Earworms: Tunes That Stick in Our Heads:
Several weeks ago, I was home on a Sunday morning when, for no apparent reason, these words popped into my head: “Funky Cold Medina.”
That’s a line from a song by rapper Tone Loc. I’m told it was a hit in the 1990s, but I’d never heard it until the night before. I was at a karaoke bar. My friend Jay Beezley sang it.
When the song reappeared in my head the next day, I could hear Jay singing the chorus again and again and again.
I was stuck with the song for nearly a day and a half before it finally went away, but it left behind a nagging question: Why do we get songs stuck in our heads in the first place? I figured someone must be trying to find an answer.
So it's not just me.
I, and others, apparently suffer from earworms. That sometime annoying phenomenon whereby a song or piece of music sneaks into our head, or we sing along, all without our consciously dragging it from memory.
In my case I can also have a word or a name do the same thing. The word, usually one that's not used every day, will repeat itself in my head as I start the day. And words will usually be rhythmic like phil-an-throp-ic-ally, peri-pa-tet-ic-ism, asto-pho-tog-raph-y. Or maybe just a name: e.g. "Angélique, Marquise des Anges" rolls around my head in my best French accent.
I've no idea where these curiosities pop up from.
Weird!