{"id":183337,"date":"2025-12-13T23:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T23:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/183337\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T23:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T23:30:08","slug":"why-taylor-swifts-new-songs-are-stuck-in-your-head-earworms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/183337\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Taylor Swift\u2019s New Songs Are Stuck In Your Head: Earworms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Think about a song that\u2019s gotten stuck in your head. Maybe it\u2019s Vanilla Ice\u2019s \u201cIce Ice Baby,\u201d the State Farm theme song, \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d from \u201cWicked,\u201d or Taylor Swift\u2019s new song \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

These songs \u2014 though wildly different musically \u2014 share one thing in common: they\u2019re earworms.<\/p>\n

What are earworms? \u201cMusic that pops into your head without any deliberate effort to initiate or prolong it,\u201d Susan Rogers<\/a>, an instructor of music cognition at Berkelee Online<\/a>, told HuffPost. <\/p>\n

Swift has been churning out earworms for nearly two decades. There are entire<\/a> Reddit<\/a> threads<\/a> where people chat about the song currently stuck in their head or the one that automatically starts playing in their mind when they wake up in the middle of the night. <\/p>\n

This is all to say: don\u2019t be surprised if you catch yourself humming along to one of these tracks. It\u2019s neuroscience. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

What goes on in your brain when an earworm gets stuck in your head?<\/p>\n

When you listen to music, many brain regions<\/a> fire up to help you analyze the sound and make sense of the emotions you feel in response to it. But there is one part of the brain \u2014 the auditory cortex<\/a> \u2014 that does the heavy lifting when it comes to processing songs and storing them as memories. <\/p>\n

Certain songs are easier for your brain to remember than others. We\u2019ll dig into those factors below, but, in general, our brains are best at memorizing simple, culturally familiar melodies, like the ones we hear in children\u2019s songs (think: \u201cTwinkle Twinkle Little Star\u201d). <\/p>\n

What does this have to do with earworms? \u201cYour auditory cortex lights up as if you were hearing the song for real, in real time, out loud,\u201d explained Jenna Marcovitz, the director of music therapy<\/a> in the department of integrative medicine at UCLA Health.<\/p>\n

Typically, the earworm pops into your head when something in your environment triggers a memory of a song that\u2019s stored in your brain. This may be something you read in a book, see on a billboard, hear in another song, or even imagine. Here\u2019s a real-life example from Rogers: \u201cI spotted a car with a decal in the back window with two large cat eyes. Into my head popped \u2018Eyes Without a Face\u2019 by Billy Idol.\u201d It can also be more simple than that; perhaps you\u2019ve been seeing ads for \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d everywhere, and the next thing you know, you catch yourself singing \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d while doing the dishes.<\/p>\n

In short, the trigger jogs your musical memories. And though not every song will start playing on a loop, simple, catchy tunes you know by heart \u2014 i.e., an earworm \u2014 can repeat without much awareness or effort on your behalf, Rogers said.<\/p>\n

What musical elements make a song an earworm?<\/p>\n

There are various musical elements that increase the likelihood a song will be an earworm. As Marcovitz said, catchiness is usually a result of the perfect cocktail of tempo, melody, rhythm and repetition.<\/p>\n

Faster tempos<\/a> tend to stick. The same goes with short, simple melodies, memorable lyrics, predictable rhythms and repetitive chunks of sound played throughout the song. \u201cOur brains are simply drawn to this patterning and organization that music inherently provides, and earworms really seem to capitalize upon that,\u201d Marcovitz said.<\/p>\n

One more thing: Earworms tend to be widely popular<\/a>. The more you hear them on the radio or over the speakers at the grocery store, the stronger your memory of the tune will be. It\u2019s no surprise, then, that a culture\u2019s most popular songs are more likely to be earworms compared to its more artistically complex or avant-garde music, according to Rogers.<\/p>\n

Jay Marcovitz<\/a>, a recording engineer, mixer and producer (and husband to Jenna), noted that modern pop songs often incorporate various layers of hooks (or catchy elements) to be as memorable and addictive as possible. <\/p>\n

Take \u201cPlease Please Please<\/a>\u201d by Sabrina Carpenter. The chorus \u2014 \u201cplease, please, please don\u2019t prove I\u2019m right\u201d \u2014 uses harmonic and instrumental hooks heard in the introduction of the song, he says. The lyrics are simple and memorable after only a listen or two. The melody sways down, then up again (this is called a melodic counter), providing a satisfying feeling of resolution. <\/p>\n

\u201cEach of the elements \u2014 the vocals, the melody, the lyrics, the rhythms, the chords, the sonic ear candy \u2014 can all be hooky earworms by themselves, but when they come together as a whole, they create a memorable listening experience with greater chances of being recalled later,\u201d Jay Marcovitz said. <\/p>\n

\"There's<\/p>\n

John Shearer via Getty Images<\/p>\n

There’s a scientific reason you can’t get Taylor Swift’s new song “The Fate of Ophelia” out of your head, even if you want to.<\/p>\n

Take Swift\u2019s \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia\u201d as another example. According to Scarlet Keys<\/a>, a songwriting professor at Berkelee College of Music, the track contains multiple rhythmic, lyrical and melodic hooks. Lyrically, our brains are drawn to asyndetons (lists that do not include conjunctions) \u2014 \u201con the land, the sea, the sky\u201d and \u201cyour hands, your team, your vibes\u201d \u2014 along with the tiny rhymes sprinkled throughout \u2014 \u201cyou dug me out of my grave, and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia.\u201d \u201cThat is so satisfying to the ear, I call it ear crack for the listener,\u201d Keys explained.<\/p>\n

The tempo is fast and upbeat, she adds, and the rhythm is simple and repetitive. You can find plenty of melodic contours, that up-and-down swaying, like the one in the pre-chorus line: \u201cAnd if you\u2019d never come for me, I might\u2019ve drowned in the melancholy.\u201d As a result, many people will find they can quickly pick up on the beat and sing along. \u201cA 4-year-old, a drunk guy in a bar and an 85-year-old could all get in on this,\u201d Keys said. These combined elements lend themselves well to getting 90,000 people in a stadium bopping in unison \u2014 and becoming an earworm that sticks in your head.<\/p>\n

There are a few ways to get an earworm out of your head.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing technically wrong with letting your mind play \u201cThe Fate of Ophelia\u201d on repeat, but if it\u2019s starting to bug you? There are a few things you can do to free up some brain space.<\/p>\n

First, try doing a strenuous task. Earworms are more likely to occur when our brains are pleasantly idle, Rogers said, so a challenging project can take your mind off the tune. <\/p>\n

Other tricks: Play another song, change your environment or try chewing gum (one study<\/a> suggests doing so \u201creduces the repetition of sticky tunes\u201d). Some people find that actually listening to the song<\/a> in its entirety can get it out of your head.<\/p>\n

If all else fails, follow Rogers\u2019 example. When she was an audio engineer<\/a> on tour with Prince in 1984, she took the advice of experienced roadies and would sing \u201cTonight We\u2019re Going To Rock You\u201d by Spinal Tap after shows. \u201cThey say it\u2019s so bad that it won\u2019t stick, but it will wipe out any other music you\u2019ve got going on,\u201d Rogers said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Think about a song that\u2019s gotten stuck in your head. Maybe it\u2019s Vanilla Ice\u2019s \u201cIce Ice Baby,\u201d the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409,1587,2070],"class_list":{"0":"post-183337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-psychology","13":"tag-taylor-swift"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}