Research indicates that 74% of earworms are related to songs with lyrics, 15% are jingles (short musical phrases) used in advertising, and 11% are tunes without words.
The compound earworm attack refers to episodes of this known phenomenon, which usually last many hours and occur very frequently across those involved in the research. Musicians and music-lovers seem to suffer more frequent and longer-lasting earworm attacks, together with people who have 'neurotic habits ' such as tapping fingers and feet.
Top earworm candidates in modern popular music are songs such as "Who Let The Dogs Out" by the group Baha Men, Abba 's "Dancing Queen" and "We Will Rock You" by Queen.
'They bore into your head. They won 't let go. There 's no known cure. Earworms can attack almost anyone at any time. ... Earworms are those songs, jingles and tunes that get stuck into your head ... '(Daniel DeNoon, Lycos Health, 27th February 2003)
Background
Earworm is derived from a literal translation of the German word "Ohrwurm", which has been used to describe 'cognitively infectious ' pieces of music. The connotation to parasitic aspects of the word relate to the original meaning: A kind of worm which can crawl into the ear. It also denotes a large, highly destructive larva which feeds on corn and cotton crops.
June 24 2006 |
