• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

'Earworms' & Stuck-Tune Syndrome

Vindaloo, vindaloo, vindaloo vindaloo la la...
 
Never thought of this phenomenon as being akin to a virus before, although I have found that to get rid of a song or music from your mind all you have to do is find another such song that replaces it.

I also find that if I've been listening to my MP3 player then the last song I've listened to stays in my head repeating all day. Well, parts if not all of it repeat, and then different parts of the same song as I begin to remember other parts of the song I heard.

The music is not annoying, but it does stay rolling around in my skull.

Also - I've been thinking that this phenomenon might not be limited to music, that anything (for example memories or thoughts or words from a book or something) might keep rolling around in somebodys head for a long time, not because it is wanted by the somebody, but just there: repeating.

Anybody else notice these things?
 
Quite literally, the only time when I don't have music going in my head is when I'm listening to some outside it.
 
Yup, same here, and it doesn't irritate me at all. Except when it drowns out the voices.
 
...daloo vindaloo la laaaaaa...
 
Garsp... Must turn on radio to hear different tune... gnn... Radio 4! Curses!
 
s'nearly Archers time.

Hey, d'you ever pull up in your car somewhere and scramble to switch the radio off just as it starts playing the Archer theme tune? :lol:
 
Oh my god yes! I've done that! Or climbed into my car when giving someone a lift and switching on the engine to hear the first bar...
 
The surest way of getting a song out of head, once it's stuck in there, is to o to Karoke, and get up there, and belt it out for everyone to hear.

All together now.. 'Brown Girl in the ring, tra la la la..'
 
Re: On and on and on and on...

stuneville four years ago said:
I agree - Can't Get You out of my Head is lodged just past my frontal lobes.
Ironic songtitle or what?
That and "Blue Monday" - the insomniac's favourite (I don't sleep much, and squarely blame New Order...)
Click to expand...
and then, four posts down...
stuneville a bit later on that page said:
I've just seen a tape of Kylie at the Brits, singing "Can't get you out of my head" to the riff of "Blue Monday"!!!
Is this where my destiny ends?
(see my entry at top of this page - I never saw the Brits first time round)
Sleep will never come again!
Click to expand...
And I still can't get "I Can't Get Blue Monday Out of my Head" out of my head.

It's still there....
 
I made the mistake of watching the title sequence to Casino Royale on You Tube tonight. Jesus the Christ, that theme is catchy, I once got it stuck in my head for a whole week. They should use it in the new film.
 
Re: On and on and on and on...

stuneville said:
stuneville four years ago said:
I agree - Can't Get You out of my Head is lodged just past my frontal lobes.
Ironic songtitle or what?
That and "Blue Monday" - the insomniac's favourite (I don't sleep much, and squarely blame New Order...)
Click to expand...
and then, four posts down...
stuneville a bit later on that page said:
I've just seen a tape of Kylie at the Brits, singing "Can't get you out of my head" to the riff of "Blue Monday"!!!
Is this where my destiny ends?
(see my entry at top of this page - I never saw the Brits first time round)
Sleep will never come again!
Click to expand...
And I still can't get "I Can't Get Blue Monday Out of my Head" out of my head.

It's still there....
Click to expand...


To get the song out of there, find another tune that will not get out of your head - it doesn't even have to be annoying.

Try listening to a song you really like first, then see how long it rolls around in your skull in the backround. Every now and then you may even notice it rolling around.

This happens to me so I know it works.

Or try another annoying song.

You may wish to see this animated video which contains the 'banana phone' song.

banana phone song animated video

That song may stick in your head.
 
A friend and I used to have competitions where we would try and get a tune stuck in the other's head WITHOUT it getting stuck in ours. The winners:-

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" and the theme from "Jurrassic Park".

John Williams has a lot to answer for...
 
I get songs from children's shows stuck in my head, or songs from my daughter's current choice of favourite video. I literally couldn't sleep the night before last because I had 'Be Kind to your Small Person Friends' from Horton Hears a Who going round and round and round, complete with trumpet refrains and Who- choruses... I woke up wanting to pull all the tape out of that particular video.
"Oh be kind to your small person friends,
Every Who might be somebodys bro- ther..."
That tears it, I wonder if jamming a Phillips screwdriver in my ears would stop the music in my head.
 
Re: On and on and on and on...

coldelephant said:
stuneville said:
...Can't Get You out of my Head is lodged just past my frontal lobes....

