Earworms affect all of us at some point, I mean, who hasn’t had a catchy pop song stuck in their head? Or worse, the song from the Hive advert. You know the one, where the guy singing it just sounds a little too pleased with himself?
These are all annoying enough. And then you become a parent. And you start having kids TV on during the day. And then you find yourself lying in bed with the perfect slumber party song from Sofia the first going round and round in your head. Or the ‘make some noise‘ song. Or ‘roll up the map‘ from Jake and the Neverland pirates.
Yeah, we watch a lot of Disney junior in our house! For the Cbeebies families out there, how about the theme tune from ‘Something special’? Or, oh God, the spring time song!
You hate me a little bit now don’t you, for putting those songs in your head? Well I’m about to make it all better – apparently there’s a way to get them out again!
Dr Philip Beaman from the University explains that the brain’s tendency to play catchy tunes on repeat might be ‘a form of involuntary musical memory’. The key word here is ‘involuntary’, which is why you can’t just will away a song when it’s stuck in your head. What you can do though is interfere with the playing of these musical recollections.
Previous studies have shown that repeating a random word over and over again in your head can degrade your short-term memory; doing this while looking at list of words has been found to make most people forget 1/3 to 1/2 of the words on the list!
The study at the University of Reading suggests that chewing gum has a similar effect. It disrupts the musical memory enough to get that damn song out of your head.
Well, it has to be worth a try right?!
Ah, thankyou! I’ve had the flipping Crumble Song (Britain’s Got Talent?) in my head for the last 3 days. Need to get me some gum! #Twinklytuesday
Ha, someone else mentioned that song on my Facebook page – sounds like I’m lucky that I don’t know it! x
Thank you for this! I get my kids’ TV shows songs stuck in my head constantly. And if that isn’t bad enough, I just had one part of the song (two words of it) stuck, going on repeat. I nearly cried.
#TwinklyTuesday
Oh that’s awful when you get just a tiny bit stuck in your head! I drive my husband mad some days singing just one line of a song over and over again! x
I love ‘perfect slumber party’! Not quite as good as ‘all you need’ (if it’s called that) we are doing a play at school at the mo so I permanently have those songs (and the accompanying dance moves) going around my head! Xxx
Trust you to actually really like those songs! x
I’m going to have to try this next time I get a Jessie song or a tune from Victorious stuck (Slightly older kids so it’s Disney or Nick for us).
Oh I’ve got all that to look forward to! I think I’ll be glad when we move on from disney junior! x
Off to buy some chewing gum now!! They are so infuriating and you know what is even worse? I often spend the whole day at work singing them! “Let it be me, let it be me, I really really really really hope that it’s meeee!” Arrrrrgh! Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday
Your comment just made me laugh out loud, that is another of the songs that is always stuck in my head! x
This is so true. i’ve always wondered why if I repeat a word over and over I end up forgetting it! I’m always singing catchy tunes. My daughter also walks around the house saying “Sky Believe in Better”. lol Angela xx
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Haha, hope this tip helps next time a song is really stuck in there! x
My little one is 11 weeks old so we haven’t yet ventured into kids TV but at the back of my mind I know it’s going to happen one day soon and I’m dreading it purely for this reason! So this is some sound advice for me to keep in mind when that time comes 😀 #TwinklyTuesday
Haha, enjoy being able to watch whatever you want while you can! I do miss being able to watch adult tv during the day! x