Earworm: Why it stucks in my head?

With the endless number of songs we saw on Spotify and heard everyday. Do you still remember some of the songs that became part of your playlist? Some of us prefer to listen pop because they like the vibe, easiness and tune of the songs. Some of us like rhythm and blues (RNB), soul, rock, classical, hiphop, jazz and many more. Personally, pop and soul music are the two genre I always listened to.

The beginning of the creation of music started in ancient times. Based on my research, the oldest surviving music written was came from Ugarit, Syria. The Hurrian songs have many songs and the oldest one is the Hymn of Nikkal dated back on 1400 BCE. I play the song since its available on YouTube. I was just amazed on the tunes of the song. I didn't particularly like it because it is not my type. However, I believe whoever wrote the song is an outstanding among his peers.

Father playing Elvis Presley's song

Twice a week, my father was playing Presley's song every 5:30 in the afternoon. He was fond of his song and 80% of my father's downloaded music was Presley. My father will use the speaker and connected his phone via Bluetooth on it. It is his way of releasing his stress after his work. I think it is very important that we have an outlet of releasing the stress and make ourselves comfortable again.

There are many songs Presley's had but the one song that keeps playing and replaying on my head is the song always on my mind. I will keep myself exaggerated but whenever I took a bath or juwt lying in our hammock. The song will suddenly pop up on my ear and play it continuously until I get bored and tired listening to it. Although I was quite expose to oldies song but my preference in music doesn't affected at all. But I felt delighted whenever I heard one.

Sister playing kpop songs (blackpink, twice, bts)

Numerous of people started adopting the Korean cultures such as food, song, language and dramas. I was wondering how much influence the Koreans today worldwide. They are dominating Netflix from their unbelievable, amazing, and well-directed series and movies. We have watched some of series directed from South Korea like all of us are dead and squid game. These two shows entered the ranked of the highest views on Netflix in all time. That's how unbelievable Korean products are now.

Aside from movies and series, their songs shouldn't be underestimated too. Some of the biggest girl and boy groups can be found in South Korea. Blackpink, twice and bts are the three of them. Most viewed music videos of blackpink is ddu-du ddu-du (1.8B), twice is what is love (625M), BTS is boy with luv, dna, dynamite (all 1.4B). Do you know what's the most viewed music video of kpop of all time? It was Psy's song Gangnam Style with an overwhelming numbr of 4.3B views.

Whenever my sister is playing kpop songs, I cannot control myself but to sing and dance as well. Kpop music really moves one soul and command it to go with the flow of the music. It brings light feeling to ease and soothe your body. Even though I don't understand most of the lyrics because I'm not korean and have no deeper understanding of their language. However, it doesn't stop many fans to dislike kpop, and with the charming and good looking idols bring fans to idolized them more.

So why the song stucks in our heads?

Actually, it is not the song that stuck, but the tune of the song. There will be some fragments of the song which you can hear out of the blue. If the song keeps continously playing and replaying in your head, this is what you called earworm. Although the name is quite unpleasant to read because there is worm attached in the word but that's not it. There's no worm in you ear or in your head that plays the song. This unbelievable phenomenon was studied and explained by multiple professionals in various field of science.

As what I have said earlier, earworms are the song that plays in your head and cannot be easily get rid off. These are songs that keep popping on your mind which eventually annoy you. Earworms are the catchy tune or phrase that your brain likes. Some of them can get from repeatedly played songs from your music playlist, neighbours music, bus music, YouTube music and even in the place you cannoy believe that play the song. Did you experience just laying down on your bed when out of the blue, there's a song you remember and keeps playing on your mind? Surely after playing and replaying over and over again, it doesn't stop until you are tired hearing it and unaware that you already fall asleep.

Auditory vortex is the part of your brain where earworms are located. This part is where the processing of sounds including earworm happened. Musical sounds are also stored in auditory vortex. One time, when I was taking a bath and the sound of water that came from faucet makes me hear my mother's or father's voice. I do not know how is that possible. I stopped the faucet and voice is gone. It was like your parents are talking to you or something wanted to say. I would say it is weird because it never happened before. Maybe my mind is missing my parents voice in just a weird way.

Thank you for reading!