Catchy Tunes and how to get rid of them

[Funka Genocide]

I usually just listen to the song an ungodly number of times, memorize it and then sing it until I fall asleep. I usually wake up with a clean slate.

unfortunately I've got Fiona Apple taking of residence in my head right now, and since I can't sing like her I can't seem to get to sleep.


I think songs get stuck in our heads mainly because we can't remember them entirely, so we get stuck on an eternal loop of the portion we do know in a vain attempt to complete the song. Learning to sing the song really removes this problem for me. Maybe it will work for you?


"Oh you silly, stupid pastime of mine!"

god I love you Fiona Apple.

[Sithdarth]

God do I hate getting songs stuck in my head. Just reading this thread as made me jump from one to the other like crazy. The worst part is that when I get a song stuck in my head its no me singing it. I apparently access the memory of hearing it and play it back much like listening to an mp3. This includes instrumentation as well. This has lead to interesting situations where I've had Opening themes to anime that are completely in Japanese running through my head perfectly and I have no idea what the words mean and am completely unable to actually pronounce them.

Getting rid of them is usually somewhat easy. I just have to find something entertaining and mentally taxing to do. For me this can range from playing a video game that requires a good deal of strategy (or just a lot of concentration) or reading something science-y and complex. Basically put your idle brain power to work and before you know it you'll forget all about the song. It helps if the activity is requires you to use your short term memory because that's probably where the song is stuck. You just have to force it out.

Oh and for me the only thing worse then getting a song stuck in my head is getting a math problem stuck there. Especially when I know it has an answer and I just can't seem to find my way to it. I've literally been kept up for three days straight working out a problem before. Stupid Hermite Polynomials and finding them from the differential equation they come from. (It requires two separate infinite power series solutions. One goes away but the other one generates an infinite set of polynomials by multiplying two power series together.)

[Ryu Van Burace]

Originally Posted by Sithdarth

Getting rid of them is usually somewhat easy. I just have to find something entertaining and mentally taxing to do.

...thank you for giving me (yet) another excuse to play Portal

And Flare? The Red Dwarf tune, fine, but not the ending version?

[Long-Haired Narcissist]

I had a problem with musicals for a little while because three of my fraternity brothers absolutely love Hairspray, Rent, and The Producers. After I actually saw the movie versions of the musicals without anyone singing along. The songs became unstuck.
Before that I had Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones stuck in my head for about two months. I just listened to it until I was numb to the effect.
A Little Respect by Erasure is also easy to get stuck in your head. I first heard it on Scrubs and then at a club I went to. It was in my head every waking moment for at least three weeks.

Originally Posted by Zilla

Still Alive. Who here has heard that and NOT had it stuck in their head for about a week solid?

Yours truly

[Bob The Mercenary]

Originally Posted by Zilla

Ride On Shooting Star, stuck in my head for about a month until I learned to play it on guitar.

FLCL for the win. I find a lot of j-pop being easy to get stuck in my head, they're all too damn catchy.

[greed]

Originally Posted by Flarecobra

The opening theme to Red Dwarf. I just started playing other music until it stops. If it doesn't work, sometimes listening to the song makes it stop.

Thanks a lot Flare, It's cold out there, no kind of atmosphere....

And yeah I get rid of songs the same way you do.

[Satan's Onion]

Originally Posted by greed

It's cold out there, no kind of atmosphere....

Le sigh. If you're going to have Red Dwarf's ending theme stuck in your head, do it right. **ahem**

It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere
I'm all alone, more or less
Let me fly, far away from here
Fun, fun, fun
In the sun, sun, sun

I want to lie, shipwrecked and comatose
Drinking fresh mango juice
Goldfish shoals nibbling at my toes
Fun, fun, fun
In the sun, sun, sun
Fun, fun, fun
In the sun, sun, sun

...And now it's in my head. Curse you, Howard Goodall, and your genius for creating catchy Wall Of Sound-esque pop tunes!

[Qizx2]

Originally Posted by Regulus Tera

What the fuck? Why has nobody linked to this?

You.....Will... Die for that. That will eternally be stuck in my head now. Took me 3 years to get it out of my head last time I heard it.

[Zilla]

.. Isn't it odd that most of the females here have seen and enjoyed Red Dwarf?

[Satan's Onion]

I suppose it means the ladies around here know quality when they see it.