There are currently 7,214,958,996 people on this earth, and with that being said every single one of them have a common problem. Every single one of them at some given point in time have had the earworm. These “earworms” per se are small periodic episodes of memory flashbacks when our minds recall certain instances of a song. They can be any song that we have heard maybe once, twice or even one that we hear on a daily basis. Magically somehow they find themselves a way into our minds and it feels like you are listening to your iPod stuck on replay. But in science there is no such thing as magic. So even though it is hard to believe this happens due to the way our brains are, earworms tend to be involuntary and usually focused more towards musical rhythms and patterns.
Average every day communication to replay in our minds is very rare. This phenomenon of a trapped song in our minds exceeds cultural, geographical boundaries. No matter where you are from, or what you listen to, you cannot escape it. There are various reasons as to why this may be the case. If we take the early 70’s into consideration there has been a significant growth in the number of earworms and the rapidity their occurrences. This may be due to the availability and abundance of music now a days. In the early centuries of the musical era it was almost impossible to find music. People would have to share or walk to various places to hear music. Nowadays we are constantly exposed to music on a minute to minute basis. We either are blasting the tunes in our earbuds from our iPods or we are in restaurants and stores listening to music over the intercoms.
Everyone has their own ear worms, it can range from having an emotional attachment to the symbolism that the song represents to the simplicity of the lyrics and melody due to which that song becomes yours. However there is only around ninety-seven million songs in the world today so there is bound to be some songs that are more common than others. Human tendency suggests that as we have evolved our taste in music has evolved with us. If you combine this with the concept of how humans are more drawn to the things that have simple language and is much easier to understand, the concept of earworms are created. No one knows what song they will listen to and get stuck in their heads. It can be a song that is full of rhythmic dissonance so that it stands out more; a piece of pure harmony that just makes you feel happy inside, or just so repetitive that it gets stuck in your head. It is our minds that make the music that gets stuck in our head, though, as music is an illusion. So maybe the reason we have a song stuck in our heads is because we want it to be. All I know is that it can be a curse and a blessing.
