"Here I go again on my own. Going down the only road I've ever known"

I woke up with Whitesnake in my head. How does this happen, exactly? I haven't even heard the song in over two years, but a little over a week ago my friend made a comment about the song on facebook. Apparently that is enough to insert it into my subconscious. I feel a little ashamed to have Whitesnake bouncing around in my head. But, on the other hand, it is actually a really good song. There, I've said it. Don't judge me.

"Here I Go Again" - once in nineteen days - processing, catchy, thought about it recently
"You Are What You Love" - five times in nineteen days - processing, prior obsession
"Is Love Enough" - three times in nineteen days - processing, prior obsession
"You're the One that I Want" - once in nineteen days - catchy, heard it recently

"My emotions wrapped in vines are reaching for the sun that shines"

"Buckets of Rain" - twice in eighteen days - heard it recently, new obsession
"All This Time" - three times in eighteen days - memory, heard it recently, processing

"Suppose I kept on singing love songs to break my own fall"

I really should make another category of repetunes for the main reason that "Fidelity" is in my head, but it is just so ridiculous and circuitous that it seems silly. I was fairly obsessed with "Fidelity" about a year and a half ago. Around the same time I was also obsessed with "I Feel it All" by Feist. Because of that, the two songs have become inextricably linked together in my mind. When I hear one I also think of the other. And I heard "I Feel it All" on Saturday which naturally led me to think at length about "Fidelity," even though I haven't heard it in quite a while. And then, four days later, "Fidelity" pops into my head. O mysterious workings of the unconscious. Maybe I can simplify this category of repetunes to songs that I recently thought about, as opposed to songs that I recently heard.

Done.

"Dance, Dance, Dance" - five times in seventeen days - catchy, heard it recently, new obsession
"Fidelity" - once in seventeen days - catchy, processing, prior obsession, thought about it recently

Ditto

"Dance, Dance, Dance" - four times in sixteen days - catchy, heard it recently, new obsession

"I was a dancer all along"

Yeah, I'm obsessed.

"Dance, Dance, Dance" - three times in fifteen days - catchy, heard it recently, new obsession

A day of whimsy

We have yet another new category of repetunes. "Tenuousness" suddenly popped into my head today at lunch, for what at first appeared to be no reason. Then I realized that it has a lot of similarities to "Dance, Dance, Dance." They both are a little sweet, a little bouncy, a little whimsical, and make me happy happy happy. Like new BFFs frolicking in a field together holding hands. They definitely want to be on a mix tape together.

And (omg) Neko Case has a cover of "Buckets of Rain?" Is that even allowed? So much happiness! Whimsy! Playfulness! "If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out" by Cat Stevens also wants to be involved in today's whimsical goodness, but it didn't quite reach earworm status. It just wanted to come out and play.

"Buckets of Rain" - once in fourteen days - heard it recently, new obsession
"Dance, Dance, Dance" - twice in fourteen days - catchy, heard it recently, new obsession
"Tenuousness" - once in fourteen days - prior obsession, similarity to current earworm
"All This Time" - twice in fourteen days - memory, heard it recently, processing

"I was a dancer all along. Dance, dance, dance. Words can never make up for what you do."

I think I will have to come up with a new category of repetunes, for new songs I hear that I am in the process of becoming obsessed with. Like "Dance, Dance, Dance" by Lykke Li, which I L.O.V.E. I had heard this song before and really liked it, but it didn't get all up in my brain and make me happy and need to be listened to again and again and again and again and again, like it is doing now. Yay music!

I am also very intrigued by the songs that are in my head when I first wake up in the morning. What is gong on with them? Sometimes it is clear that they are related to my dreams or something that I am processing subconsciously. But this morning I woke up with "Eight Days a Week" in my head. What? I don't even know when I last heard that song. What is it doing in my subconscious? I don't understand. The waking-up-with-a-song-in-my-head phenomenon requires further investigation.

"Eight Days a Week" - once in thirteen days - ?
"All Alone" - three times in thirteen days - catchy, heard it recently, processing
"Sexyback" - two times in thirteen days - memory, catchy, heard it recently
"Dance Dance Dance" - catchy, heard it recently, OMG new obsession!

"All alone, all alone"

The most common combination of reasons for an earworm seems to be a memory associated with the song, catchiness, and having heard it recently. Five of the 18 songs I have been earwormed by fall under that combination of reasons. Hmm...

"Hustler" - once in twelve days - memory, catchy, heard it recently
"All Alone" - twice in twelve days - catchy, heard it recently, processing

"I'll let you whip me if I misbehave"

I have started trying to figure out why certain songs get stuck in my head. So far, there seem to five categories of repetunes. Some of the songs are associated with a vivid memory. Hearing those songs more or less instantly reminds me of a specific time, place, person or event. Other songs are just really catchy and want to bounce up and down on my eardrum 4eva. And then there are the songs that I have heard recently and take up temporary residence in my temporal lobe. Then there are the songs that seem to reflect something in my life that I am processing or working on subconsciously. Finally, there are songs that I have previously been obsessed with or earwormed by. There is actually a sixth category of songs, songs that I have no explanation for why they are in my head. Apparently Ani Difranco songs are just randomly running around in my head? I have no idea why those two Ani Difranco songs made it into my brain for a while.

