Is there a word for the sub-track of my consciousness that's always playing music in my brain?

[Grasswire2]

It never shuts off.

I finally have learned to tame the ear worm to some degree by willfully listening to something I like before bedtime.

Right now it's running R. Crumb's semi-fake Hawaiian music from his album of Cheap Suit Serenaders. Nobody knows what the playlist in my subconscious is. Could be a childhood church-y song. Could be something written this year.

But it does not go away. Being a music lover, I don't really mind it. It's just an interesting phenomenon.

[Walleye]

1. Happens to me all the time

I don’t know if it’s constant. But most of the time.I will hear a phrase that reminds me of her or a few notes that reminds me of a melody and it’s stuck in there all day

[luvs2sing]

2. If there's a name, I don't know it..

but I share the phenomenon. Sometimes it wakes me up in the middle of the night. Last summer, for several weeks, it was Bob Seger’s “Night Moves”, a song I don’t even particularly like.

[Merlot]

14. That happens to me too, the random song I don't really like

And it doesn't happen because I've just heard the song either, it's just filed away in my brain and pops to the front of the que.

[DUgosh]

3. I have it to

Had to make peace with it. I can “change” the tune although it always reverts back to what I believe is an electrical wave my brain interprets as a repeating tune every 20 seconds. I now call it my superpower because I can increase my pace and energy at will using a faster pace melody.

[Another Jackalope]

4. Here's a suggestion for stopping whatever tune that's playing

Imagine yourself out on the prairie, riding a horse...

...like a rhinestone cowboy.

[Shermann]

5. Mine comes on in waves

It might last a few days at the longest but will eventually shut off for a while.

[Conjuay]

6. audiobooks

I always have an audiobook playing on my mp3 player. Over the years I’ve owned dozens of audio players. I’ve only ever downloaded one song in that entire time.

As a “musician”, I’ve always hated getting someone else's song rattling round my cranium.

[NewHendoLib]

7. I have a non stop, ever changing soundtrack to my life.

I just relax and enjoy it!

[Beausoleil]

10. Mine is currently overlayed

by Rhinestone Cowboy and Night Moves.

I forget what's under that.

[luvs2sing]

15. Bwahahahaha!!!

[emulatorloo]

30. That's a hell of a mash-up!

[dclarston13]

8. They are called earworms

Colbert talked about it on his show he said to find a phase short enough to interrupt the brain but not long enough for the brain to develop a pattern. He said try the the old ad jingle "By Menon!" It kind of worked for me, .for what its worth.

[mcar]

9. Ear worms keep me awake some nights

same song running over and over in my head. If I fall asleep, I wake up to it in my head.

It has made me avoid music, to be honest. I never know what song will stick in my head and if it's one I don't like, it's even worse.

It's nice to know there are others who experience this.

[shanti]

49. That's my issue too, earworms

I've read that it is an OCD issue, fwiw. I avoided music too, but only vocal music in my language (English). I'm fine with world music or instrumentals.

It comes and it goes.

[Maraya1969]

11. I learned of a way to stop thinking completely - at least for short periods of time and it's great.

Close your eyes and LOOK for where your next thought is coming from. Pay close attention.

You'll find that your thoughts stop and you are just being "aware". Interestingly this is also achieved by meditating for long periods but it is like a short cut. Also you could try and listen for something far away.

But ear worms are OK as long as you like the music!

[Cheezoholic]

12. Musical Tinnitus or Musical Ear Syndrome

I have severe Tinnitus, I mean really really loud. 24/7. Had it all my life. In my case it is a symptom of or a driver of my severe ADD and struggles all my life with being able to concentrate. It really sucks. I was a notorious "day dreamer" in school when I was actually trying to quiet that non stop electric guitar feedback loop in my head (which an audiologist determined is a perfect A note). There are times people think I'm ignoring them or not listening, but my defense mechanism is to flood my head with thoughts, any thoughts to distract my attention from the sound of this demon. I cant explain how loud it gets. It's borderline painful. I've been to every Dr., specialist whatever, tried the hearing aids, diet, exercise, quack medicine, tried all of it to no avail.

