Skip to main content

I Said Concerning The Earworm, NOT The Sandworm!

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm the Wonderfish.

On this fine #throwbackthursday, let us take a moment to reminisce about that classic cult film from the eighties, Beetlejuice. There are seriously so many things we love about this Tim Burton work; the actors, the costumes, the sets, the spin-off cartoon on Nickelodeon, which my sister and I watched everyday when we got home from school (and would still watch today, unashamedly, if it was on any of the channels!), Michael Keaton's delivery of those oh so quotable one liners, and how about that soundtrack? Can we give a nice round of applause for Harry Belafonte and Danny Elfman, please?

To be honest, the Sandworms freaked me right out:



See what I mean? I could barely watch those scenes. But I loved Michael Keaton because he was Batman, I loved Catherine O'Hara because she was funny, I loved Lydia's character because she was an artsy introvert, and I loved the music! In fact, it keeps getting better every time I see it! Sorry, movie quote, I couldn't help myself.

Anyway, I bring this lovely little cinematic gem up because whenever I am reminded of it, I am visited not by a Sandworm but by an earworm. Before you can say Beetlejuice three times, I have the fiddle melody from Harry Belafonte's Jump In The Line in my head, and it repeats over and over and over...



Oh, you darn earworms!!!

As promised, I kept an earworm journal for 6 days and I will share my findings with you next time, but, first, I wanted you to see some scholarly tidbits on this neurological phenomenon. Okay, I don't really know if it's technically a phenomenon, but these earworms are magical creatures as far as I'm concerned.

Here goes:
  1. We are naturally musical beings; activity that is musical impacts every region of our brain that we are aware of.
  2. When you hear a song, it triggers your auditory cortex in your brain. If you hear a familiar melody, your auditory cortex causes your mind to keep "singing" the melody even if you aren't physically listening to that song anymore.
  3. Apparently, women are more susceptible to earworms than men.
  4. Earworms are personal! It is rare for two people to have the same songs stuck in their heads.
  5. Music is encoded in your brain (it impacts every region, remember?), so it is common to receive an earworm visit from music that you just heard, music that you have repeatedly heard, and music that you have an emotional or personal connection to.
Check out the sources below if you'd like to read more about this phenomenon. I'll show you my list in my next post! Shark's in the water! See you in a week!

This week's sources:
The Beetlejuice clip is courtesy of YouTube and Hararah.

A lovely article by Stephanie Watson on why songs get stuck in our heads can be found here.

A really interesting starting point on all things earworms from Rhitu Chatterjee at BBC Magazine can be found here.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Music Bowl's First Summer

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm The Wonderfish. Summer is upon us! We here at The Music Bowl want to let you know what's bubbling to the surface in the next couple of months so you don't miss any of the music goodness. What's coming up? 1) NEW POSTS Next week, we'll introduce our "Half of the Year Hear" where you can check out some of the year's new albums with us. Fin Favorites start this month! The Wonderfish will introduce you to films about music that you won't want to miss, such as 20 Feet From Stardom , It Might Get Loud , Whiplash , and Sound City .   What is summer without summer concerts? We'll be discussing summer tours and festivals - the pros and the cons, yes, but also the sheer joy that is meant to take place. 2) NEW SHOWS Heard has some gigs!  I have some gigs!  Yes, there are even a few Heard and The Wonderfish gigs this summer! You can keep up with our show schedule on our website . 3) NEW SONGS &...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Wonderfish Presents: 2017's Best Albums

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm The Wonderfish. In this final post of the year, we look at the albums that most captivated me, The Wonderfish, in 2017. Honorable Mentions: As Heard mentioned, we saw a year of excellent music. There is just no way I could listen to all of the album releases. However, I will say I listened to a fair share of 2017's new music. First up are my honorable mentions. These are the albums I both thoroughly enjoyed and listened to repeatedly this year. Fleet Foxes -  Crack Up Ryan Adams -  Prisoner Rhiannon Giddens -  Freedom Highway Foo Fighters -  Concrete and Gold The War on Drugs -  A Deeper Understanding U2 -   Songs of Experience Ani DiFranco -  Binary Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau-  Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau Runner Up: Kendrick Lamar -  DAMN. Words that come to mind when I think about this album:  poetic, compelling, magnetic, storytelling, innovative, rhetorical ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The First Time I Saw Kendrick

Greetings from The Music Bowl! I'm The Wonderfish. In case you missed last week's post, we talked a little bit about how music can change someone's mood. I used Kendrick Lamar's performance on Saturday Night Live of the song I as an example of a performance that pushes me to work harder as a musician and songwriter. This was the first time I saw Kendrick perform live and I will never forget it. I was mesmerized. I had heard of Kendrick Lamar and listened to a few of his songs off of Good Kid, M. A. A. D. City prior to the show, but I hadn't listened to any of his albums in full. This song changed that. And, honestly, I haven't tried to learn the lyrics of a hip hop song word for word since my college days. This song changed that, too. This is the power of music. So, after seeing this, I promptly purchased his To Pimp A Butterfly album and gave it a couple of listens. I thought it was incredible. In 2016, he released u ntitled unmastered and Damn in 2...
Post a Comment
Read more