WHAT MAKES AN EARWORM?

02/25/26

A month or so ago, I found myself listening to 1 song over and over again. I had forgotten about it. "Man In The Suitcase" that backed the "Fortress" single by Thee Oh Sees made its way into the shuffle of my playlist. I was enamored by the chorus riff--a release of energy after a hushed verse. I grabbed my guitar and decided to learn it right then and there. 

It starts with an overtly bizarre drum intro, Shane Young knows it well. Tim Hellman's bassline perpetually thuds along. John's guitar starts small, playing only the low and high E strings played in unison, a common motif in Thee Oh Sees tracks. His vocals are breathy, but of course, a sharp woo! signals the shift to a truly badass chorus section. A riff, which is essentially a bridge, brings the energy back down to a manageable level. By "a manageable level", I mean manageable for those who are not akin to high energy rock 'n' roll. It's a perfect mix of Thee Oh Sees stylings in one. To fans such as myself, the chord progression and structure in general are easily predictable, but it makes it familiar. And that's a good thing.

An earworm, according to the fine Wikipedia editors, "is a catchy or memorable piece of music or saying that continuously occupies a person's mind even after it is no longer being played." It's also called sticky music or stuck song syndrome. Very often this will happen when I'm trying hard to fall asleep. I love music any and all hours of the day, but god forbid I want to sleep a full 8 hours. An earworm is a fragment of a song, normally the same phrase (lyric or musical measure) repeating like a tape loop.

I think part of what makes an earworm is it's familiarity, mostly caused by simple pattern recognition. We as humans enjoy things that are familiar to us. I might be making that up, but I'm pretty sure that's true. Because earworms are infinitely looping, the repetition of it in your head makes the song more familiar. Familiarity sticks in your mind like glue. Earworms develop as a result. A cyclical phenomenon.

Last night after an episode of my radio show Thee Nite Expo, I had the song "I Need Seed" by Thee Oh Sees looping in my head when I was trying to fall asleep. Surprise, surprise, another Oh Sees song... For the last week, however, "Hanging on the Telephone", the earliest track on Blondie's album Parallel Lines, bounced around in my head. Bowie, my roomate/best friend/photographer extraordinaire, crafted a lyric video for it in his animation class. I could hear the hook playing over and over from his bedroom. His room doesn't have a door on it, the sonic sound waves of Bowieland floating through our hallway and into the rest of our apartment. Certainly, "Hanging on the Telephone" played close to 1000 times in the weeks that he worked on the video. The repetition ingrained it in my auditory cortex.

Now, there are thousands of artists out there who make it their goal to write earworms. Jingle writers are among them, TV theme writers too. Conceptually, earworms are the perfect marketing tool to sell your new record or product, but how easy it to actually write one?

Jingle and TV theme writers are trying to pull this off explicitly. The entire point of their job is to sell the product or show with an interesting tune, easily hummed or recognizable. Ghost writers, those that write for pop stars, are similar to the aforementioned writers. They want to make hits. The catchiest bits are broadcast online or in ads. The more you hear it, the harder it is to get out of your head. Though, this could just be a masterclass in marketing tactics. 

I would think that earworms are harder to come up with if you're trying really hard to do so. With that being said, there are new hit songs flooding the radio waves every week. Then again, what the hell do I know? I'm not majoring in music business for a damn good reason.

Independent musicians selling their albums or singles with earworms is not foreign, but I think the difference trickles down to the accidental creation of one. Like I said before, sometimes if you're trying hard to come up with something, it makes it that much more difficult. To me, earworms are random, accidental surprises that fall out of the sky. Many artists have no inherent intention behind fabricating a 4 bar phrase to become a repeat offender in your mind. John Dwyer was probably just writing rad music that happened to generate earworms, despite his title "earworm-farmer" suggesting otherwise. I can't imagine Billy Joel knew the "Zanzibar" chorus would become an earworm for many as it started trending online. They are, of course, trying to sell their records, but they are also writing music for themselves and those who will buy their work anyways (we call these folk "dedicated fans"). 

Earworms are also subjective. They embody a positive and negative connotation. What one considers a hit, another considers their personal hell. 

There is no denying that earworms can be a massive headache. Neuroscientists are still trying to figure out what causes the loop and why, no matter how hard we try to combat them, they persist. The harder you fight, the longer they stay. According to a Kennedy Center article and Dr. Oliver Stacks, earworms are mostly a product of the digital age. We are surrounded by music constantly. Headphones, in stores, in cars, even on the street. This gives earworms a way to wiggle into our ear canals and, ultimately, to get stuck in the folds of our brains. 

They are a truly peculiar phenomenon. Actually, they are the exact definition of one. There is no real explanation for why they occur, or one that is yet to be found.

This post was unbelievably late. Good god. I will explain why in my report on my trip to New York. Stay tuned for that. What's an earworm that has affected you recently? Let me know.

Again and again and again and again and again... | See you next week...

Cheers,

Jack