Why is it that the awful songs stick?

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 26 Feb 2006 3:26 am

Have you ever noticed that when you get a song "stuck" in your head, it's usually something really inane and annoying? I happened to check in with "Austin City Limits" in the wee hours and got shellacked by "Every Day is a Winding Road" by Sheryl Crow.

I can't force myself to remember Tchaikovsky violin licks or anything else remotely useful on that tape-loop-in-my-head, but now I'm apparently stuck with cloying bimbo mysticism until I can displace it with something equally or more profound - hmmm, "Itsy-Bitsy Spider?"

It has something to do with sing-songy, nursery-rhyme simplicity I suppose. Do smarter people or real musicians at least get to suffer from a higher grade of parasitic brain-farts? I mean, did Tchaikovsky himself at least get to hallucinate Brahms, or Strauss?

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 26 Feb 2006 10:35 am

Yup. You gotta overwrite it in your main system with something even worse an pray that it doesn't stick too.

I put on an oldies station and something like "Master Jack", "Indian Lake" or anything by the Archies will wipe it right out, and then QUICK on to some good music.

IF you can find any.

Be careful when you play with your mind though, some results can be permanant.

EJL

Larry Robbins · Post by **Larry Robbins** » 26 Feb 2006 11:00 am

Thats nothing, last week I could not get Achey, Breaky, Heart out of my head for TWO DAYS!!! Contemplated sucide

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 26 Feb 2006 12:55 pm

I just shovelled my driveway with Billy Joel's "Keepin' The Faith" banging around inside my brain.....painful.

"Combed my hair in a pompadour, like the rest of the Romeos wore.....a permanent waaaave, yeah!"

......Ugghhh!! I can sympathize.

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 26 Feb 2006 1:30 pm

They are what's known as an "ear worm".

My personal most annoying ear worm is "The song that never ends" from some children's tv show.

Kinda funny, last week I shut down the truck, with a George Strait tune playing in the CD. Did my day's work with the tune playing in my head all day (including the steel part) , and the moment I started the truck that evening, picked up the tune right exactly where it was in my head.[This message was edited by Ray Minich on 02 March 2006 at 06:43 AM.]

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 26 Feb 2006 6:29 pm

Gregg Galbraith (pretty sure that's who it was), in a thread some time ago, provided us with a surefire antidote. Just sing "Amazing Grace" to the tune of "Gilligan's Island". That'll wipe just about any tune out of your head. But the cure may kill you![This message was edited by Bob Blair on 26 February 2006 at 06:30 PM.]

Craig A Davidson · Post by **Craig A Davidson** » 26 Feb 2006 6:36 pm

David I know what you mean. last week got that Carrie Underwood song in my head. Jesus Take The Wheel had me begging him to do just that and get it out of my head. The only thing is it's just the hook that keeps reappearing.

Jon Moen · Post by **Jon Moen** » 26 Feb 2006 8:10 pm

Sometimes, just playing the offending tune for real will allow you to move on to a different tune.

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 26 Feb 2006 10:28 pm

That problem was especially bad when I was younger, but now that I'm so much older I try to avoid pop music on radio and TV. On the other hand, when I hear a catchy awful song I tend to analyse its structure and try to find out what it is that grabs me. It could be the melody, part of the melody, a harmony, a 'hook' or 'riff' on a particular instrument, a chord progression, or an amp tone. The one thing I don't pay much attention to is the lyric content. Lyrics to pop songs (rock, country, or whatever subgenre) are often about things that I don't care about (e.g. you-me boy-girl romantic love, lost love, cars, drinking, partying, etc.).

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 26 Feb 2006 11:48 pm

I'm afraid that the "Bimbo-Mystic" lyric content is what I used to care about, at least the mystic part, and I'm afraid that maybe that's why it's stuck. Spiritual growth or regeneration used to be considered both a worthy goal and a daunting task - now it's more like the theme song for a soda-pop commercial. Why, even the right shampoo can provoke a burst of nirvana! Rinse your way to Shangri-La.... If you go online, you can even find "tips on spirituality" from Paris Hilton - hmmm, this must be easier than I remember....

