Sunday, December 11, 2022

Earworms with lyrics; instrumental earworms; fighting off earworms

I heard a lecture last week about "earworms"; one issue that came up is whether songs that get in your head are most effective with lyrics. While I definitely find lyrics to be a major engine of "earworm" effects, I also often get long instrumental parts repeating ad infinitum, such as the guitar solo in the coda of "Hotel California", by The Eagles. Sometimes my head turns such things into jams that take me to other songs; at other times, I have to combat them with "Monk's Dream", by Thelonious Monk – or, as I was just reminded by what I'm listening to right now, "China Cat Sunflower", by The Grateful Dead. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 11 December 2022)

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