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'Earworms' & Stuck-Tune Syndrome

julianpenrod - thank you for reminding me about the bloody "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - :rolleyes:

It stuck with me for months back in the early 80s.

But on topic, the idea of earworms, doesn't sound that much difference from the concept of a 'meme', which Richard Dawkins proposed in his book The Selfish Gene these are units of intellectual or cultural information that survive long enough to be recognised, and which can pass from mind to mind. Songs, catch-phrases and even religion could be meme, self-perpetuating thought patterns.

EDIT*
Sorry, pi23, missed your earlier post mentioning memes, skimming the thread too fast again. Apologies.
 
Neal Stephenson deemed them viruses. In "Snowcrash" he posited viruses having two expressions, a physical virus that makes one ill and then resides forever dormant or relatively so in one's tissues, and mental viruses, which are in essence ideas or information. Things as complex as the development of societies from wandering bands nomads to very simple things like the pet rock craze or songs that get stuck in your head. But the coolest thing about his theory is that is does explain why the same darn thing gets invented almost simultaneously in multiple places around the globe. It's almost like several people "catch" an idea and it's been proven to occur. Many many people have tried to explain it with reason ranging from the metaphysical to the eminently pragmatic ("sheer coincidence" which is an observation, not a reason). Stephenson's virus concept comes closer, IMO, than any other I have heard.
 
Dark Detective said:
a few days I ago I was thinking about relocating, and when I'd finished I realised my brain was playing "Should I stay or should I go" by The Clash without any prompting from me...
Click to expand...

oh yes often... lady int he street who reminds me of a left love..Wholelotta Rosie (ACDC)

Frusttrateing coversation/situation ..F***Kin'Aida (Ian drury and Blockheads)

Queing in Postoffice in slow que... Should i Stay Or Should I Go (clash)

On hearing of misfortune of people i dont like...Revenge (Motorhead)

too many to list and often i dont know i know the song/music til it drops into my head!
 
Re: hey Snowman!!

ruffready said:
KEEP ON ROCKIN ME BABY, KEEP ON ROCKIN' ME BABY
KEEP ON ROCKIN' ME BABY, KEEP ON ROCKIN' ME BABY

KEEP ON ROCKIN ME BABY, KEEP ON ROCKIN' ME BABY
KEEP ON ROCKIN' ME BABY, KEEP ON ROCKIN' ME BABY

ad infinitum... :gaga:
Click to expand...

Please Ruff... don't increase the level of torment which I'm currently suffering :eek!!!!:
 
so are they like "memes" or whatever the word is? and we are the vector by which they are spreading?

My personal torments are The Lonely Goatherd and Cat Sctratch Fever


sigh...

Kath
 
stonedoggy said:
Cat Sctratch Fever


sigh...

Kath
Click to expand...


noo havent heard that for 15 yrs..now its in me head!...week end warior ....what ever happened to Ted Nugent?
 
It wasn't me guv, I never laid a finger on him. Honest!


Although presumeably having passed the meme to us he had no further purpose and....


:-D

Do I mean meme?

Kath
 
stonedoggy said:
Do I mean meme?

Kath
Click to expand...

Yes, that's it......and I'd forgotten 'High on a hill was a lonely goatherd Layee-odl-layee-odl-layee-o.......' until five minutes ago.

It's now playing in sequence with 'The Lion Sleeps tonight'
 
last time i heard of Ted Nugent he was makeing vids of hunting with long bows in his private exotic "game reserve"..antilope with big holes in em from cresent shaped arrow heads...gruesome
 
nooo!.... ted nugent still touring!..amazeing the american apitite for rubish rock lol
 
Wow! I have something weird in common with Ted Nugent!!!!!

I shot a rabbit with an arrow :)

only it was accidental. Very small bunny, standard sports arrow, bunny in pieces like stewing meat... very odd.

Didn't want to waste it so the scut is now my field arrow cleaner on my quiver in the netherlands.

Connections, connections, connections....
 
hummm... so how long have u felt this conction with dino metal songsters?...... actuly ive been known to swear like Ozzy osborn at times.... coversly also sing Songs In a Wood...(to make u feel much beter than u could know..better than u could know, to set u up from tip to toe, join in the corus if u can , itll make of u an honest man.....)
 
I'm more of a broadsword and the beast woman....

The song Jack in the Green is one I get asked about in reference to the gree man thing.

As far as memes go - I had one on Pavanne for ages. But it's got no words... so the freight is contained in the music?

Has anyone got a Guide To Memes for Idiots reference?

Kath
 
I guarantee that by the end of next month everyone's head will be buzzing with I'm dreaming of a white Christmas because every supermarket will be playing the bloody thing as usual.
 
crap!! now I go Ozzie in me head!!

side -car
Ozzy osborn at times....
Click to expand...
Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death's construction
In the fields are bodies burning As the war machine keeps turning Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds, Oh Lord yeah !!
:devil:
 
p.younger said:
I guarantee that by the end of next month everyone's head will be buzzing with I'm dreaming of a white Christmas because every supermarket will be playing the bloody thing as usual.
Click to expand...

SLADE.....ahhhhhhh
 
Cat scratch feevuh
Dah-dah dah

Cat scratch feevuh
Dah-dah dah

You bastards!
 
stonedoggy said:
I'm more of a broadsword and the beast woman....

Kath
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ah asociations... job washing up in a hospital sundays 5 hours of walkman (a big as a brick) always saved songs from the wood till last as i bleeched the floor...then off to walk along the disused railway to meet my love....sigh....fwwwooorrr
 
s-j, far from me to interrupt your reverie but i THINK that's

thick as a brick

not

big as a brick


mind you, we've never met so...:-D

Kath
 
stonedoggy said:
s-j, far from me to interrupt your reverie but i THINK that's

thick as a brick

not

big as a brick


mind you, we've never met so...:-D

Kath
Click to expand...

no it was a Sanyo bought in one of my "imnot going to school day" experditions to London, from a Totenham court road shop. She left me for someone with more prospects, she was absolutely correct in dont so lol.


MC5 was always first Rambelin rose, Come together....oh the memeories...
 
Apologies S-j!

thought you were going all winsome on us!

Kath
 
you listen to the tune, then you remember what it's called, and the title of the song is completely relevant to what you were just thinking about.
Click to expand...
Yup, I use a small trailer to carry my son's clobber to university and back and the song 'King Of The Road' is always in my head all the way there and back!

Trailer for sale or rent
Rooms to let...fifty cents.

It's an ironic song but the jokes are lost on me after the first 80 miles or so.
:(
 
escargot, you've started Lee Marvin doing Wandrin Star. Bad escargot bad escargot!

Timble's link to a meme explanation is very helpful at my current level of understanding. recommended.

Kath
 
Haha Doggy, I'm stuck with this now-

There's a green one and a pink one,
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made outta ticky-tacky,
And they all look just the same.

I'm off to lectures in a mo' and the word 'university' sends me off on Pete Seeger's 'Little Boxes.' :rolleyes:

When I see a broken down car in the road with the bonnet up, I get Queen's 'Play The Game' because years ago my son amended the lyrics to 'Push The Van'.

'Open up the bonnet let me look inside
Scratch my weary head, look at the manual, then decide.....'

The chorus goes
'Push the van, yeah, everybody push the van.........
Or walk!'

Did you guess, we had a knackered Transit at the time.........
:D
 
"...Stuck in a rut,
Stuck in a rut for eternity,
Stuck in a rut,
Stuck in a rut for eternity..."

Ha! I am protected from your feeble lyrics by the power of The Darkness!

"...Trailer for sale or rent..."
Sh!t
 
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