Except one Dr. who specialized in Tinnitus asked me when a song gets "stuck" in my head do I notice the Tinnitus? And come to think of I didn't notice it as badly. Working with her for about 3 months we "trained" my self to listen to music when the Tinnitus was exceptionally bad. Now, although it's always there,on the occasions I need to push it into the background as much as possible I either listen too or start humming in my head songs with a super catchy hook (like Song of the South or that Do Re Mi song from Peter Pan lol). It fucking works. Id much rather have a shitty catchy song filling my head than an air raid siren.

[Grasswire2]

24. Very interesting -- I do have tinnitus that has worsened in the last couple of years.

Mine sounds like two metal plates grinding against each other in pulsatile time with my heart beat.

Oy.

The ear worms don't affect the constant sound of the tinnitus. Just layer over it.

Tinnitus, I have also recently learned, is affected by purines.

The ENT department at the big medical clinic where I get care won't even make an appointment for anyone with bilateral tinnitus. No remedy.

[Raine]

55. .I have tinnitus too along with the continuous music

playing in my head. I got tinnitus from a bad ear infection in my left ear when I was in high school. It wasn't so bad until the last 5 yrs it got louder and in the last year it's gotten really bad. I have to sleep with white noise machines on to mute the roaring in my ear so I can fall asleep

[Lars39]

13. Looks like we're not alone!

Until recently I thought it was this way for everyone.

[KatyaR]

16. Oliver Sacks, in his book "Musicophilia: Tales of Music and The Brain,"

calls these "neurological 'release' hallucinations."

"...brain imaging had recently shown that the "hearing" of musical hallucinations was associated with striking activity in several parts of the brain: the temporal lobes, the frontal lobes, the basal ganglia, and the cerebellum--all parts of the brain normally activated in the perception of "real' music. ...her hallucinations were not imaginary, not psychotic, but real and physiological."

There's an entire chapter on musical hallucinations. i have had these my entire life. I can hear one phrase of a song and it gets stuck in my head. It's never really bothered me, but I've gotten older, I've been able to find a song that I can "play" that kinda interrupts the hallucinations. For me, it's the theme song to the PBS kids show "Arthur." It's pleasant, doesn't hold any memories, and helps tone down the music in my head.

I highly recommend Dr. Sacks' book Musicophilia. It's a very interesting read.

[Crunchy Frog]

17. I got a really bad earworm as one of my earliest pregnancy symptoms.

I mean I get them anyway, but this one was extraordinarily persistent and aggressive, and lasted for a few months.

[LisaM]

18. Are they earworms or auditory hallucinations?

Sometimes I actually hear a song. In fact, sometimes I find that I seem to have the lyrics stored in my brain even if I don't think I know them. It's always something I have listened to a recorded version of, so it's just packed in my brain somewhere. I first remember this happening when I was about 8 and thought I heard "Chim-chimeny" from 'Mary Poppins' being sung. I actually thought there were people singing it on the roof (of course they're weren't!) It doesn't happen often, but it still happens.

It's way different from earworms, which are just parts of songs stuck in my head.

[Grasswire2]

25. I marvel all the time about the brain's ability to store music and lyrics for many decades.

I could not begin to guess how many songs I know. And even if I haven't heard or thought of one for decades, if a few notes pop up somewhere, the whole, complete thing is available for recall in my mind.

Weird.

[Blaukraut]

19. My brain turns everything into a song

I read or hear a phrase or even just a word that reminds me of a song, I get the tune stuck in my head. I see something, like rain for example, and I get either one specific German song or any American song related to rain playing in my head. Those don't last long, but regular earworms? Unless I reprogram, the damn things are on repeat for days

[Meowmee]

20. I do sometimes hear music in my head

but I’m not familiar with that phenomenon. If it’s really a nonstop thing it sounds awful to me, kind of like pulsatile tinnitus or tinnitus.

[Ilsa]

21. When I was in neuroscience, we called it a phonological loop.

"That wretched tune from an ad keeps replaying in my phonological loop, and I can't make it finish!"

