# Why do I get a song stuck in my head?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-get-a-song-stuck-in-my-head/233342>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 9, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-get-a-song-stuck-in-my-head/233342 "2004-03-09T20:40:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Greenhead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenhead/32/5853_2.png) [@Greenhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenhead)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-get-a-song-stuck-in-my-head/233342/1 "2004-03-09T20:40:25Z")

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What are the psychological aspects, if any, surrounding the phenomemon of a song getting stuck in a person’s head?

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**Author:** ![AV8R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@AV8R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AV8R)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-get-a-song-stuck-in-my-head/233342/2 "2004-03-09T22:26:23Z")

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ya gotta scratch that [brain itch](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3221499.stm)

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**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-get-a-song-stuck-in-my-head/233342/3 "2004-03-10T00:20:58Z")

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I was going to say that I had read somewhere that it was to do with the brain trying to complete unresolved scales/melodies… but I see that **AV8R** has not only beaten me to it, but found the right link too!

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**Author:** ![kezami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eb8c5e/32.png) [@kezami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kezami)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-get-a-song-stuck-in-my-head/233342/4 "2004-03-10T00:29:51Z")

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In music biz parlance it’s called a ‘hook’. It’s designed to make $$$.

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**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-get-a-song-stuck-in-my-head/233342/5 "2004-03-10T01:59:45Z")

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That “brain itch” article said that musicians are _more_ susceptible to this phenomenon. I consider myself a musician (electric guitar) and I never suffered from this “I can’t get this song out of my head” syndrome. I always thought that musicians would be _less_ susceptible to it. My reasoning is that there’s a lot of songs, melodies, chord patterns, scales, etc “sloshing around” in my brain so that 1 song will _easily_ replace another that is “playing” in my head.

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**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-i-get-a-song-stuck-in-my-head/233342/6 "2004-03-10T03:28:46Z")

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I am not a scientist, but have often wondered if this is related to how speech was formed. I think it is a learning process. Birds will play and replay certain songs, as will whales. I keep thinking that this is how we learned shared sounds before we learned speech. But it is just a thought.