Got a Song Stuck in Your Head? ‘Earworm Eraser’ Claims to Get Rid of It Instantly β Here’s How to Try It
There’s nothing more frustrating than hearing the same song in your head for hours on end.
But for those of us who often suffer from a particularly stubborn ‘earworm’, there is now a solution.
‘Earworm Eraser’, developed by music psychologist Dr Kelly Jakubowski from Durham University, claims to be able to remove all earworms from your brain in seconds.
The 42-second audio track contains a mishmash of musical styles that make the listener forget the song, all accompanied by a bizarre animation.
So if a melody gets stuck in your head, watch the video to see if it can bring you relief.
The ‘Earworm Eraser’ claims to be scientifically designed to break the loop patterns of mental activity that cause earworms
According to software company Atlassian, which commissioned the video, simply playing the clip is enough to erase even the most deeply ingrained song.
The video’s description describes the audio as “a scientifically constructed track that should banish earworms for good.”
Atlassian continues: ‘The Earworm Eraser audio track combines scientific principles of music and the brain to disrupt the neural patterns that make a catchy song stick in someone’s head.
‘The song features a series of audio patterns and rhythmic structures carefully designed to break up the repetition of the song in the listener’s mind.’
While this may not work for everyone who tries it, many of the commenters were happy to share their successes.
Someone wrote: ‘Sometimes I have such bad earworms that I can’t sleep or concentrate. Eventually I hope my brain will shut down completely. Anyway, this really helped with my insomnia, thanks!’
Another added: ‘I can’t believe this actually worked. Wow.’
‘I woke up with a song stuck in my head and I have no idea why because I definitely haven’t listened to it. I’ve been humming it all day and it’s driving me crazy.’
The 42-second audio track is accompanied by a bizarre animation depicting a literal worm in the mind
However, a few disgruntled commenters also reported a rather unfortunate side effect: they now had the earworm gum stuck in their heads.
One commenter asked, “So what do you do when the song that’s supposed to combat earworms actually gives you one in your head?”
An earworm is a piece of music, usually three to four bars long, that plays involuntarily in our heads.
Research shows that 90 percent of the population suffers from earworms at least once a week, while a quarter of us are bothered by repetitive melodies several times a day.
Recent research has found that listening to catchy songs like Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ and Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’ can lead to poorer sleep quality.
A 2016 survey of 3,000 people conducted by Dr. Jakubowski found that the most common earworms included βBad Romanceβ by Lady Gaga, βDonβt Stop Believingβ by Journey and βCanβt Get You Out Of My Headβ by Kylie Minogue.
Earworms are so prevalent that researchers have found that listening to catchy songs like Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off (pictured) can lead to poorer sleep quality
Studies have shown that Don’t Stop Believing by Journey (pictured) was one of the most common earworms. This may be due to the tempo and ascending and descending melody that many earworms share
In this 2016 study, Dr. Jakubowski also found that the faster tempo and rising and falling melody of pop music makes melodies more memorable.
The repetition of the song is also an important factor in determining whether a song becomes an earworm.
This could partly explain why advertising jingles and the most popular songs of the time so often stick in our brains.
Some claim that television and social media are to blame for the increase in earworms.
Earworms, however, existed before the advent of recorded music and were even mentioned in Mark Twain’s 1876 short story A Literary Nightmare.
Scientists aren’t exactly sure why we get earworms or what causes them, but it seems to be a form of mental imagery.
In the same way that you conjure up an image of a particular place or remember a particularly strong smell, your mind is also able to mentally recreate a song.
The difference between an earworm and these other forms of mental imagery is that earworms are involuntary.
One theory suggests that earworms tend to enter our consciousness because of the way music is represented in the mind.
When we want to imagine the melody of Happy Birthday, we can’t see it all at once. We have to start at the first note and ‘play it all the way through’ in our minds.
This could mean that once the song enters our imagination, it plays itself over and over again.
‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ by Kylie Minogue (pictured) has been identified by researchers as a particularly powerful ‘earworm’
The first recorded reference to an earworm occurs in 1876 in a short story written by Mark Twain (pictured) called A Literary Nightmare in which he describes being haunted by a catchy jingle
It is this loop that Earworm Eraser claims to disrupt with its confused mix of rhythms and genres.
If that doesn’t work, you can also try chewing gum. It interferes with the functioning of the ‘articulation muscles’ that are needed to ‘sing’ a piece of music in your mind.
If an annoying tune still bothers you, scientists recommend simply ignoring the song and letting it fade away.
A 2010 research paper from the University of Reading states: ‘Active attempts to block or eliminate the earworm are less successful than passive acceptance.’