my friend was repeatedly singing this song over and over and i started to wonder if sometimes…not always…that people will repeat a portion of a song over and over because their mind is trying to solve a problem. of course it could just be that they like the song, but this is for the times when they claim they don’t like it and they genuinely don’t like it. Is it possible for the reppetition of the song being a way for their brain trying to solve a problem and that somehow the song, maybe the rythem and flow of it somehow links and associates to the answer and is trying to maybe get “you” to make the grasp? again sorry for making the question lengthy but i have the GREATEST trouble asking a question in little space. (perhaps i should find a song i can’t stop singing) 
There always ideas that bubble up from the subconscious into the conscious mind - planned conversations, old conversations, catch-phrases, images and songs. According to Dr Susan Blackmore, the mind does not ‘like’ to be empty of memes.
Songs that easily inhabit others minds tend to get passed around. e.g. you hear someone whistling a song and it rattles around in your head for a while. Catchy tunes tend to get played on the radio more often and are passed around more effectively.
When solving a problem I have found that it is a nuisance to have a song repeating in my mind - it competes for working memory.
I am not sure what the properties of a piece of music are that make it persist in ones mind, but something that is likely to survive time and space via others minds is more likely to also persist in yours. Catchy tunes get around. I doubt very much if the song actually assists solve a problem in some way.
that’s an interesting view. I loved reading about memes and how it ties into evolution theory. Very interesting stuff. I ask the question about trying to solve a problem by hearing a song b/c of the Repetitious component of a lot of pop songs and other types of music. it was the repetition component that got me because i have read that people will often have repetitive dreams when they are trying to solve a problem. I thought maybe it is another way of the unconscious trying to get you to the answer or at least to solving it.
I have known some rather eccentric people.
One requested a "Thinking Stick’ which was made to his specifications by the wood shop. Another wanted a rubbing stone made from a large flat pebble. A depression was ground out on one side so that his thumb could rub the depression. I’ve seen each of them deeply absorbed in thought while slowly rubbing the stick or stone.
I have wondered the same thing. What really gets me is when I have a quote from a speech or a line from a poem stuck in my head and I can’t give it a voice as I would with a song, humming along or singing the words under my breath. I imagine I would appear somewhat freakish to my coworkers if I were to walk around chanting, Panzerman, Panzerman, O You… (precisely what was stuck in my head yesterday).
I’m not sure of the terminology, but I remember reading that many of the catchiest songs use a sort of musical device in which a melody is never “resolved”, so your brain keeps on playing it over trying to work it out. Or something.