In the Chicago Reader’s October 15 The Straight Dope, a woman named Meg complains about songs being stuck in one’s head. Her personal “stupid tune” that she reports she’s “getting really sick of” is Soft Cell’s wonderful yet bitter “Tainted Love,” which happens to be one of my favorite songs because, sorrowfully, I can so readily identify with its lyrics. (I even once attempted to “sing” it at a karaoke club, but horrifically butchered the ditty.)
But if one is going to be plagued by an Ohruwurm, I can’t think of a better one than “Tainted Love.” :rolleyes:
This is the upcoming column – it’s already out in print – online very soon.
Moving to CCC.
(I’ve been plagued with several of these over the years, including “Brandy, you’re a fine girl.” Guess there’s something about bubblegum pop songs that make them particularly sticky. )
I have found that when I shut off my car in the middle of a song I know well (e.g., on a mix-disc I’ve created), the song tends to stay in my head all day at work, as if it needed to finish and reach resolution, but can’t until I hear it outside my head.
This can be kind of embarrassing when I realize I am absentmindedly humming (or worse, singing) a punk song at the office…
Wow. Admin quickly deleted a threadjack. Was curious as to what melody by Bach (J.S. or J.C.?) was written specifically to squelch Ohrwurms! Turned out to be promoting some homeopathy or similar nonsense. But was a hopeful if temporary diversion.
The column wasn’t clear… Is a Ohrwurm always a bad thing? Earworm sounds so negative.
I enjoy playing songs in my head. Especially when I’m trying to relax. It’s like having a jukebox in your head. Sometimes, I can’t get a specific song started and that bugs me…
I rarely get one stuck. Free Credit Report.com’s song pops into my head occasionally. I have to think of something else to make it go away.
A friend turned me on to this. Imagine the song being sung by Bob Dylan. It’s worked every time for me, unless of course the earworm is a Dylan song. But then it’s not so bad.
I’m a musician, and I always have a tune going through my head. I don’t see it as an affliction at all. If a tune gets stuck, repeating endlessly, I can get rid of it by imagining another one. When it’s just me, at home alone, or driving in the car, I rarely turn on the radio or play music on the stereo; I already have some good stuff patched straight into my brain. Just thinking of the title or seeing a lyric exceprt is enough to get me going. If a particularly annoying one (Disney’s “It’s A Small World”) won’t leave, then often listening to something else helps. Also, listening to the actual tune, followed by another works. But I’ve learned to change ‘channels’ just by imagining another tune.
A couple of times in my life, through lack of sleep and too much drinking, I had actual auditory hallucinations of bizarre ethereal music (don’t ask, they were crazy times). I heard an entire choir in the bathroom, and it scared the bejesus out of me. I dragged my wife in there to listen, and it was the plumbing in the toilet; the water was running.
Now playing (in my head): Count Basie with Jimmy Rushing, “Sent For You Yesterday.”
Music runs through my head all the time. Usually something I heard recently with a catchy beat. Sometimes, it’s distracting. Sometimes I don’t like it. Kids songs and jingles can be the worst. The “hamster song” is a particularly bad one for this. Check Youtube if you’re brave enough.
Usually sitting quietly and still for a moment concentrating on the void clears my head. Usually I have to do it a couple of times to get rid of a particularly annoying song.
I’ve found stimulants such as caffeine can make it worse.
I once had a physics teacher recommend this, except he suggeseted Metallica instead of Dylan.
However, I originally came into this thread to say I prefer Howard Tayler’s pseudo-scientific termthan ohrwurm.
And that such memetic infectors really should be banned.
He has parodied almost all of my earworms, so now when one “those tunes” get stuck in my head I have the far more pleasing Weird Al lyrics (“Don’t play that song/That achy breaky song/The most annoying song I know”) accompanying them than the shudder original.
I wonder how it might be related to the phenomenon I’ve just named of “song burnout”…When you absolutely adore a new song and just have to listen to it over and over and over…but in a very short time, you’re bored with it.
It’s this phenomenon that makes it hard for me to name my favourite songs; because the songs that really hook me are the ones I can’t listen to now…
Made me genuinely lol.
That’s the background music for hell sorted out, now we just need to work out the decor…
)