The theme to The Brady Bunch and the appalling Africa by Toto barge uninvited into my consciousness on climbs of ten minutes or more. I am focussing very hard on replacing them with Low Self Opinion by The Rollins Band but to no avail. Is anyone aware of academic studies into the phenomenon of earworm, and practical solutions to this scourge?
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I have this problem on every ride I do, and not just in climbs. It bothers me a lot; I want to just hear the ambient sounds around me, but nope, I’ve got Pop Goes the Weasel playing on repeat.
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I remembered listening to a Podcast from Stuff You Should know on this. I found it. Episodes
It’s titled How Commercial Jingles Work.
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Only solution is to sing the entire song, like “Come Sail Away” by Styx.
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I’m about to publish a paper that shows definitive proof that listening to The Bobby Lees not only exterminates ear worms but also confers immunity from ear worms.
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Don’t stop believing that you can find a solution to this.
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I did hear a theory that if you only hear part of a song, it has a high likelihood of becoming an ear worm because your mind keeps wanting to finish it. The solution is to play the song from beginning to end.
The logic is sound but YMMV
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I’ve had a particular Christmas song (part of it, anyway, and with the wrong words as well) and the Beatles “Michelle” stuck in my head since about age 12. Drives my friends nuts because I’m unconsciously humming one or the other under my breath pretty much all of the time.
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the answer to the existential question … what is death?
you complete bastard.
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when I have an earworm, I hum Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega and it replaces anything else. For some reason, that song is easier to forget since it doesn’t change enough for my brain to crave resolution.
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you just had to say it didn’t you
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It could be worse. You could have American Pie stuck in your head. 
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Yeah, my solution is similar; my go-to “ear worm bleach” song is Jumping Jack Flash.
Basically you need something you can pull up out of memory no matter how powerful the ear worm is, and singing that bleach song, you wipe the other one clear and then you can get on with your life.
At least, that’s what works for me.
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From a Prof at UNSW, with refs to some other research as well.
FWIW I once heard someone suggest that “The Chicken Dance” overpowers all earworms, but this comes at a price…….
I believe the International Court of Justice recently ruled that playing “The Chicken Dance” is a crime against humanity.
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My issue isn’t that a specific song gets stuck in my head while riding, it’s just that some song is always playing. I’m unable to clear my head.
The Cyclist/Bobby Lees Venn diagram may be small, but I’m right there in it with you.
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It’s usually “Girlfriend is Better” by Talking Heads for me. The studio version, not live. That’s the only earworm I heartily welcome.
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There’s a really interesting book by Oliver Sacks called Musicophilia which gets into the cause of earworms. Worth a read!
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