There's a Commotion in the Ocean...

I'm sure you all know what it's like to get a song stuck in your head. It's even worse when you can't remember the whole song and just have one or two lines repeating over and over in your head. Usually they're songs that you heard on the radio and (at least it seems to me) listening to the whole song helps to get it out of your head. Like you're able to let the song out of your head by listening to it. Well, today I have a song stuck in my head. Not a song I heard on the radio, much worse than that. It's a song that the kids at Art Camp (where I teach theater in the summers) will be singing as part of their performance on Thursday for the end of session one (of three) of camp.

The theme of this session of AC is "Under the Sea" and the music/stories/dance teacher at camp made up a song for the kids to sing at the end of the play. I'm not sure if the song has a name but here are the lyrics:

There's a commotion under the ocean
There's a party under the sea
There's a commotion under the ocean
And you're invited so come with me.

There's a commotion under the ocean
There's a party under the sea
There's a commotion under the ocean
And you're invited so come with me (oh, come with me).

Yeah, simple lyrics and I can definitely run through the whole song in my head (and outloud if I'm not worried about the people around me thinking I'm crazy) but no matter what I do I can't get it out of my head! It's starting to drive me a little crazy so I did a little search on why songs get stuck in our heads. Here's something I found.

Having songs "stuck in your head" happens to nearly all of us. Ninety-nine percent of study respondents said they have experienced the phenomenon. Almost 50 percent say that it occurs frequently.

Kellaris, an expert on the influences of music on consumers, reported preliminary results on his work last month at the Society for Consumer Psychology's winter conference. He has a sample of 1,000 respondents to work with in analyzing his theory that certain songs create a sort of "cognitive itch" - the mental equivalent of an itchy back.

"It is like the familiar pattern of itching and scratching," Kellaris says. "The only way to 'scratch' a cognitive itch is to rehearse the responsible tune mentally. The process may start involuntarily, as the brain detects an incongruity or something 'exceptional' in the musical stimulus. The ensuing mental repetition may exacerbate the 'itch,' such that the mental rehearsal becomes largely involuntary, and the individual feels trapped in a cycle or feedback loop."

Kellaris' research seeks to identify characteristics of music that make them memorable. His preliminary work points in three directions he believes play a role:

Repetition: One theme song that respondents reported as getting stuck in their heads often was "Mission: Impossible." Kellaris was not surprised. "A repeated phrase, motif or sequence might be suggestive of the very act of repetition itself, such that the brain echoes the pattern automatically as the musical information is processed," he says.

Musical simplicity: Simpler songs appear more likely to make your brain itch. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of getting Barney's "I Love You, You Love Me" song stuck can attest to that. Generally, children's songs are more prone to getting stuck than classical music, Kellaris says.

Incongruity: When a song does something unexpected, it can also spark a cognitive itch. Examples include the irregular time signatures of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five" or the song "America" from West Side Story. Unpredictable melodic patterns or an unexpectedly articulated individual note can have the same impact.

Interesting, but unfortunately it doesn't really help me figure out how to get the song out of my head. Ho hum...I guess I'll just have to hope it somehow decides to leave...but somehow I have a feeling it will be in my head until at least Thursday when the play is and after which I won't have to hear it again and won't have as much of a chance of getting it re-stuck in my head.