I’m aware that many bloggers post a Monday Morning music meme. I’ve never done it. I have pretty eclectic tastes in music. Love classical, jazz, blues, swing, old-school rock (i.e. in the vein of Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis), classic rock, country, folk- especially if there’s a fiddle involved, Soul music, some rap. I even like good gospel music - not new-fangled gospel music, I like old-fangled gospel music. Grew up on it. My dad listened to straight up traditional Black southern gospel every Sunday morning.
Nevertheless, I have to be really careful with some songs. I get earworms so easily. There is nothing worse than an earworm. Per Wikipedia:
An earworm is a piece of music that sticks in one’s mind so that one seems to hear it, even when it is not being played. One reason that this occurs is that melodic music tends to have a rhythm which repeats. This cyclical nature may cause endless repetition unless some way to achieve a climax is found which breaks the cycle.
Yes, dear god, can’t we all use a climax???
For example I must be careful around Elton John. Candle in the Wind causes one of my most persistent earworms. Even worse than Elton John is Andrew Lloyd Weber. Every single one of his musicals is like a microscopic brain cell destroyer. It’s as if his songs get injected into my blood stream ala Fantastic Voyage. Remember that movie? The soundtrack from Evita nearly landed me in the emergency room.
Must be something about those knighted British musicians. I bet they blackmailed the Queen, threatening her with earworms. I think Andrew Lloyd Weber is a baron or something - yeah, for sure his songs got stuck in the Queen’s head. What could she do but baron him?
So what’s my cure for an earworm? Well, first of all, I run screaming from any hint of Elton John or Andrew Lloyd Weber music. Fingers in ears, yelling “Lalalalalalalalalala” and all that. If I fail, if I manage to catch even the slightest hint of a song, I have to immediately sing a Hebrew ditty, I think the words are taken from the Book of Isaiah:
Henei ma tov umanaim
Shevet achim gam yachad
Henei ma tov umanaim
Shevet achim gam yachad
Hinei ma tov (Henei ma tov)
Lai lai lai lai lai
Lai lai lai lai lai
Hinei ma tov (Henei ma tov)
Lai lai lai lai lai
Lai lai lai lai lai
I don’t know why, but it works. Love this Vietnamese version-
Here’s a more traditional version-
Anyone else suffer from earworms?
wow, who knew you needed a climax to cure an ear worm.
Loved this, and see you answered a bigger question than you thought you were asking?
Religion, Traditions, we’ve always Voted for that party in elections from this family or neighbourhood, why, because that is the way it has always been……
Then you take the same song sung in the traditional (sorry if anyone now gets offended) boring, soporific way that it has always been performed, and then you change it to meet the needs of the newer and different audience that have changed so much over the millennia .
What have you got - A newer and for my tastes, a much better and upbeat message - some could think about doing that with their faith and politics today..
Other than that, couldn’t agree more about the music and in particular to musicals, Blues, Big Band orchestrations, Barbara Striesand, Pop, Country although I do like old and new, Classical, Rock, they are all in my library and I was just thinking while in the shower listening to some music, that there are plenty out there that I love the tune and the melody, but the lyrics sometimes could have done with being left of the page, that’s if you can even understand what many of them are trying so dismally to articulate with a mouth full of gob-stoppers…..
Happy Monday
some fav show tunes are: Starlight sequence Love this as I keep looking for the Power within (me) but can never seem to find it (and I am always letting people down) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKrdhNVd508
Phantom of the Opera they are all my favourites and again this one in particular as life is such a masquerade http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwoLNtUuCVk
Les Mis Do You Here the People Sing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmaTNf4YhEs (the tune reminds me a little of that old Southern ditty battle Hymn of the Republic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwW_sN_KDDk
Miss Saigon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGmqX8EAvrw
I could go on and on
xx
Good one, Amber!
When I like a song, I listen to it over and over and over and over again. I once got a noise complaint in college for playing this song too many times. Not for it being too loud. For playing it over and over again. Ha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b-6ksMdkrU&feature=related
I get those pesky ear worms too and I just give in and loop the the music while I write. This week’s choices have been dark, brooding rock instrumentals. A couple have been played 50+ times while I finish writing a scene. It does keep others away from my writing area. They don’t want to contract “ear worm”.
I loved Fantastic Voyage! OMG the sight of Raquel Welch in her tight white diving suit being attacked by leucocytes, was so erotic. : )
XXOO Kat
You’re trying to kill me, Tom. Phantom and Cats are two of my faves but I can’t listen to them. They stay in my head for months. Did I answer a bigger question? I thought I only had little questions…
Amber, you nailed that one right off the bat!
Penny, you’re as bad as Tom. I have a very sensitive brain…
Kat! I know, wasn’t Raquel fantastic in her suit??? Yup, she’s in my head now, fixing an earworm.
It happens to me all the time! I’m like Penny. I’ll play the same songs on my iPod over and over when I’m getting ready to start writing a new book. I don’t mind those ear worms. But, mostly the ear worms are always other songs, ones that basically annoy me! Saturday, one of my fellow Scribes posted a blog about money and referenced that song and now I have that money, money, money song stuck in my head! Grrr……
Even mentioning earworms gives me earworms. Ay yi yi…
Jaye… LOL! Hey, Tom did it to me with his mention of Masquerade! I’m so mad!
Annoying songs are the best at getting themselves stuck, Casey. Gaaaaaa! Maybe it’s a premonition? The money song, I mean.
I get them all the time since I listen to music so much…I will sometimes even hit replay over and over on the song..Only the songs I like..
I get them all the time since I listen to music so much…I will sometimes even hit replay over and over on the song..Only the songs I like..
I’ll do that sometimes too, Savannah, but those aren’t the songs that give me earworms. Weird, huh?
Never heard them termed as earworms, but I get them all time. Sometimes I’m not even sure where I heard the music that’s looping in my head. It often turns out to be a commercial. They’re great for tunes that won’t go away.
God, Nina, I hate ear worms! Drive me insane. Especially Evita!