Radio LBB: Ear Worms

Love them or hate them. They get us all sometime or another. The fabled earworm.

Researchers think that one of the reasons songs or music can get 'stuck in our head' is due to the way we encode music, attaching it to personal and emotional feelings that form a memory. When we experience similar feelings or emotions again it can trigger involuntary memories including a musical one. Another theory is that repeated exposure can have a psychological effect leaving a musical hallucination playing like a ghost jukebox in your head.

For the last 10 years I've been putting my pocket computer (smartphone) to good use, taking advantage of the marvel that is audio recognition technology to log any music that made my ears prick up and stop me in my tracks (Soundhound, other audio recognition technology is available). This could be music playing on the radio, in a pub or restaurant, a TV show or a film I'd watched or a project I had been working on. Something about these captured my attention - whether it be a catchy melody, the lyrics, interesting production or it resonated with the mood I was in at the time of listening.

Only time will tell if they spontaneously reappear again as fragmented phantoms, looping around in my psyche.

This playlist is a selection of music I have 'Shazamed' over the last decade. It's rather eclectic so hopefully there is something for everyone.

Happy listening!