Music ear-worms

10 MIN READ

We’ve all had music lyrics stuck in our heads. Those catchy tunes or fragments of songs that randomly pop into our minds and loop repeatedly. Sometimes the words are welcome, and other times, not so much. Sometimes we remember the lyrics exactly as they were sung, and other times we realize we were waaaay off. 

Have you ever looked up the lyrics to see how close your were? Sometimes the actual words and meaning are better than the vague notion we had in our heads. And other times, we prefer our own meaning over the original. It’s a fun way to pass the time and maybe even learn a little from the music artists that inspire us. 

This common brain phenomenon inspired the Tianbini Music Collection, so the team at Quick Pickle Design decided to sit down with Sebastian Tianbini to get his take.

Here’s the interview: 

QPD Staff Writer: Sebastian Tianbini, thanks for being here with us today.

Tianbini: Thanks. It’s good to be here.

QPD Staff Writer: We want to talk about the Music Collection. What inspired it?

Tianbini: Oh, this is a fun one. Who doesn’t love a good ear-worm? Or on the other hand, who doesn’t just absolutely hate some ear-worms? They can be joyful or maddening. I think that’s what makes them so fascinating.

QPD Staff Writer: Is that what you call them? Ear-worms?

Tianbini: I think I read the technical term somewhere as “Stuck Song Syndrome,” but I prefer brain-worm or ear-worm. It’s easier to remember and more descriptive of how it actually feels when we get a song stuck in our heads. Either way, it’s an interesting phenomenon.

QPD Staff Writer: What interests you about it?

Tianbini: Well, it occurred to me that ear-worms must be more than just a random thing we experience for no reason. There must be some sort of explanation, so I decided to read up on it.

QPD Staff Writer: And what did you learn? Can you break it down for us?

Tianbini: Fair warning. I’m a designer. I tend to break things down like a designer, not a scientist.

QPD Staff Writer: Of course.

Tianbini: Ok, let’s break down the design of an ear-worm into form and function. The form is the part we can see. These days, neuroscientists can image our brains using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). They can see how changes in blood flow occurs in real time. If they see blood flowing here or there, it stands to reason that that part of the brain must be involved with the ear-worm. And no surprise, those parts of the brain where we experience ear-worms tend to be where we process auditory waves and memory. I think we all know this intuitively. I’m glad some people out there are studying the brain in this way, but this doesn’t get to anything practical for me. I tend to be more interested in the function of an ear-worm. I guess that falls more to the psychologists and other disciplines, and not the neuroscientists.

QPD Staff Writer: Yeah, I’m glad people are researching it and I’m also glad it’s not me. It seems since we can’t all be scientists, we tend to become arm-chair psychologists instead.

Tianbini: Yes, arm-chair psychologists or maybe sociologists, in this case. And I think this is OK as long as we realize our limitations as non-experts in a given field. I try to stick to good reasoning and always remain willing to change my mind based on new information. But as far as my understanding goes today around the function of the ear-worm, it appears to be rooted in a strong emotional response when we hear a song that triggers our need for meaning and storytelling.

QPD Staff Writer: I sense a clear theme with you. It’s all about meaning and storytelling.

Tianbini: Yes, of course. I would argue what makes us uniquely human are our abilities to make and share pictures, music, food, and maybe games. These are the most fundamental building blocks of our culture. And our cultures are filled with the stories we tell each other. Music is a great way to tell stories.

QPD Staff Writer: Ok, and so this brings us to the function of an ear-worm rooted in emotions, meaning, and storytelling. Can you break that down for us?

Tianbini: Sure. Let’s start with the emotional connection. It seems songs or lyrics become ear-worms because they hold emotional significance for us. When we hear a song that resonates with our emotions or memories from our past, it can stick in our minds more strongly than it would otherwise. Our brains might latch onto these words as a way of processing the meaning of our emotions or maybe just to relive our emotions and experiences from the past.

QPD Staff Writer: There’s that word “significance” again. You brought up “significance” in our conversation about good design and how the word “design” shares the root word “sign” with the word “significance.”

