The study of music and the brain is one of the most exciting areas in science, involving a growing number of researchers and centers across the world dedicated to understanding how we experience, process, and appreciate music. In the following highlights, we delve into the scientific pursuits of neurologists who are also professionally trained musicians, before shining light on renowned musicians whose eclectic scientific interests have also helped move knowledge forward. Read on >
Why do certain songs get stuck in your head?
You can’t walk into the office without Rihanna’s voice singing “work work work work work work” in your head. And that one line from Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” still makes you want to scream.
These are commonly known as earworm songs—those sticky tunes that continue to play in your head long after you wish you could skip to the next track. Experts call them “involuntary musical imagery.” Read on >
Repetitive Sounds Are Music To The Brain
Repeating something can render that thing melodious—even the sound of a shovel being dragged across the pavement. Read more >
Music is more than sound
New research shows that music triggers parts of our brain related to movement, speech, and emotion. We talk about the ways music goes beyond raw sound. Hear more >
Music is Not for Ears
We never just hear music. Our experience of it is saturated in cultural expectations, personal memory, and the need to move. Read on >
Why You So Like That #1 - Earworms
Why You So Liddat is a show that explores the mind, our behaviour, and why we are the way we are. Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? Just a verse or maybe the chorus that loops over and over and over again in your head. In today's episode, Elizabeth explains why our brains love the repetition of music so much. She is also the author of On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind. Read on >
Why we really, really, really like repetition in music
Why you can't get a song out of your head and what to do about it
“Earworms” are unwanted catchy tunes that repeat in your head. These relentless tunes play in a loop in up to 98% of people in the western world. For two-thirds of people they are neutral to positive, but the remaining third find it disturbing or annoying when these songs wriggle their way into the brain’s memory centers and set up home, threatening to disrupt their inner peace. Read on >
Between Sound and Story
Like many in my generation, I got hooked on cognitive science as a teenager through popular press books by Douglas Hofstadter and Marvin Minsky. Read on >
Didn't Like the Thunder Over Louisville Music? Science Can Explain Why
Thousands of people packed the waterfront last weekend to watch Thunder Over Louisville, the largest annual fireworks display in North America.
But it wasn’t long after the sky went dark and the music stopped that — wait for it — people took to Twitter to complain about this year’s event.
The most common criticism? The music. Read on >
Les claves que esconden los hits de la cultura pop actual
Read more in El Mercurio, Chile >
Why some songs turn into earworms
It's an earworm so powerful, all you have to do is look at or think about the the lyrics to the Lady Gaga song "Bad Romance" — Rah rah ah-ah-ah! Ro mah ro-mah-mah— and your brain can get stuck on repeat. Read on >
Can You Recall The Order Of The Letters On Your Keyboard Without Looking? If Not, Here's Why
The recollection of a keyboard by your hands versus your memory of the order of the keys is a nice example of the dissociation of explicit memory and implicit memory. Read on >
Death threats, earworms and the science behind why Kars4Kids is the most annoying song of all time
There are worse songs in the world. Songs that denigrate women, songs that glorify racism, anything that appeared on Paris Hilton’s album. But in terms of widespread, ubiquitous hate, it’s hard to top the Kars4Kids jingle. Read on >
Neuroscientists scanned Sting's brain.
Here's what they learned. Read more >
I'm taking it easy when I take the bus
How one local jingle became our national transit jam. Read on >
Why you get sick of your favorite song
It happens all the time. A new album comes out, you listen to it, and before you know it, you have a new favorite song. So you play it again. And again. And again. It’s on loop for days: in the car, at home. Maybe you even hum it to yourself while you work. Read more >