Scientists love to study how music interacts with the brain because it tells them so much about how that squishy stuff between our ears works. Earworms—those songs that get stuck in your head—are of particular fascination. What makes a song turn your brain into a spilling beach ball? It comes down to two things.
The first is melodic content and can be summed up like this: if a part of a song follows the simple rhythmic rules of a nursery rhyme, it has a greater chance of becoming an earworm. The second feature involves tempo. Faster songs with frequent changes in tempo are more likely to get stuck in your head.
Finally, what’s the latest cure for getting an unwanted song out of your head? Singing “God Save the Queen” to yourself should do it. Hey, it’s science.
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