Tianbini: Yes, and the word “significance” is the word we use to describe the main importance of the meaning of something. I think I also said something about that we probably use the word “sign” several times a day. See how the building blocks of our spoken language are reused and recombined without us even thinking about it? 

QPD Staff Writer:  Yes, indeed. Sorry, I didn’t mean to distract us from the function of ear-worms.

Tianbini: No problem. You’re making a good observation. Consider that the same song lyrics can represent different significance for different people. It all comes down to personal relevance for each of us. What each of us thinks is personally significant is related to our personal experiences, values, and beliefs. And of course, our experiences, values, and beliefs are what make up our culture. Our brains might prioritize processing and rehearsing certain lyrics as a way of reinforcing our sense of identity and connection to our culture or our understanding of the world, in general.

QPD Staff Writer: That makes sense.

Tianbini: And consider that most lyrics form a structural narrative – a story of some sort. That brings us to storytelling. Which again, as we discussed last time, there are many common patterns or structures found in stories. We talked about popular movies as an example. Stories in music are also tied to our culture. They reinforce our understanding of our culture and our identity within it.

QPD Staff Writer: So I think what I’m gathering from this conversation so far is that ear-worms help us reinforce meaning of something important or significant for us. And maybe they are even related directly to how we perceive our identity within a culture or possibly the many sub-cultures with which we can relate on some level.

Tianbini: Yes, I think that’s a good way of saying it.

QPD Staff Writer: Ok, but what about the ear-worms we don’t like? Those annoying ones that get stuck in our heads. Why would our brains do that to us?

Tianbini: That’s a good question. There are probably several answers to this. The first one that comes to mind for me is – let’s be honest – maybe we just say we don’t like some of these ear-worms because we’re embarrassed that we like a particular song that might not be liked within the group or culture with which we identify.

QPD Staff Writer: Yeah, good point. Social pressures cause us not to like it or at least say we don’t like it.

Tianbini: That’s right. Although, I don’t think that’s the full answer. I recall from my reading that boredom and stress can increase the likelihood of experiencing an ear-worm. Boredom makes sense to me. When our minds are idle, we tend to fill the void with something. Maybe ear-worms are a form of day-dreaming. When we sleep, we might say our brains are idle, but as we know, our brains are anything but idle. We dream. And the experts tend to describe dreams as a way we process and make meaning of what we experienced in our waking state. So just like we might experience bad dreams in our sleep, sometimes we experience bad ear-worms throughout the day while we’re awake.

QPD Staff Writer: Interesting. I like that. Ear-worms might just be a form of day dreaming, good or bad. Any thoughts on stress?

Tianbini: Well, I’m no psychologist, but I do understand stress can cause certain brain behaviors, such as the “fight or flight” response. Or these days, we say “fight, flight, or freeze” response. Maybe when we’re stressed, ear-worms are a form of “freezing.” We get stuck on a thought over and over. This seems akin to what psychologists call “perseveration.” The act of preserving on a single thought, over and over. I’m sure we can perseverate on some good thoughts, but we tend to think about getting stuck on negative thoughts triggered by stress. So maybe with good or bad ear-worms, boredom or stress, it doesn’t matter. We’re processing meaning and significance that is important to us.

QPD Staff Writer: You might be onto something here. Ear-worms certainly do persist, or as you say, persevere in our thoughts. And often outside of our control. Any ideas on what makes an ear-worm more likely to get in our heads in the first place? Is it all about our perceived significance in the meaning?

Tianbini: Good question. I think the meaning and significance is what makes them stick and repeat. But I have to imagine there are other characteristics of ear-worms that make some more successful than others at sticking in the first place. Let’s just think about what we know about lyrics. Lyrics, when they are written well, evoke imagery. And our brains try to process those words into images, very much like when we read a poem. Lyrics and poems can be like puzzles. They take some time to figure out. And puzzles are a type of game. And we know how addictive games can be. Maybe a good combination of a story and a game is just somehow naturally hard to resist. That is, of course, if we’re interested in figuring out the meaning in the first place. But I think there’s more to it the this.

