Get that song out of my head!

Have you ever wondered why words, phrases or songs get stuck in your head? Me, too. And it's always random things that rattle around in there. Sometimes they're OK, other times they just drive me bats. Which isn't too hard, since I'm mostly there anyway.

I read a book called "This Is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel J. Levitin a while back, and he called that little piece of a song that gets stuck in your head an earworm. I thought that was a great term for it, but he didn't really explain why it happens or how to get rid of it. That's what I'd like to know. When I've got "Go, go, Power Rangers" and the guitar section that follows it on repeat, I'd really like to know how to make it stop.

Sometimes, the earworm isn't quite so insidious. For example, I really like the song "Caledonia," which I have by both Celtic Woman and Celtic Thunder (sensing a theme here?), and the phrase "Caledonia, you called me, now I'm going home" often works its way to the forefront of my brain. That one's not quite so bad. "Place In the Choir" by Celtic Thunder is another that finds itself replaying in my mind.

Then there's the phrase "porque Tu estarás conmigo," which is Spanish for "for Thou art with me." It's from Psalm 23, and we had to learn it in one of my Spanish classes. I just love the way the words roll off the tongue, and it's meaning is something you could meditate on for the rest of your life. That's an earworm I'm definitely OK with.

And you never know what's going to incite the earworm riot. Sometimes it's something someone says. It could be something you hear on the radio, TV or on another CD. For me, it could be the way someone says something - the rhythm of the words ("feel the beat of the rhythm of the night"), the word selection, even the tone of voice or what I thought I heard.

I'd also like to know why some of them play for days and others only for a couple times and then go away. Are some more virulent than others? Maybe someone could quantify catchiness in a tune to determine how severe an earworm it could create.

I guess your best cure for the common earworm is trying to replace it with something less annoying. I'd recommend silence, but there are even songs about that.