{"id":262443,"date":"2025-11-14T13:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T13:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/262443\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T13:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T13:08:11","slug":"the-catchiest-chorus-in-classic-rock-according-to-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/262443\/","title":{"rendered":"The catchiest chorus in classic rock, according to science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Grunge-Genre-Grunge-Music-Grunge-Bands-General-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\" class=\"attachment-single-feature size-single-feature wp-post-image\" alt=\"Grunge - Genre - Grunge Music - Grunge Bands - General -\" layout=\"fill\"  style=\"object-position: 50% 50%\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(Credits: Far Out \/ Evgeniy Smersh \/ Original Promo)<\/p>\n<p> Fri 14 November 2025 10:46, UK <\/p>\n<p>Is catchy music a good thing or a bad thing? It\u2019s really hard to tell. Most artists would prefer not to have such an adjective attached ot their work, but it is also undeniably a part of what can make a song successful. So why don\u2019t more artists, in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.faroutmagazine.co.uk\/tags\/rock\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">rock<\/a> music or otherwise, try to attain an earworm? <\/p>\n<p>The truth is, it isn\u2019t very cool to try and do anything, let alone try and write a song which can stick in the mind of the listener. For the most part, what makes a song catchy also, with time, makes it annoying. But, the reality is, making something memorable should be a part of ay band\u2019s outlook. For those beautiful moments, years on from that day in the studio, when the song is still stuck in somebody\u2019s head. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo, never heard it,\u201d says your friend, who shrugs off a song suggestion like it\u2019s second nature. All you need to do is play about three seconds of the chorus for them to sit up in their chair and go, \u201cOh, this one?\u201d That\u2019s the power of the catchy chorus, an element of music that can be as binding as it is annoying. The Beatles, AC\/DC and Kiss have all contributed to the plethora of catchy choruses available within classic rock, but what song is the most recognisable?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Arguably, music wouldn\u2019t be as dominating an art form in the modern world were it not for the chorus. There is a lot of music, which is a solo experience, something you put on in your earphones and enjoy in isolation. However, the big shows, the festivals and the stadium crowds are held in such high regard not only because of the fact they\u2019re fun but also because of how oddly connective it is singing the same words to the same song with a bunch of strangers. The chorus makes this incredibly easy to do, as after only a few listens, a track can become engrained in our memory. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s still unclear <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/15-songs-that-start-with-the-chorus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"what makes a catchy chorus\">what makes a chorus catchy<\/a>. There are some tracks you could hear once, not listen to again for years, but then instantly recognise the minute it is played. Then, there are others that you can listen to on multiple occasions but will still need a reminder as to what you\u2019re hearing. Why? Science wants to understand, but before it can, it needs to know what some of the catchiest choruses are so it can see what they have in common. <\/p>\n<p>The Museum of Science and Industry recently did a study in Manchester where users would head to a website to play various games that helped scientists better understand what songs are the catchiest. One of those games involved naming a song as quickly as possible after just hearing the beginning of the chorus. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI work within a group that studies music cognition in general \u2013 any way in which the brain processes music \u2013 and we were particularly interested in music and memory and why exactly it is that certain pieces of music stay in your memory for such a long time,\u201d said Dr Ashley Burgoyne discussing the experiment. <\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cThere has already been some research that shows that if you can find the right piece of music, something that had a very strong meaning, playing that piece of music can be very therapeutic. But the challenge is figuring out what is the best piece of music.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The results came back, and given that such a massive element of pop music is recognisability and accessibility, it isn\u2019t a surprise that many big pop hits were quickly picked up. It turns out the song with the catchiest chorus overall was \u2018Wannabe,\u2019 by the Spice Girls, while the likes of \u2018Mambo No 5,\u2019 \u2018Just Dance,\u2019 and \u2018Beat It\u2019 also made the cut.<\/p>\n<p>When it came to <a href=\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/most-iconic-classic-rock-songs-according-to-science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"classic rock\">classic rock<\/a>, the choices were slightly more sparse. However, the track that was revealed to be the most recognisable to those who were taking part in the experiment was \u2018You Ain\u2019t Seen Nothing Yet,\u2019 by Bachman-Turner Overdrive. It\u2019s not much of a surprise, as the song has a chorus that has been filling lungs and dance floors for years now. <\/p>\n<p>Now that there is an understanding of some of the catchiest songs, the next step can be trying to link them and better understand the qualities that make them catchy. Until then, though, we can only keep listening while science runs its tests and garners results. It does feel like we have only just scratched the surface of what links music and memory, and realistically, we ain\u2019t seen nothing yet. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Related Topics<\/p>\n<p>The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>All the latest Classic Rock content from the independent voice of culture.<br \/>Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Evgeniy Smersh \/ Original Promo) Fri 14 November 2025 10:46, UK Is catchy music&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[75854,58176,96,128,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-262443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-chorus","9":"tag-classic-rock","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}