[Sympthsical]

22. Involuntary Musical Imagery

Psychological name for an ear worm.

Because music has associative memory similar to how smell does (smell being the most strongly tied to memory), different memories, emotional states, or associations can trigger a song in the head.

It's not uncommon. I'm a piano player and always have something in my head on background. But there are also very weird specific circumstances that trigger certain songs that seem random. A song gets in my head when I go to boil a pot of water, for example. It has absolutely nothing to do with boiling a pot of water. All I can think is that it was a song I was listening to at the time where I was going through something emotional and happened to boil water while it was playing.

Songs and patterns will stick with memories in storage.

[Brother Buzz]

23. Semi-fake Hawaiian music is kinda harsh

The slack-key steel guitar you hear is played by one the original Suiters, Robert Armstrong, a go-to authority on early twentieth century Hawaiian music and the steel guitar in general.

King Nawahi's Hawaiians rendition of Singing in the Bathtub was the inspiration for R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders cover

There are times when I'd trade my earworm, Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks, for for your R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders.

[Grasswire2]

26. hahaha.

Yes. That was harsh. I adore the Cheap Suit Serenaders and especially the Hawaiian pieces. I feel a little sensitive about it only because I have a cousin by marriage who IS Hawaiian and plays beautiful Hawaiian music. I know she might be offended by it.

But I thought that was a musical saw I was hearing. Many people think it's a theramin.

I only recently learned that R. Crumb had a band. Of course I knew him from his artwork. And so I have been binging on his music. And I am happy happy to have his "ON THE BEACH AT WAIKIKI" as my sound track right now.

[Brother Buzz]

33. That's a saw, and it's played, again, by Robert Armstrong

When Jack Nitzsche composed the music for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he needed a saw player for the opening and closing scenes. After asking around, he was told the only saw player not in a retirement home was Robert Armstrong. Robert can't sight read music, but, well, if you can whistle it, he can play it; he has an excellent musical ear

[Grasswire2]

35. I have played a musical saw a couple of times years ago.

Just fooling around. I know people in the jazz world who run screaming away from the mention of that instrument. I truly love Crumb's instrumentation and energy.

[Brother Buzz]

38. Robert Armstrong taught me the basics

He lent me a cheap saw to practice with thirty years ago. Again, if you can whistle it, I can play it.

If I can score an economical cello bow I would start again with a 10 pt carpenters saw (one octave and maybe one more note on a good day, Baby); the mallot only goes so far.

[Grasswire2]

39. yes, I think there's no point to written music at least for me.

When I was growing up and had piano lessons, I would take the music home and get my older sister to play it for me, and then I could play it back by ear. Alas, I never learned to sight read.

[Grasswire2]

36. Is that a reed organ I hear in the Cuckoo's Nest theme? nt

[Brother Buzz]

43. I don't know, and I grew up with one, but Jack Nitzsche was plugged into the Wrecking Crew, so....

If he 'needed' a reed organ, one would magically appear in the recording studio.

[panader0]

45. Great conversation you two are having....

I learned a couple things.

[Brother Buzz]

47. Check out the Cheap Suits Serenaders on YouTube for some incredibly fun, yet eclectic music

The late great guitar virtuoso, Bob Brozman, played with them until his unfortunate demise.

[Grasswire2]

60. Do you know, Brother Buzz, if Cheap Suit Serenaders were ever on Prairie Home Companion?

Seems like Garrison Keiller would really dig the band.

[Brother Buzz]

62. I believe they were on PHC in the seventies, before I met Bob

She Who Must be Obeyed thinks they were on, too.

[Brother Buzz]

57. Damn, now I've got Sing Song Girl firmly planted in my head

Dimes to donuts this Leroy Shield 78rpm was the inspiration for the suits cover.

Note: Leroy Shield didn't write Sing Song Girl, but he certainly popularized it.

Leroy Shield is best known for writing all the Laurel and Hardy and Little Rascals music for the Hal Roach studios. The suits recorded a few Leroy Shield tunes.

