Why Certain Songs Keep Playing Inside Our Minds

Imagine you are walking along the road and suddenly see a picture of Ayub Bachchu, or hear one of his songs playing from a music box. Does a familiar tune instantly start playing in your head? Do you find yourself silently singing a line such as “Ei rupali guitar fele…” or “Hashte dekho gaite dekho…”?

If this sounds familiar, then you have just experienced something known as involuntary musical imagery. In everyday language, this phenomenon is commonly called an earworm. More than 90 per cent of people around the world experience this at some point. Researchers have recently begun to explore why certain songs become stuck in our minds and how this process actually works.

Studies show that the part of a song that repeats continuously without much pause is the most likely to get stuck in the brain. A well-known example is a portion of Ayub Bachchu’s song “Shei Tumi”. The same principle applies to songs by other artists as well. In simple terms, when a specific part of a song is repeatedly hummed or recalled in the mind, it often turns into an earworm. Children’s songs such as “Baby Shark, doo doo doo” are classic examples of this repetition. Likewise, newly released and widely played songs, including those from Coke Studio Bangla, can also become earworms.

The human brain does not store songs in a linear way, like a tape recorder that plays from beginning to end. Instead, songs are organised into small mental ‘pockets’ based on familiarity and similarity. These pockets are connected to one another through various mental cues. An earworm may begin after recently hearing a song, hearing or seeing a word associated with it, or even listening to another tune with a similar melody. Habit also plays an important role. For example, if someone listens to music every morning while travelling by bus, a song may still play in their mind on a day when no music is played at all.

At a deeper level, this phenomenon iss is linked to a specific brain system known as the default mode network. This network becomes active when we daydream or think in a free, unstructured way. When recalling music, the default mode network sometimes randomly selects a fragment of a song and repeats it in the mind.

While some people enjoy their earworms, others find them irritating. To reduce this effect, the default mode network needs to be kept busy. One method is to sing the song out loud in front of others, as social activity can reduce the network’s activity, although this may feel awkward. Another approach is to replace the stuck song with a different one that has less repetition. Atlassian, a software company, has even created a 40-second audio track designed to help remove earworms. If none of these methods work, the final suggestion is to listen to a wide variety of music or simply learn to like the song that refuses to leave your mind.

Source: Science Alert