Nidhi Mukherjee, 4/2 Week 14 - Catchy Lyrics

My mind is like a broken radio–constantly playing random songs with no particular pattern or motive. I could be in the middle of solving for the antiderivative when I just…

“I could be ‘the one,’ or your new addiction / It’s all in my head but I want non-ficti–”

Nope. Absolutely not. Not going there again.

Or halfway through a chemistry lab prep, when…

“Life’s better on Saturn / Got to break this pattern / Of flo–”

Oh, for the love of…

At this point, I have completely lost the will to try and rein in the impulses of my mind, simply just submitting myself to the aimless repetitions of catchy pop-culture songs. But why does this seemingly habitual phenomenon occur almost every moment of my day-to-day life? Why can’t I get these songs out of my head? Why must I recite the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” in my mind, against my will, in the middle of a biology test?

Harvard staff writer Colleen Walsh consulted neuroscientists to associate the irksome problem–coined “earworm” in 1979 by psychiatrist Cornelius Eckret–with the “connections” between the regions of the human brain that are involved with “musical perception,” “memory…retrieval,” and positive or negative emotions (Walsh).

I hope all that makes sense, because I still have no idea as to what the heck goes on in my mind when I just…

“And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate / Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, sha-”

Oh god, there really is no cure for this, is there?

Actually, Colleen Walsh (my savior!) encourages troubled souls plagued with earworms to “try distraction,” “just let it play out,” or “[play] actual music” (Walsh). But one question remains unanswered by my oh-so-extensive research on this topic. Why do I remember lyrics from songs I might have heard once or twice but fail to do so with other things that I so desperately try to memorize? 

Artist Mitch Blunt's interpretation of an earworm - Courtesy of The Harvard Gazette

Take my POAS presentation, for example. Try as I may, I simply cannot remember all my points. However, the aimless repeat of that one song that I heard that one time on that one random TikTok edit that my friend showed me in the middle of calculus reigns victorious in my memory.

It’s amusing and annoying at the same time.

Comments

  1. Elina FanApril 8, 2025 at 11:30 PM

    Hi Nidhi, I totally agree with your habit of always getting songs stuck in my head. It’s always the annoying or overplayed songs that have one infuriating line–that usually isn’t even that good–perpetually hidden within the folds of my brain. I love just submitting to the idea of being strung along the memories of my mind and how simple my brain works. I look forward to hearing you sing one of these songs that you play in your mind out loud one day! I never knew that there was a whole term to describe the situation, but I feel like the word “irk” really matches the feeling I get whenever I start humming or singing a random song that I rarely listen to simply because I heard it while walking on the street. Similarly, for my POAS, despite my elegantly crafted script, I ended up rephrasing the majority of my speech, much to my sadness; I would’ve much preferred if I had been able to remember the sentences that I had obsessed over for countless hours. I definitely remember the memes that my friends show me, even though I should definitely prioritize that vocabulary quiz that is next Monday.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Choeunchan LeeApril 9, 2025 at 9:58 PM

    Hi Nidhi! The way you described your mind as a “broken radio” is one of the most creative and relatable things I’ve heard in a while. I have a short attention span and therefore am a huge victim of the things you discussed in your blog about how your mind tries so hard to distract you during the times that require focus. I loved seeing the song lyrics that appeared throughout your blog, it was like a visual representation of our minds during a biology or calculus test! It’s interesting to see that there’s actually a scientific reasoning behind this and that the restoration of memories is closely related to music processing. By the way, I love how you added variation and emphasis to your text with different text features!

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