| Recently I went on a business trip to Florida. I | | | | try to listen to all kinds of music so that I can |
| was looking forward to sunny Florida and getting | | | | relate to clients of all ages and musical |
| a little R & R between meetings. On the morning | | | | tastes.Diana Deutsch, psychology professor at the |
| I was leaving for Florida I happened to pick up a | | | | University of California, San Diego, and editor of |
| newspaper on the plane that had an article from | | | | the journal Music Perception, believes that when a |
| the L.A. Times called "Stuck!" The entire article | | | | tune gets "stuck" it might have to do with the |
| was a report on the research of a professor at | | | | deeper meaning of the words involved. "Even |
| the University of Cincinnati about a problem he | | | | songs without words can have a larger meaning." |
| calls "Stuck Tune Syndrome." You've probably | | | | Therefore when a song is going round and round |
| experienced this. I know I certainly have! I get a | | | | in your head, you might ask yourself if the words |
| tune stuck in my mine and it goes round and | | | | have a deeper meaning for yourself. Of course if |
| round for days before it finally vanishes. | | | | the tune is "I'm a Little Teacup" the meaning is all |
| Sometimes it comes back weeks, months, or | | | | too obvious!Here is the list of the top 10 |
| even years later to plague me again for awhile. | | | | most-often "stuck" tunes:"The Macarena" |
| I've heard many people talk about the | | | | "I'm a Little Teacup" |
| phenomenon, but when I saw this article, I | | | | "Gilligan's Island |
| thought to myself "What perfect timing!" This is a | | | | The Chili's "Baby-back-rib" jingle |
| problem I have suffered from my entire life and I | | | | Tschaikovsky's 1812 overture |
| was searching for an interesting topic for the | | | | Kenny Roger's "The Gambler" |
| October e-zine that day anyway. Plus, I wanted | | | | "YMCA" |
| to see what the professor had discovered; | | | | Two "Dr. Pepper" jingles |
| especially if a cure was part of it!Without giving | | | | Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtsmusik" |
| you more information than you want, I will say | | | | Theme from "The Andy Griffith Show" |
| that on my honeymoon long ago in 1971, we | | | | To that I would add the theme from "The |
| were in this gorgeous resort in the British Virgin | | | | Beverly Hillbillies" and a couple of other classical |
| Islands and all I could think about was the | | | | melodies including some fugue subjects.Music |
| McDonalds jingle "You deserve a break today, so | | | | psychologists, neurologists, musicologists, and |
| get out and get away to McDonalds!" No matter | | | | everyday folks know that music can exert a |
| how hard I tried to substitute another tune, think | | | | powerful grip on the mind. At the very least, a |
| about how much fun I was having, etc. I found | | | | stuck tune can be annoying, but when one is |
| myself plagued with that tune and that idiotic | | | | really stuck, it can be almost maddening. One of |
| phrase going through my mind at least 500 times | | | | the professor's respondents claimed, perhaps |
| each day. It made me feel terribly guilty because | | | | jokingly, that he had the music from an Atari 260 |
| I was otherwise having a great time.According to | | | | video game playing in his head since 1986! What |
| Professor James Kellaris, certain types of music | | | | do you do what you have a stuck tune? Sad to |
| operate like mental mosquito bites. They create a | | | | say, there is no cure, but here are some of the |
| cognitive "itch" that can only be scratched by | | | | things that people have tried with varying degrees |
| replaying the tune in the mind. But unfortunately, | | | | of success:Substituting another tune by thinking it, |
| the more the mind scratches, the worse the itch | | | | humming it or playing it. Unfortunately, it too could |
| gets. Kellaris surveyed 1000 college students to | | | | become stuck.Turning to another distracting task |
| see which tunes seemed to be the "stickiest" and | | | | like reading aloud, balancing your checkbook, or |
| also asked them how long the tunes had stuck. | | | | talking on the phone to a friend.Trying a folk |
| He was trying to identify characteristics in the | | | | remedy like chewing on a cinnamon stick; this is |
| tunes that might cause them to have the | | | | actually said to be effective!The old "cootie" |
| "sticking" effect. One of the things that he | | | | method wherein the song is transferred to |
| thought probably had an effect, not surprisingly, | | | | another by humming a few bars to the person |
| was lots of repetition.For instance, the song | | | | and saying "now you've got it!"As I said, it's a |
| "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" or Queen's "We | | | | frustrating situation but not fatal. Right now I |
| Will Rock You." Another factor is musical simplicity; | | | | would strongly recommend listening to all of your |
| children's songs are usually quite simple and for | | | | favorite old songs and instrumental favorites. |
| that reason are easy to remember and are | | | | Remember that the music of our "courting" years |
| usually remembered through life. Another, very | | | | is said to be the most soothing and comforting |
| different component of sticky songs, Kellaris | | | | and that's what we all need right now.Dr. Alice |
| found, is incongruity. Songs that have irregular | | | | Cash is a clinical musiclogist, residing and practicing |
| rhythms and meters such as Leonard Bernstein's | | | | in Louisville, KY. Dr. Cash has spoken around the |
| "America" from West Side Story" with it's | | | | world on the healing power of music and other |
| syncopated 12/8 rhythm is very "sticky." Some | | | | music-related topics such as "Wanda Landowska |
| of today's Hip-Hop music with it's driving and | | | | and the revivial of the harpsichord." For more |
| repetitive riffs throughout are pretty sticky. Missy | | | | information on her work, visit or She is also a |
| Elliot's "Get Your Freak On," comes to mind, | | | | frequent guest expert on television and radio |
| although I certainly couldn't recommend it as a | | | | stations as well as other print media. |
| piece of healing music. As a clinical musicologist I | | | | |