The subject of earworms is interesting. For a writer of popular music, knowing how to churn them out would be that magic formula.
I believe though that they are some product of cultural evolutionary psychology – that they are some cognitive gadget that employs some structure of the brain and is somehow implicated in the learning of language.
I’m now beginning to think that they may also have some social function – that of creating social bonds.
As a member of a barber’s shop chorus, I am meant to learn songs in the repertoire and at least do some preparation for the training and rehearsal sessions – which are being done weekly on-line owing to the CoVID-19 lockdown. This week, I’ve been a bit lax and have only heard the teach-track for new song a few times. There is a strong sense of comradery in barber’s shop, and my lack of effort made me feel as though I was letting the team down to some extent – I know this isn’t really true, but its how my brain ruminates in an attempt to motivate. The issue here though is that there is a value that underpins my learning and I found that I was going over sections in my mind, earworm like, but without the irritation.
I got to thinking, are earworms implicated in singalongs? The evolutionary psychology of karaoke might seem a little far fetched, but perhaps a regression to the social function of singing along (or other cultural rites) might be more promising. Being part of a tribe, as opposed to being some outsider, has and remains of primitive survival benefit for humans. Knowing the words, the moves, the shibboleths of the tribe, unites the individuals, giving a sense of belonging. Hence it is of social value to learn such in order to be able to join in and be a part of what is happening. Singing in chorus is a powerful way of uniting groups, providing group identity and the strength in numbers that emerge: football chants, national anthems and so on. It follows then that there is motivation to learn the songs, possibly having a deep biological stem as a cognitive instinct. If this is so, then mere exposure to song would activate and reinforce the anatomy and mechanisms that confer the learning of that song – an earworm! It could well be then that the earworm phenomena is related to the Dunbar number and evolved among early hominids so as to form tribes.
Consequently, as a process that has been maintained in modern humans, this survival instinct has given rise the whole popular music industry. So then, could knowing about the social value of singalongs be the key to perfect pop? It is worth experimentation.
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