Why Do Some Songs Stick in Our Heads?
16:13 minutes
Certain tunes are more than just appealing—they seem to get “stuck” in our minds. Song fragments that we can’t stop humming are called “earworms.” Musical psychologist Elizabeth Margulis describes what might cause these tenacious tunes and why repetition in music is so catchy. (For more on earworms, check out this SciFri article.)
Segment Guests
Elizabeth Margulis
Elizabeth Margulis is author of On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind (Oxford University Press, 2013), and a music professor and director of the Music Cognition Lab at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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About Alexa Lim
@AlexaLim22Alexa Lim was a senior producer for Science Friday. Her favorite stories involve space, sound, and strange animal discoveries.