Fast forward into the nineties: The Beau Hunks, a Dutch revivalist musical group, reached out to the Cheap Suits for more Leroy Shields music because they were the only ones recording Shield music. Unfortunately no studio sheet music survived so they had to painstakingly transcribed the music from the films, note for note.

R Crumb ended up doing the artwork for their albums.

[Grasswire2]

59. veddy interesting nt

[Grasswire2]

64. ooooh, look at that Victrola!

....drool

[Brother Buzz]

66. Looking out my back door

Just got home from Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy!
Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch
Imagination sets in, pretty soon I'm singin'
Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door

There's a giant doin' cartwheels, a statue wearin' high heels
Look at all the happy creatures dancin' on the lawn
Dinosaur Victrola, listenin' to Buck Owens
Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door

Tambourines and elephants are playin' in the band
Won't you take a ride on the flyin' spoon? Dood-n-doo-doo
Wonderous apparition provided by magician
Doo, doo, doo, lookin' out my back door

[Grasswire2]

67. someone should have started a band "Dinosaur Victrola" nt

[Grasswire2]

27. an unfortunate earworm the other day

I heard somewhere a bit of a tune that my spouse would sing when he was involved in his affair.

UGH.

And it stuck for hours. He is long gone. I mean divorced, then dead. Gone. But I did not want to ever hear that song again.

[emulatorloo]

28. I have similar but it is not ear worms. It seems to be 'original music' I've never heard before.

All instrumental, pretty eclectic.

It does shut off now and again though. Being a music lover like you, I don't mind it either.

[Grasswire2]

31. wow, a new level.

You're composing in your subconscious?

[emulatorloo]

41. Lol. If only there was some way to record it directly from my brain to my computer!

[electric_blue68]

29. Hmm. I think it's occasional for me and doesn't last long. It's -rarely- something I don't like....

Last edited Tue Oct 25, 2022, 01:41 AM - Edit history (1)

THANK Goodness!!! 😄

I can also intentionally have songs, or movie orchestral music going in my head. It's internal just like thinking, only music. I really enjoy that since I love music soooo much. l guess you could I have a music library in my head.

Right now because I've been hunting on YouTube for a very particular extroidinary guitar improvization by Pete Townshend during a break in vocals at a Who show MSG 79 I think; I've been listening to a lot shows bc they show up.
It's frustrating bc I had tape of that show - but lost it! 😭

The Who if I had to do a hierarchy is my favorite band so it's not actually a problem. 😁

Anyway I've had "Sparks" in my head for the past ?hour.

[ultralite001]

32. Muzak...

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/599680/muzak-facts

That is all...

[W_HAMILTON]

34. Wait, are you for real?

I've has this same exact problem for over a decade now. My brain constantly plays songs. Usually just short clips, and usually from whatever I had last heard on the radio, but sometimes just off the wall stuff I haven't heard in years. It's destroyed my short-term memory, because instead of having that "channel," say, to memorize a phone number, it instead is singing a song. Constantly.

I don't know what caused it or how to get rid of it. Back when it first started, it was when I moved away from home for the first time in my life and was at graduate school (read: lots of stress) and I was also diagnosed with severe sleep apnea during this time. I honestly have thought that maybe I just damaged my brain in some sort of way and this is what I now have to live with.

I also have a lot of mental health issues (e.g., anxiety, depression, OCD, etc.) and have wondered if it isn't some strange manifestation of OCD (i.e., racing, obtrusive thoughts).

Here's hoping someone can help us.

[Grasswire2]

37. I have no explanation.

Right now mine is running the chorus from the music "BRIGADOON" -- "I'll go home with Bonnie Jean.:

[W_HAMILTON]

40. How long have you been dealing with this?

Also, can you think of anything that might have originally triggered it?

[Grasswire2]

61. forever, it seems

My parents listened to music a lot. My mother favored opera and very eclectic other things. Bird calls, bagpipes, operettas, etc. My father favored a local jazz band and a radio program that played old-time songs -- the American song book. Radio or record player were always going.

And in my own adult years, music was always on, in the background or actively listening. Evidently I absorbed a great deal of this into my subconscious. Complete with nuance of the individual musician. Weird.