What is interesting is that most of the songs that I have been earwomed with fall under two or three different categories. For example, the song that started this blog, "Holiday" by Madonna, has a vivid memory associated with it, is quite catchy, and I had heard it recently. So most repetunes have multiple reasons for dancing through one's brain.

From here on out I am going to keep track of how often a song earworms me and what are the possible reasons for the earworming. Thusly:

"Sexyback" - once in eleven days - memory, catchy, heard it recently

"I pretend like I don't know what's going on"

"You are my rising sun!"

Today's songs make me wonder what exactly counts as an earworm. I woke up with "You Are What You Love" in my head. Waking up with a song in your head automatically qualifies as an earworm in my opinion, since there is no conscious reason for it to be bouncing on your eardrum. Even if the song doesn't stay in your head for very long, if you wake up hearing it, it is an earworm. Of course this particular song has been in my head for several days and I kept hearing it throughout the day, so it is clear that it is officially a cognitive itch.

But what if a song is only stuck in your head for a few minutes? Is that an earworm? "All This Time" was only in my head for about 15 minutes as I walked to work. I really enjoy my walk to work, down a street with shy cats, across a bridge with christmas lights, and through a park. Having such a bouncy, dense, almost ecstatic song in my head during my walk was lovely. So I included it in today's list of earworms, purely to mark the memory. But, does a short 15 minute skitter through one's brain constitute an earworming? What is the cut-off point?

"Is Love Enough?" raises the question of what constitutes an obsession as opposed to an earworm. Is there a distinction between the two? Most of the songs that get stuck in my head are not songs that I love. They are catchy, or I heard them recently, or they are my subconscious' way of processing something. But I love "Is Love Enough?" I was extremely obsessed with it about two years. Over the course of about three weeks, I probably listened to it more than 50 times. It is actually a very spiritual song for me. It reminds me of how I want to be in the world. I have such a strong emotional connection with the song, that it seems to surpass mere earworminess. While many repetunes are ear fluff, perhaps there is small subset that carry more weight.

I also think that a song that was a previous earworm or obsession is much more likely to be an earworm in the future. Neural encoding, you know.

"Take that and rewind it back"

This was only a partial ear-worming. It wasn't even really the whole song that was stuck in my brain, just the "Take that and rewind it back, Lil John got the beat to make your booty go (CLAP!)" part. ALL DAY LONG.

I'm a little concerned that I might actually be a holla back girl

I think this particular earworming really shows the potentially infectious nature of music. On Saturday I heard half of this song at the Gay Pride parade. I wandered off to find the float that was playing the song so I could get my dance on, but by the time I tracked it down, the song had ended. So I went on with my life and never gave it a second thought. TWO DAYS LATER, I wake up with the song stuck in my head. How does that happen? What was the song doing in my subconscious for two days? Why did it resurface? Granted, I was sick for most of those two days, so maybe my state wasn't conducive to earworming. Perhaps the song was just waiting idly in my subconscious for me to get better before it bounced around my brain for a while. Also, this song seriously earwormed me when it first came out. There was one day when I listened to it at least a dozen times. So maybe I was already primed for ear-worming? Maybe the earworming neural networks had already been laid down and were just itching to drop some neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft? I dunno.

Investigations continue.

"We need a Holiday!"

"You are what you love, and not what loves you back"

"Take only what you need from it"

06/01/2009

Second day for Kids by MGMT. To begin with, this song is so catchy and earwormable that I am surprised that anyone ever gets it out of their head at all. I'm pretty sure that at any given point in time at least 5% of the US population has this song running through their head. MGMT rocks the synthesizer HARD. So hard that they include what sounds like royal horns on the synthesizer, announcing the majestic arrival of the solo.

But mostly this song is about this year's Burning Flipside. Burning Flipside is the small Austin version of Burning Man, an art festival and experiment in temporary community. No words or pictures can capture the magic that is Flipside, but suffice it to say that attending Flipside has been life-changing for me. This was my second year to camp with RedCamp and wow, how I love them.

This year RedTony, the instigator of RedCamp, did some radio shifts at KFLiP, the radio station at Flipside. On Saturday night he DJ-ed a dance show and most of RedCamp was out shaking it in front of the station. And then he played "Kids" and we all exploded in dancing joy omg it's great to be aliveness. Saturated by the beauty. Lovely.

And that's probably why the song is in my head.

And here is the RedCamp Dance Set.