Have you ever heard the word “golden” and suddenly a song pops into your head? If you’ve heard the song Golden, you might start hearing a piece of it repeating in your mind, maybe even singing “we’re goin’ up, up, up.”
If that happened, you just experienced an earworm—a tune that gets stuck in your head without you meaning to. Over 90% of people get earworms, and scientists are learning why they happen, how they work in the brain, and how to get rid of them if you want.
Why Some Songs Stick
Earworms happen when small parts of songs repeat a lot. For example, the line “we’re goin’ up, up, up” in Golden is repeated several times. Songs that repeat a lot, like Baby Shark or Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head, are more likely to become earworms. Hearing a song many times also makes it easier to get stuck in your mind.
Our brains don’t remember music like a tape that plays from start to finish. Instead, music is stored in “pockets” of memory based on familiarity. When we hear a song often, our brain links these pockets together like a set of instructions: play this part, then this, then repeat that. Earworms happen when a small fragment gets trapped in this loop and keeps playing over and over.
How Earworms Start
Earworms can start when you just heard a song, read a word from it, or even hear a similar song. Daily habits, like listening to music on the bus, can make a song pop into your head anytime.
A part of the brain called the default mode network makes earworms more likely. This network is active when we daydream or let our minds wander. It picks a favorite part of a song and repeats it over and over, ignoring the brain areas that normally control attention and order. That’s why the song fragment loops endlessly.
Getting Rid of an Earworm
Some people enjoy their earworms, but others can’t stand them. To stop one, you can try singing the song out loud with others. This distracts the default mode network, but might be a little embarrassing. Another way is to play a different, less repetitive song to replace it. Songs like Happy Birthday don’t stick as easily because they don’t have the same kind of repetition.
Even tech companies like Atlassian have created short audio tracks designed to break the loop by avoiding repeating fragments.
The Takeaway
Earworms show how our brains organize music, and they can be fun when you enjoy the song. If a tune keeps bugging you, try different music or embrace your inner earworm!
