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Transcript:
Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight, I’m Robin Basselin.
Voice 2
And I’m Ryan Geertsma. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Do you ever have a song that you cannot stop thinking about? You try to stop, but the song just continues in your mind. It plays again, and again, and again… This is a common problem. And the problem has an unusual name. It is called an earworm.
Voice 2
When most people hear the word worm, they think of a very small thin animal with no legs. But an earworm is not this kind of worm. Earworms are songs or parts of songs. A real worm digs deep into the ground. But an earworm digs deep into your mind. An earworm may stay in your thoughts for minutes, hours, or even days! And it can be very difficult to get a musical earworm out of your mind. Today’s Spotlight is on earworms.
Voice 1
Almost everyone has experienced an earworm. Some people experience earworms almost every day. For other people, it only happens once in a long time. Spotlight producer Courtney Schutt describes her own experience with earworms.
Voice 3
“I have an earworm every day. Sometimes it lasts for only an hour. Other times, it can last all day. I have a few particular songs that often stick in my mind. They begin when I am not expecting them. My most common earworm is the French children’s song “Alouette”. My mind just keeps singing the main part of the song over and over.
Alouette, gentille Alouette
Alouette, je te plumerai
I learned this song when I was a child. My grandfather would sing it with me. But I do not often hear it anymore. I do not know why this song comes to my mind.”
Voice 2
Lassi A. Liikkanen is a scientist in Finland. He studies the human brain. His research shows that earworms are very common. In 2009, he asked people in Finland to answer questions about earworms. He received almost 12,000 answers. Dr. Liikkanen’s results showed that 90% percent of people experience an earworm about once a week.
Voice 1
So what makes people experience earworms? Dr. Lauren Stewart studies music and the human brain at Goldsmiths – University of London. She told CNN that it is still difficult to completely explain earworms:
Voice 4
“What is interesting to us is the fact that this musical imagery comes to the brain without planned effort. It is as if comes from nowhere. We are still trying to learn why that happens.”
Voice 2
Earworms are difficult to research. Scientists cannot directly see, hear or measure the results of an earworm. So they cannot study earworms separate from the people who experience them. Instead, scientists must ask people to tell them about their past personal experience. Gathering research results in this way can take a lot of time. And comparing people’s different experiences can be difficult.
Voice 1
Victoria Williamson is another researcher at Goldsmiths-University of London. She recognized the difficulties of studying earworms. So, 2011, she decided to start a group research project. The project is called The Earwormery.
Voice 2
The Earwormery project uses the internet to continuously gather information about earworms. On their website earwormery.com, the group asks individuals about their experiences. They ask questions like: What song is your earworm? What were you doing when you experienced the earworm? And do you have an idea of what caused the earworm?
Voice 1
Williamson talked with Public Radio International about the results from the first question – ‘What song is your earworm?’
Voice 5
“When I had gathered results for 1,000 earworm songs, there were only about six songs that were named more than once. That is how mixed the answers were. An earworm is a very individual experience.”
Voice 2
Next, Williamson and The Earwormery decided to see if there were clear reasons why songs became earworms. The research showed four possible influences.
Voice 1
The first influence is simply hearing the song. A song may become an earworm for an individual just because they have heard it recently. Another reason a song may become an earworm is repetition. Sometimes an individual hears or plays a particular song often. When this happens, the song is more likely to become an earworm.
Voice 2
Another influence the study showed was stress – a feeling of mental pressure caused by problems in life. Stress can bring past experiences into the mind. And often people have strong connections between memories and music. So a particular memory may cause the brain to think of a particular song.
Voice 1
The Earwormery project found one last major cause for earworms – triggers. Triggers are sights, sounds, or smells in the environment. These triggers can cause an individual to start thinking about a particular song. A person may not even know what trigger brought a song to her mind.
Voice 2
Williamson told PRI about a trigger that caused her to experience an earworm. It all started with a shoe box.
Voice 5
“The box was from a store called Faith. Just by reading the word faith, my mind went down a path. It made connections from one thing to the next. Finally, it reached the song Faith by George Michael. And then the song was in my head for the rest of the day.”
Voice 1
Scientists are just beginning to understand how and why earworms happen. However, most people are interested in an entirely different question: ‘what can you do when you have an earworm playing over and over in your head?’
Voice 2
Scientists do not have a cure for earworms. But people who experience earworms often have many suggested solutions. BBC news recently published an article about earworms. Soon after, many BBC listeners offered these ideas about how to stop earworms:
Voice 6
“My best cure for ‘earworm removal’ is to try doing difficult math problems in my head. The fact that I concentrate to complete the math problem usually helps.”
Voice 7
“I just write the words of the song down backwards – from the last letter to the first. Then I sing the words as written down… This troubles the brain. And it immediately stops singing.”
Voice 8
“When this happens to me, I try to sing the song as if I am performing it. I sing with great excitement. Then I finish by singing loud and strong. And I hope that will “finish” the song.”
Voice 1
The research shows that people have very individual earworm songs. People also seem to have many different ways to end earworms. But what about you? What are your earworms? And how do you make an earworm stop? Tell us about it. You can e-mail us at radio@radioenglish.net.
Voice 2
The writer of this program was Courtney Schutt. The producer was Ryan Geertsma. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted and voiced by Spotlight. You can find our programs on the internet at www.radioenglish.net. This program is called “Earworms: Songs in Your Head.”