Intentional | Audio Identity Blog

I was flipping through Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia — a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between who we are and what we hear — and noticed an entire chapter devoted to the power of earworms, those catchy audio mnemonics that we sometimes can’t get out of our heads.

The chapter, and much of the book, focuses on rare, intriguing neurological conditions. But with respect to earworms, Sacks touches on something that affects just about everyone: our inherent need for structure, form, and repetition in our music. In a way, we practically invite the earworm into our lives.

Here’s an excerpt:

There are, of course, inherent tendencies to repetition in music itself. Our poetry, our ballads, our songs are full of repetition. Every piece of classical music has its repeat marks or variations on a theme, and our greatest composers are masters of repetition; nursery rhymes and the little chants and songs we use to teach young children have choruses and refrains. We are attracted to the repetition, even as adults; we want the stimulus and the reward again and again and again, and in music we get it. Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised, should not complain if the balance sometimes shifts too far and our musical sensitivity becomes a vulnerability.

You read vulnerability; some among us (ahem) understand that as an “opportunity.” And others, still, (ahem again) see this as a “challenge.” It’s both. And the art and science of leveraging this awareness of sound — for commercial and social purposes — is something we’ll hear about with increasing frequency in the near future.

– Noel Franus