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It is especially easy for current chart songs to get stuck in our heads for a long time. This is often due to certain songwriting twists to make them as catchy as possible. Ascending and descending melodic arcs, as we know them from children’s songs, are used in many pop hits. Combined with this compositional technique, striking, unexpected leaps in the melody also help to make a melody extremely memorable.
Repetition is also important. Famous songwriters like Max Martin and Burt Bacharach have managed to turn catchy melodies and song structures into an art form. Slick pop songs have been optimized for maximum catchiness using these and similar techniques for decades.
What happens in our brain when it becomes obsessed with a catchy tune?
When a song gets stuck in our head, the melody is first stored in the temporal lobe. This allows us to hear the music internally. It creates stimuli for the frontal lobe, which keeps us singing along in our minds – similar to an internal monologue. From the frontal lobe, the impulses are sent back to the temporal lobe. This creates a perpetual cycle that we find very difficult to interrupt.
But what exactly does music do in our heads? Songs usually get stuck in our heads when we are unfocused or bored – that is, when our brains do not have enough to do. Some experts have described a song stuck in your head as your brain’s music on hold. When we are fully focused, however, the connection between the cells in the temporal and frontal lobes is inhibited, and songs have little chance of getting stuck.
Listening to the song that got stuck in its entirety might help
Fortunately, there are several ways to free ourselves from the eternal inner singalong. One popular strategy is based on the theory that songs get stuck because we are unable to remember the entire piece of music. According to many researchers, it can be effective to listen to the song that got stuck in your head from beginning to end. If we take the time to do this – and realize that only part of the song got stuck – we will be cured in many cases. Until, of course, a new super-catchy song comes along one day.
Reading the song’s lyrics can also help, experts say. Another common piece of advice is to counter a stuck song with another, less catchy piece of music. Chewing gum is also said to help. There have even been some studies on this phenomenon according to which women are more likely than men to have songs stuck in their heads.
