Science Has Figured Out How to Get That Song Out of Your Head

Cheers to science for this one.

We’ve all been there, and we’ve all said it. “I can’t get this stupid song out of my head now.”

Whether it’s a song we heard in a store while shopping, a song someone was walking around work singing, or even a favorite we heard on the radio that we absolutely love, it’s super annoying when it replays over and over in our heads. We even sing along, although we really want it gone, unstuck from our heads.

The latest for me was humming the Vince Guaraldi Trio theme song from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving because I used the music in an Instagram post. That’s how I came upon this gem of information to share with you.

According to NPR, getting songs out of our heads finally has a solution beyond just waiting it out or listening to music to help alleviate these annoying earworms.

In this case, listening to one specific song is the answer to this problem. According to the Psychology of Music, around 90% of people deal with it weekly, sometimes to the point of complete frustration, but there’s a reason one particular song won’t stick in your head.

Songs that have a more danceable tempo tend to become earworms and we also have found that having a predictable overall melodic shape can make a song become an earworm.

It’s called The Earworm Eraser. You just pull this 40-second audio track on YouTube and listen. I’ve attached it below. It’s designed specifically to squash the song that’s replaying over and over and over and over in your head again and again and again.

The Earworm Eraser sounds like someone who can’t decide what to listen to: Every few seconds, it switches between fast and slow tempi while also changing time signatures and musical styles, which range from electronica to classical.

Don’t you kind of want to get a song in your head now just to see if this works? According to NPR, it does the trick for most people.