"Without music, life would be a mistake" -- Nietzsche.

Right now, my mind is playing the Manhattan Ragtime Orchestra at the Cajun bar in NYC. A friend is the videographer of many, many jazz performances.

Here's a link to this one. Same kind of silly-good energy as the Serenaders, maybe.

&list=RDa2GcMtx9bc0&index=2

[ForgedCrank]

42. I am

absolutely cursed with this. What makes it even worse is that I play drums as well as guitar (poorly), so the motions are always going through my head at the same time. It's highly distracting.
My method is similar to yours. I will play a song I actually like 2-3 times in a row and that will usually dislodge the last song I had stuck in there. I try to listen to something different every day so I'm not driven mad by the same song for days on end while I count out the bars on a continual loop.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

44. I can listen to Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto or the Beatles' albums

completely in my head, just by "calling them up" in my head. I have to listen to a piece of music many times, but after enough times it is recorded in my head and I can listen to it. I think it's a gift. On the other hand, I get earworms all the time and I have difficulty getting them to stop playing.

[electric_blue68]

51. I just named mine a "music library"...

in post 29.

I don't get earworms often.


I like you can pull out various songs or music (though not always full pieces but sections when it comes to orchestral); rock, some soul, movie orchestral sound tracks, some Classical up ?early, early mid 20th Century, minimumalism (Steve Reich).
It is usually things I've listened too repeated. If a turns into something really striking I can "record" it with less repetition.

Since I love music so deeply it's usual a joyous ability!

[NameAlreadyTaken]

58. I wonder how this all works.

[electric_blue68]

63. Somewhere there's research going on

for me it's almost all positive.

It would be interesting to see more research.

[AwakeAtLast]

46. Try being a Music Teacher!

1,000s - literally - 1,000s of songs in my head! From Pre-K to Classical and everything in between.

[Higherarky]

48. Why, yes. Yes, there is a name for it.

I'd tell you what it is, but then I'd have to kill you. Haha.

The antidote is:

One little, two little, three little indians ...

Repeat p.r.n.

[Lucinda]

50. I have a juke box. At times it is extremely relevent

and works like a guide... at other times, the song can be triggered by something in a lyric, a melody, or an era...

❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[Duncan Grant]

52. If I replace an ear worm with an instrumental -- I'm saved.

When I have an unmerciful ear worm, I mentally replace it with a short piece of music without lyrics. For 30 years, I’ve relied on the theme song from an old TV show to break the cycle(s). My brain can’t maintain an instrumental ear worm for more than a minute or two. That’s usually long enough to bring lasting relief.

Whatever instrumental you choose to break the spell, be consistent. Use the same one every time. Ear worms can be tamed.

[Sky Jewels]

53. I experience the same thing.

It’s constant. I willfully replace persistent ear worms with the songs of my choice as well.

[Raine]

54. I have that too. The music never stops but at least the tune

will change, it's not the same one all the time. I've learned to kind of tune it out when I read, watch TV, surf the internet or want to just think etc. I can tune it out but it still never goes away. It's worse when I'm stressed out about something.

[msfiddlestix]

56. This phenom is the best thing in my world. I wake up in the morning with a tune in my head

Looping through my head until my first cup of jo is finished then i pick up my instrument and play it, or attempt to figure out how it lays out under my fingers, until not only do i have the basic root notes, but working in all the embellisments which might have alluded me the day before.

Whichever instrument is available to you, play out what's in your head, it's the best therapy for the $.

[Kid Berwyn]

65. Untergnossic

Underlying what we know is another knowledge, a framework for thought. On its tracks run tracks.

[Grasswire2]

69. interesting

google search turns up nothing for that term. Not even any suggestions.

[Kid Berwyn]

70. Like Eric Satie and his "Gnossienes," I made it up.

By way of your inspiration, of course.

&t=336s

The French composer came up with new forms of music and named them “Gnossienes” and “Gymnopédies.”

You found a new name for the music that sometimes sounds in our interior world.

[beaglelover]

68. My Dad would hum music all the time. It was quite annoying on long drives in the car!