. But I can make it go away by just concentrating on another song. Sometimes I have to try harder than others.
Does anyone else have this strange quirk of brain behavior? (Link via Rand Simberg).
It happens to me on a fairly regular basis; about the only cure is to crank up the stereo with something diametrically opposite. Beethoven's Seventh, for instance, would be countered by Black Sabbath's "Paranoid".
Yeah, I'll get a tune stuck in my head sometimes, but not often. When it happens, though, it can just about drive me nuts. Seems the harder I try to get rid of it, the more it sticks in my head. In my case, usually it's golden oldies rock music.
But one of the worst bouts I ever had came from reading a piece written by Mark Twain. He starts off with a little ditty that begins, "Punch, brothers, punch with care, punch in the presence of the passenjare..." And (as I suspect Twain intended) it was days before I could get this "earworm" out of my head.
Tell you what, I'm in a cruel mood this morning, so here's a link to Mark Twain's Punch, Brothers, Punch. Only don't say I didn't warn you.
Bwahahahaha!
Dean:
I'm with you. Music, all the time.
I'm a shark swimming in an ocean of music. I've got to keep moving or I'll expire.
Actually it's quite entertaining and very economical!
One "new" phenomenon -- I recently got a CD player for my car and (you know where this is going, perhaps) if I park the car and shut off the ignition while a CD is playing, the earworm is the tune that was playing on the CD.
What's weird is that when I get back into the car the CD starts up and now I've got two versions of the same song playing -- one in my head and the same one on the CD player.
Can't always tell which one is real!
Oh, and the tune in my head right now is the third cut from "Orchestra Baobab" a fabulous CD of Afro-Cuban music.
CGHill:
Beethoven's Seventh? Yikes, that just registered on me, one of my occasional recurrent "earworms" is the second movement from that symphony... which I think I originally "came down with" from hearing it played toward the end of the movie Zardoz...
I also always have music going on in my head (I refer to it as my "soundtrack"). Currently I have the ending theme from the video game Sakura Taisen 2 playing, for no apparent reason.
In regards to the comment about cutting off a song in mid-play and getting it stuck, that is a well-known phenomenon, especially if it is a song you know. Your mind did not get "closure" on the song, and since it knows the rest of it, it keeps playing it over and over until you give it "closure" or get something else stuck in it. It probably works a little differently for everybody, though.
I'm sailing away...
I can hear the adagio from Mozart’s 21st “Elvira Mardigan” concerto right now. Whenever I think of a space movie, I unerringly think of 2001 Space Odyssey where they play that Mozart piece. I often think of the adagio to Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. The Rach III is one of the most dramatic piano pieces ever written. It is alternately dramatic, romantic and melancholic throughout.
Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony is the most euphonious symphony I ever heard. I find it relaxing after a long, hard day; or, good listening for meditating. I do not believe any music collection is truly complete without a set of his piano sonatas. His “Moonlight” and “Appassionata” sonatas are alternately dramatic and romantic when played well, especially by Ashkenazy.
I generally don't suffer from this, but after reading all these comments, now I've got Dennis Leary's "Voices in My Head" going on.... Heh.
I've had music playing in my head most of my life at least when I was younger.
It stopped for a while when I had my first bout of depression.
Sometimes the choice of music seems like a comment on my situation.
Current Music:
Talking Heads "Born Under Punches"
Well, I did have the second "Lost in Space" theme in there after reading Dean's post. But now it's "Born Under Punches."
I'm a tumbler.
I'm with you, Dean! As a Hokie, it's unfortunate that I often have "Hail to Pitt," though at least it's not the Notre Dame fight song. Right now I've got Voodoo by Godsmack and Moldau by Smetana duking it out, while Kaltes, Klares Wasser by Chicks on Speed vs. Malaria is currently entering the fray...
On the other hand, I spend less on batteries for my CD player.
There have been times I've heard startlingly realistic music in my head. These were the times I had a serious fever as a child. Now, I rarely hear music in my head.
It's funny you ask. I guess I just figured most everyone always had some tune or another going on inside.
I can't really say when it started, but I remember "Jack and Diane", and lots of Jimmy Buffet's songs would get/be stuck in my head. I was only 5 or so and would have to bug my
dad 'till he'd play the album.
Music's as much a part of me as anything, even though the words may not be very clear at times. I appreciate the internal soundtrack. It's usually a mood enhancer for me. More so when I'm at a job I have a hard time enjoying(busy restaurants-esp fast food).
When driving, often the last song playing is the one I can't forget. But the absolute worst is a tie!
(1) when a song is just inappropriate for the setting you are in.
(2) driving when you can't find a good song on the radio . You end up with some "latest release from ..." stuck in your head. Tenfold if you've established a dislike for it before. Suddenly you know the words and are singing along a week later, much to your chagrin.
Finally, I can't count how many times I have wished I could somehow record the composition.
The barrage of music is non-stop like some the pevious posters.
Unlike them I HATE IT!
There seems to be nothing that I can do about it.
Even when I was on Prozac for an unrelated bout of depression the music persisted.
It makes it hard to concentrate and makes reading a chore.
I am not a sight reader like speed readers are.
I sound the words out in my head as most of us do.
The music is often much louder than my reading "voice" and therefore much of what I am reading is drowned-out by the music and I must re-read passages I just got done reading.
I am not at the point of suicide but I could see how it could drive someone to that point!
I have music playing in my head right now. I feels like it is playing from a remote location. It started quite recently. I have been a musican since I was a child. Started out playing the guitar then the organ. This is funny but everytime I hear music (it doesn't happen often) it is early in the morning when I am working really hard. Isn't that odd?