No need to feel down over a song stuck in your head

Today’s question:

Why do we get songs, even ones we hate, stuck in our heads? Does age have anything to do with it? As I get older it seems to happen more.

Growing old brings many challenges, but fortunately getting a snatch of music stuck in your head – an earworm – doesn’t seem to be one of them.

It is a fairly common affliction. About 90 percent of us report catching an earworm every now and then. The clinical name for it is involuntary musical imagery.

It seems there have been a number of studies done on why we get earworms resulting in a number of different theories.

One idea is that they’re songs you’ve heard a lot. Current hits that are on the radio all the time tend to make up top 10 earworm lists. I found several lists of top earworms which as a mercy to you people I will not run here. However, “YMCA” and “It’s a Small World” do come to mind.

I’m sorry.

Songs that have notes with longer durations but smaller pitch intervals seem to make for good stuck songs, probably because that makes them easier to remember and to sing.

And there seems to be some evidence that people with neurotic tendencies or obsessive-compulsive behavior tend to be more susceptible to earworms than others.

Good news. Now that you’ve been reading this and probably have some song stuck in your head — It’s fun to stay

at the Y-M-C-A — I can tell you how to get rid of them. You didn’t think I’d just off and leave you like that, did you?

Try singing the song to completion, not just the earworm, but all of it.

Or try chewing gum. Or sniffing cinnamon.

Why these should drive the song out your head I don’t know, but they do.

Have a question for Clay? Reach him at 602-444-8612 or clay.thompson@arizonarepublic.com