QPD Staff Writer: Such as…

Tianbini: Well, we’re talking about music here and we haven’t mentioned anything about the phonetic part of lyrics. We know the common structures in music, rhyme and rhythm, are strongly connected to memory. Maybe there is something about the rhyme or alliteration of the words that attracts us. Or the cadence of the words. In these cases, I think we’re drawn to either the familiar or the unfamiliar. Both can be attractive. For example, if a song has the same old rhymes, then who cares? The familiarity is boring. But when we encounter an unusual combination of words, that can really catch us off guard. That bit of unfamiliarity or the novelty can be irresistible. And the same for cadence. If the lyrics follow the rhythm too closely, that’s boring. It’s when the words fall in unfamiliar parts of the meter of the music that really get us. We marvel at the creativity when we hear something different or off, but somehow it still works.

QPD Staff Writer: All true. I can relate with these examples. You described the unfamiliar there. How is the familiar attractive to us?

Tianbini: The familiar is attractive when we’re talking about the phrasing or melody of the music. And no surprise, this is rooted in different cultures. For example, Western cultural music uses Western tuning and Western scales. We expect certain notes to lead to other notes in a particular key or scale. If they don’t follow what is familiar, it can sound really bad to our ears, or just plain wrong. Or consider the emotions that are evoked from hearing major versus minor notes. These are well understood to be a big part of making music. I would say, as a general rule, music relies on the familiar. Now to play the flip side to this. When these familiar rules are broken successfully, it can be irresistible to our ears. So that’s why I think there is something to a combination of the familiar and unfamiliar or the expected and the unexpected that can make one ear-worm more attractive than another.

QPD Staff Writer: It’s as if we’re attracted to different ways of breaking the rules within the rules. In this case, the rules of writing words and music.

Tianbini: That’s right. Just as I mentioned in our conversation about the key to good design. Being creative within limitations. Being creative within the rules.

QPD Staff Writer: Now I’m curious if there are any ways in which the rules get broken and we know they are wrong, but somehow it’s still ends up being successful. Maybe successful isn’t the right word. Let’s say effective. Kind of like the bad ear-worm that makes its way into our heads.

Tianbini: You mean in writing? Or in music?

QPD Staff Writer: Oh, I don’t know, Yes, either, I guess. There’s something about the bad ear-worms. They can be effective even when I don’t care about the artist, the song, or the meaning. It’s just wrong and somehow it succeeds to persist rent-free in my brain.

Tianbini: Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Like when someone sings off-key on purpose. It can get in your head in a bad way. And you know they know it sounds bad, but they do it anyway, because they know it’s effective at worming its way in. 

QPD Staff Writer: Yeah, things like that.

Tianbini: I doubt it’s a new thing, but I think I see it more frequently these days. There are some songs like this, for sure. I can think of at least a couple commercial jingles that sing off-key on purpose too. Whatever it is it, the motivation seems to be to exploit your human condition in order to gain your attention. Most likely to sell you something. I’m definitely not a fan of them, effective or not.

QPD Staff Writer: Yeah, I prefer the good ear-worms, whatever good might mean to us as individuals.

Tianbini: I would like to think the good ones are not made to exploit a human weakness that we don’t fully understand.

QPD Staff Writer: Agreed. I know we have to wrap up. Any closing thoughts on this?

Tianbini: Well, maybe only to say we’ve barely scratched the surface. There is so much to explore on this subject. But for now, I would like to ask you and others out there, what are your favorite ear-worms? The current Tianbini Music Collection barely scratches the surface. And as we discussed, what is significant to one person might not be to another. I’m curious to know what others think. What ear-worms come to mind for you?

QPD Staff Writer: I think that’s a great place to end. Let’s invite everyone to share your favorite or not-so-favorite ear-worms with us in the comments section. Thanks for your time today, Sebastian. Until next time.

Tianbini: Thanks for the conversation.