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"The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his own room." - Pascal

Ron Sodos · Post by **Ron Sodos** » 27 Feb 2006 9:37 am

If I have a song playing in my head i have to turn on the TV or radio to reprogram what I heard last. That ususlly allows me to relax and fall asleep.

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 27 Feb 2006 9:52 am

Have you ever noticed that when you get a song "stuck" in your head, it's usually something really inane and annoying?

Do you mean something like "Mairzy Doats & Dozy Doats"? You older guys get with it and try to sleep....you remember this song!

Marlin Smoot · Post by **Marlin Smoot** » 27 Feb 2006 11:59 am

This may be toooo much information...but here goes;

SCIENTISTS have discovered what makes a tune catchy by pinpointing the precise part of the brain where a song’s "hook" gets caught.

It is the auditory cortex - the area that handles information from the ears - that holds on to musical memories.

A team from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, played music to volunteers while using a technique called functional magnetic resonance imagery to scan their brains. As the music was played, parts of the tune were cut. Researchers found volunteers mentally filled in the blanks if a familiar song was missing snippets, although the same effect was not seen with unfamiliar tunes.

The brain activity was picked up by the scan and found to be centred in the auditory cortex.

Dr David Kraemer, one of the team whose research is published in the journal Nature, said: "We played music in the scanner, and then we hit a virtual ‘mute’ button. We found people couldn’t help continuing the song in their heads and when they did this, the auditory cortex remained active even though the music had stopped."

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 27 Feb 2006 5:03 pm

..."Was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o,
B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, B-I-N-G-O, and Bingo was his name, o..."

Jim Bob Sedgwick · Post by **Jim Bob Sedgwick** » 27 Feb 2006 5:47 pm

....Bimbo, Bimbo, Where you gonna goeo? Bimbo, Bimbo What you gonna doeo? Bimbo, Bimbo, does your Mommy know: You're going down the road to see a little girleo.?[This message was edited by Jim Bob Sedgwick on 27 February 2006 at 05:48 PM.]

Dayna Wills · Post by **Dayna Wills** » 1 Mar 2006 11:24 pm

I thought that was Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy? Yes? No?
(who cares)
Sometimes the song that sticks in my head is the last song I did at the gig and since I only do tunes I like, it's ok.

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Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 2 Mar 2006 6:29 am

Right now it's "It's Not Unusual."

Bob Watson · Post by **Bob Watson** » 2 Mar 2006 8:32 pm

I worked with a drummer who said that singing or humming the tune "New York New York" was the best way to block another tune out of your head. It works for me.

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » 4 Mar 2006 4:43 pm

Ain't that the truth. I have a lot of different staions programmed in my car since my CD changer is out for repair. I have a couple of oldies stations and they will throw something in like "Jive Talkin" by the BEE GEES, and it takes me a about a week to get it out of my head.
Lefty

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 5 Mar 2006 6:46 pm

"It's a small world after all..."

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 6 Mar 2006 5:07 am

DOGGONE YOU, LEE

!

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 6 Mar 2006 4:26 pm

Actually, 'Steel Guitar Rag' has been the bane of my auditory cortex for some time now .....

Gary Harris · Post by **Gary Harris** » 16 Mar 2006 11:02 am

That fellow up there in Hanibal, Missouri wrote a story about this subject.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 23 Mar 2006 5:48 am

Anyone remember/identify these intros?

"Da-da, da-da-da, da dada da, da-da..."

"Brummmmmmmm, brump brummmmmm.
Brummmmmmmm, brump brummmmmm."

Bill Mayville · Post by **Bill Mayville** » 23 Mar 2006 6:22 am

My therapist says the way to get rid of any
song that lingers, is to put a ending of your liking to the song,then start another,but not take it to far.

Bill

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