Internal Music

I was wondering about the phenonemnon of music that plays endlessly through one’s head.
I think it is more noticeable when I am bored, but sometimes a song that I don’t even like will play relentlessly on an endless loop .
Why does this happen?
Why can’t the brain shut it off?

Several years back, I was bed stricken with pneumonia. For about 9 hours in the height of my delirium, “Throw your hands in the air–If you’s a true playa…I love it when you call BIG POPPA” by Biggie Fries, played incessantly in my head. I had no visual/aural stimulation, and I really thought I was going to end it all. If I’d had the strength to slit my wrists, I surely would have.

My God, I’m getting upset again (5 or 6 years late) thinking about it.

To answer the OP, I dunno. But be very glad you have the ability to turn on the radio/TV and get something else in there to flush the poop outta yer brain.


That movie taught me some important lessons in life. 1. I can build a robot that loves me. 2. I can reanimate my dead girlfriend by jamming bits of metal and silicon into her skull. Both are lessons I use on a daily basis…

Funny…I was thinking about this very same question earlier today. I have this problem bad; it’s like a 24-hour-a-day jukebox with no control over what’s playing. Last week, it was “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince for about 3 or 4 days straight. I was ready to shoot myself.

I don’t know what causes it, but I recall a professor telling me a few years ago that there is a word in German specifically for this phenomenon. Now I can’t recall the word–anyone here know?

Nothing to add except that it’s usually a song I don’t like.

The SDMB Smoke-Out Continues
Delta-9 Stats
1 week, 2 days, 10 hours, 59 minutes and 43 seconds
189 cigarettes not smoked, saving me $37.83
Life Saved: 15 hours, 45 minutes

oops-
I just noticed that I spelled “phenomenon” wrong.
I think head-music is ultimately caused by some sort or external stimuli, but the connection may be so obscure sometimes that it seems to sprout spontaneously from your brain.
But it seems that there should be much more to it.
Sometimes the volume of the head-music is so loud, that I am compelled to sing, or at least nod my head in time to the beat.
How can it be so loud?
Do musicians hear it more clearly or more often than others?
Also- I wonder why, in the case of a song you like, it doesn’t really help to listen to the head-music. You want to put on the CD.
Sorry about that unfortunate song in your feverish delerium.

I’ve had friends comment that I am humming along with my head-music. I’m frequently not aware that I’m doing it, probably because it’s just such an all-the-time thing for me.

I get this a lot. Usually, I have some degree of control over it (able to induce voluntarily, and choose the song). But always it is very realistic. I don’t usually get the entire song from start to finish (sometimes, I do), but what I do hear is exactly what I would hear if I were to put the CD on. Drums, guitar, vocals, background sounds, everything. I’ve even noticed stuff that I didn’t conciously notice when actually listening to the CD.

Where it comes from? I don’t know. It seems like it’s similar to the phenomenon of echoic memory, which is what allows you to replay sounds you’ve just heard.