Yup. Earworms. I know you’ve been afflicted, and more than once too. Don’t be ashamed, you’re amongst friends. You can admit it.
Earworm is the term used for those songs that get stuck in your head, playing over and over, and driving you crazy. According to that wikipedia link, women and men are equally affected by earworms, although in women they last longer and we find them more irritating.
*not representative of real earworm…
(Yes, I know there are some of you who wish to make some comment about the annoyance threshold of women and how unsurprised you are. You know where the comments are, knock yourself out 😉 )
Naturally, I went to youtube to find a really annoying clip to put here in order to give you all an earworm for the day.
In doing so I found this utterly brilliant mashup of some of the worst earworm offenders of 2012 (by DJ Earworm of course). It includes Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Psy, Gotye, Maroon 5, Katy Perry, One Direction, and that bloody whistle from Flo Rida among others.
Some of them are songs which have been on high rotation on my own ipod (definitely not One Direction though, you gotta draw the line somewhere) and have taken up wormy residence in my brain for varying amounts of time.
The prompt for this post was a television report noting that a technique has been developed for removing these catchy, yet massively annoying, things. Apparently solving an anagram will do something to your brain to circumvent its evil hold on your mind.
I suspect that all it will really do is free up more space in there for the next earworm to get its catchy little tentacles in there….
Ok. Share, people. What is the most annoying earworm (old or new) that you know?
Alternatively, share your best anagram! I couldn’t think of one of my own. Since watching that clip all I have in my head now is a snippet of One Direction …..“You don’t know, oh oh…..” Aaargh!
Buried words and Bushwa. 
I refuse to play your link, although it might finally dislodge ‘The Frog Chorus’ (aka We all stand together) which is still going round in my head several weeks after I wrote a post of the same name.
Actually it is a brilliantly done seamless threading together of so many songs. I don’t blame you for not wanting to insert another song into your heard though 🙂
That bloody frog chorus! Aaarggh! I made the mistake of going to youtube and playing a tiny snippet of it, now it has taken up residence in my head… aaarrgh again!
It’s sad to see that Simon Cowell’s pap has made it as far as you. He is the death of the music industry.
😀 Some of those songs are on the playlist I listen to at work. I can’t listen to them at home because they are just silly, but when I need something that will help me get my feet moving it seems that pouring drivel into my ears is the way to go 😉
What is the pap you hate the most?
Even professional music people see his efforts as detrimental to “the business”. He makes short-term profit from lots of kids dreams whilst he burns up any credibility they have. He just drops last year’s TV show winner and moves onto the next one. All these “wonderful” winners from TV shows have now sunk into obscurity very quickly. There’s a big anti-Cowell movement over here where for the past few years people have co-ordinated to stop him getting the Christmas number 1.
It is unfortunate for the ones who think this is their ticket to stardom, they get sucked up into the machine, their time in the spotlight is very brief and I am sure not what they expected at all. A few make their fortune but I wonder how the other discarded ones feel about what happened to them?
The pity is that some of the tv show winners probably actually have talent and will not really be taken seriously for the rest of their career (if they have one) because of this dubious beginning 😦
Yes in the old days bands like The Monkees (you may have an equivalent) were manufactured and sold as a comodity, but that was all done in private. These days it’s much more in the public glare. And you are right that anyone who arrives via a talent show is tainted from thereon in!
The only ones I have the slightest respect for are the older entrants who have already done time playing in pubs etc and just haven’t been noticed, or their life has been derailed in some way. Not everyone gets the break they deserve in their youth, but not every youth deserves the break without putting in the time!
It is all part of this new ‘desperate to be famous’ culture isn’t it? People actually wanted a career or a real job when they were young, now people just want to be famous. If only they had a discernible talent they probably would be!
The saddest part of those show are the ones who can’t sing or dance but nobody has ever given them a reality check. When the judges tear them apart it is like the first time in their lives someone hasn’t told them they are fantastic. I wonder how that affects the rest of their lives. Do they go on convinced they are a star and it is just that they aren’t appreciated or do they have a huge crisis of confidence and lose all belief in themselves?
Now I know I’m turning into a crone. 😦 The only song I recognized was Gotye. I blame my daughter for not keeping me abreast of contemporary music. -sigh-
I thought you might recognize a few of the Bruno Mars tunes there and clearly you missed Maroon 5! 😉
What is your most hated/favourite stick-in-your-head song?
My mum was (probably still is) an ABBA fan when I was growing up. Now, if I hear any part of any ABBA song my brain starts screaming for mercy and it stays in there until something else comes along and shifts it. 😀
Oh yes, Abba will do that. Mamma Mia just popped into my head and…. SORRY!
“My my” I wish you had resisted that! 😉
-grin- Oh nicely done. 😀
This doesn’t often happen to me, thank god. But as I listen t music while doing stuffing the iPad in bed I tend to play half a song I REALLY like just before I turn it off to make sure. And I am not playing your mash up…
Go on, play it… be brave. 😉 Just have an anagram ready for the One Direction earworm that will crawl in!
I played it, I just couldn’t help myself. Very clever! Thankfully One Direction have totally bypassed this house although Maroon 5 (moves like Jagger!) and Flo Rider with the blinking whistle among others have made it to my ‘listen on the bus’ list. Locally this song http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sS6Ta6SrTHs was last years ear worm… All that bap de bapping! and thanks to this link now it’s back in my ear 😎
I like it! I don’t understand any of the lyrics but any song with a “ba ba be do dah” will make you tap your feet no matter how had you try to resist (and what a great looking city). 🙂
Here it is for other people who might want to watch it.
It is a great city 🙂 She spends the bulk of the song convincing here parents that even though she’s on the other side of the world she’s looking after herself and not to worry. ba ba be do dah … 😉
The Taylor Swift ‘Trouble’ song. Most unfortunately, it is the screaming goat version. It has been planted by my lovely song who sings the screaming goat part as earnestly as the rest. It’s not easy, I tell you. I don’t know about anagrams, I plant a Radiohead song in my brain to hunt out and destroy the screaming goats.
The screaming goat version 😀 😀 Hilarious!
I agree ‘Trouble’ is hard to remove, just reading the word has already got my brain repeating “trouble, trouble, trouble” Eeek!
Are you awake really early on Good Friday? It seems too bizarre that I’m sitting in 4 o’clock sunshine – it’s not even sundowner time yet – and you’re already well enough into Good Friday to be posting.
Yup. It is about 1.15am and I should be in bed!
My internet has been abysmal for weeks and just last night for some inexplicable reason it has gone to super fast! I have a LOT of blogs and stuff to catch up on so I am taking the chance to do it now before the connection degenerates back to the standard ‘make a cuppa while a page loads’ speed. 😀
To thank you for the anagram tip to outsmart earworms… someone keeps singing “run run runaway” in my head… I can’t find the clip or think who sings it, my musical anagram is Jim Morrison = Mr. Mojo Risin’ 😉
Aaarrgghh! Whenever I hear “Mr. Mojo Risin'” I am immediately transported back in time to our run-down rented house in the very early 90’s. The Doors movie starring Val Kilmer had just been released and the friend who lived with us was obsessed with it, the video and cd was played over, and over, and over….
You’ve done it now, all I can hear is “This is the end, my only friend, the end…..”
Yes, well I did myself no favours… I’ve been humming it all afternoon. Quick, find an anagram 😉