It's still there....
Click to expand...


To get the song out of there, find another tune that will not get out of your head - it doesn't even have to be annoying...
Click to expand...
It's happened. All thanks to Emps, over here.

"Take-anythingyouWANT!" deedeedeedee
"Take-anythingyouWANT!" deedeedeedee

Arrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhh............
 
Is that a normal way for Japanese people to learn English? If so, it has a truly disturbing cultural subtext. :lol:

Of course, all languages are taught with a subtext. English people learning Spanish are hoping to be able to order drinks and taxis.

I used to have an article by Richard Boston about an old book he came across for English landowners in Africa to learn the local lingo, possibly Swahili.

Useful phrases -

I do not like that man.
Send that man away.
Fetch me my whip.
No, not that whip, the other whip.

Lots more besides - I swear this is true. :D
 
escargot1 said:
I used to have an article by Richard Boston about an old book he came across for English landowners in Africa to learn the local lingo, possibly Swahili.
Click to expand...

I have a guide to Upcountry Swahili from the first half of the last century which teaches you phrases like:

Boy why are there black hairs on my razor?
Your hut has been trampled by a rhinoceros
 
Ok, this one may be an Americanism.
When this thread first started, it reminded me of a short story I read as a youngster, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was.

After seeing some recent discussion of "Homer Price" stories on the web, I realized that it was one of these stories by Robert McCloskey. The basic outline of the story is that the jukebox serviceman adds a mysterious new record to the jukebox. The tune on which, turns out to get stuck in everbody in town's head, humorously driving them to the far ends of distraction. Almost makes one think of some sort of humorous MKULTRA misadventure. After researching in the library, Homer finally discovers that each song has a corresponding anti-song that will cause you to forget it.

(Still not sure which story this is...)
[edit]:
"Pie and Punch and You-Know-Whats" ?
 
Hey emps, that HAS to be the same book! :D

Does it have a paragraph on whip-selection?
 
Here in the UK there as an ad on TV which features Sailor's song 'Glass Of Champagne'. It is a happy, catchy song from the 70s. I know it well, having actually paid folding money to see Sailor perform it back then. :oops:

*sings*

Let's get together, the two of us, over a glass of champagne! :D
 
escargot1 said:
Here in the UK there as an ad on TV which features Sailor's song 'Glass Of Champagne'. It is a happy, catchy song from the 70s. I know it well, having actually paid folding money to see Sailor perform it back then. :oops:

*sings*

Let's get together, the two of us, over a glass of champagne! :D
Click to expand...

Every time that ad's on, I spend the next five minutes singing it to myself - before segueing into 'Girls, Girls, Girls'... :D
 
I quite often have a song going around my head, just before going on a journey. When I get into the car and put on the radio, the same song is playing! Anyone else get this?
 
Not me, I am still cursed with the shame of The Archers. :(
 
All my life I have suffered an 'Earworm' of the original Grange Hill theme tune. (BBC tea-time school drama) My sister always had this going around her head too.

Until about 6 years ago, when it was replaced by 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'.

At the time I was a School groundsman. After a couple of weeks I realised how this had been implanted. My Ransome Triple ride-on mower, when going full speed with the blades engaged, would hum away in a deep bass:

AaWim ba Wey - AaWim ba Wey - AaWim ba Wey..
 
Yup, when I used to lug out the trailer to take Son's clobber too and from uni I'd be singing 'Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, fifty cents...'

In the hydrotherapy pool at the gym I sometimes stand under the 'waterfall' (ooh it's lovely!) and find myself singing 'Once In A Lifetime'. Something about water...
 
mrbubz said:
All my life I have suffered an 'Earworm' of the original Grange Hill theme tune. (BBC tea-time school drama) My sister always had this going around her head too.
Click to expand...

Remember it was the theme tune to Give Us a Clue as well. Twice the chance to get stuck in your head. Blame Lionel Blair.
 
My grandmother said that she had the same song stuck in her head for 50 years! :shock:

It was from a 40's musical...it was a repetitive instrumental polka. The song was in a part of the film in which boys were engaged in a "dance contest" over a girl, I think. Or was it a stylized fight scene? I can't remember. Unfortunately, she passed away about a year and a half ago, so I probably will never know the name of this film. She claimed to never have any other "earworms", besides this one!
 
I thought that "The Mexican Hat Dance" was officially the worlds catchiest and yet most annoying tune.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top