Why Songs Get Stuck in Your Head, and How to Get Rid of Them

It might be a film song you heard at a wedding, a jingle from a TV advert, or a tune from a reel you scrolled past this morning. Hours later it’s still playing in your head, the same few lines over and over.

You’re in good company. Getting a song stuck in your head is one of the most common experiences people have, and in the last fifteen years psychologists have started to study it seriously.

What an earworm is

The everyday name, earworm, is a translation of the German word Ohrwurm. Scientists usually call it involuntary musical imagery: music that comes into your mind on its own and repeats, without you choosing to think of it.

Usually it’s just a short part of a song, often the chorus or hook, rather than the whole thing.

How common it is

In a large online survey of more than 10,000 people in Finland, led by the cognitive scientist Lassi Liikkanen, about nine in ten said they experienced earworms at least once a week, and about a third said they had them every day.

For most people, earworms are harmless and fade on their own. Many people even enjoy them.

Earworms are usually just a short part of a song, often the chorus or hook.

What triggers them

Research points to a few common triggers:

• Recent and repeated listening. A song you’ve just heard, or heard many times, is the most likely to come back.
• Memory links. A word, a place or a person can remind you of a song and set it off.
• Low-effort moments. Earworms often turn up when your mind is free to wander: in the shower, while walking or doing chores.
• Stress and tiredness. Some people report more earworms when they are stressed or very tired.

Which songs stick the most

In 2017, a team led by Kelly Jakubowski at Goldsmiths, University of London asked about 3,000 people which songs got stuck in their heads most often. They compared the 100 songs named most often with similar chart songs that people didn’t mention.

The earworm songs tended to have:

• a fairly fast tempo, the kind you might move along to;
• a common, easy-to-remember melody shape, often rising in the first line and falling in the next;
• something a little unusual, such as an unexpected jump between notes or a repeated pattern.

They were also often songs that had been played heavily on radio and in charts. In other words, a simple tune with a small surprise, heard many times, is the perfect recipe.

Why they repeat

One idea is that our minds tend to keep returning to things that feel unfinished, sometimes called the Zeigarnik effect. Because an earworm is usually just a fragment, your brain keeps replaying it, as if trying to complete it.

Earworms may also be a side effect of how memory for music works. Music is built from patterns and repetition, which makes it very easy to remember, and sometimes hard to stop.

How to get rid of an earworm

These methods have some support from research. What works varies from person to person.

1. Chew gum. In a 2015 study at the University of Reading, people who chewed gum after hearing a catchy song thought of it less often. Chewing seems to interfere with the “inner voice” we use to replay music.
2. Do a moderately challenging task. In a 2013 study led by Ira Hyman at Western Washington University, tasks such as anagrams helped keep earworms away. The task should be engaging but not too hard; if it’s too difficult, your mind wanders and the song creeps back.
3. Listen to the whole song. Some people find that hearing the song all the way through, rather than a fragment, gives the brain the “ending” it was looking for.
4. Switch to another song. Choose a calmer, less catchy tune and listen to it, or play it in your head deliberately.
5. Don’t fight it too hard. Trying hard not to think about a song can keep it around longer. Often the best option is to carry on with your day and let it fade.