In thinking how to make that killer hook, we need to know what the properties of an earworm are. It also raises the question of why they stick in the mind, what are they for?
I wake up to Radio One in the morning and have found that the last track I hear before turning the radio off is the one which sticks around all day. This has given insight into what features make them stick. This morning was Ed Sheran’s Beautiful People (with Max Martin and Shellback on the credits). Bits of the song keep hitting me, one section seems to repeat itself, then sometime later another one does. It wasn’t that I particularly wanted to hear the song again but for some reason I became compelled to watch it on YouTube. It got me thinking.
The noam model would suggest that my kinetic response (rho) was attempting to satisfy some violation (pi) of values (nu). Say what? Well, the sections of the song that keep hitting me in waves seem somewhat fractious, incomplete and not well-formed. It seems like a partially remembered song is not so satisfying (the pi bit) given that I know there is a fuller structure and value knowing a fuller structure (the nu bit). Perhaps then that is why I am driven to listen to it again (the rho bit).
Maybe I got some measure of pleasure from the song in the first instance. Maybe I’m getting a bit of reinforcement playing bits in my head. Maybe there is a promise of reinforcement for listening to it again. Maybe getting a fuller structure in my memory, is driving me to play it over. Maybe I am chasing the dragon. Hmmm….
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