- Do you listen to more of it? Less?
- Do you focus on a different song?
- Do you stop listening to music until it’s gone?
I share it on social media in hopes of passing the ear worm to someone else.
ooooh… think I just created a new hit horror movie franchise. Ear worm 🪱
Sing it
Listen to another catchy song and hope it will replace the one that’s currently stuck in my head.
Unfortunately, this only occasionally works.
In lots of cases, I attempt to learn it on piano. Just a simple version.
Tell my wife about it, she gets annoyed that I put a song in her head. I go about my day and eventually i get into something else with my ADHD brain.
It’s my brain trying to complete the song. I just listen to it until I’ve memorized it from beginning to to end
I’m sailing awaaaaaaaay…
My theory is that songs get stuck in your head when you listen to a small part of it so then your brain tries to fill in the rest. So I guess you’d have to listen to the whole thing to make it go away. Haven’t really tested this thoroughly enough so if you do, let me know.
If it’s an earworm, I will consciously play Thunderstruck in my head until it goes away.
Hi! Enjoy Thunderstruck!
Find a different song to get stuck in my head.
Wow, you responded really quickly!
I try to do something similar, though the temptation to listen to more of the stuck song is strong too.
I believe it was Colbert who was talking about this situation and said you need something really distinctive but not long enough to become a new ear worm. He suggested the “by mennen” jingle, which if you’re too young or not American enough to know it is literally just 2 seconds of singing the company’s name
luck of the draw when browsing by new.
sing it, usually
Luckily most of the songs that get stuck in my head are ones I like, so I just let them play until it ends. After that, some other thought(s) occupy my mind, or another song plays.
If it’s an annoying one though? Relax and let it pass like a fart in the wind.
Unless it’s some crappy song, just listen to it on repeat until you grow sick of it.
listen to the end of the song or verse, you probably have the middle bit stuck and you just gotta bring it to a conclusion.
I hum it off and on for literally years. Pretty sure I have hummed a bar of “my milkshake brings the boys to the yard” in public dozens if not hundreds of times.
I don’t know any lyrics beyond that hook and I couldn’t even tell you the artist/group. If I stopped to think why that song, it might bother me. So I don’t think about it.
Accept that it’s there and go about my day. It will fade just as all the others before it.
