Songs as Cues

A tune can do more than dredge up the past — it can carry information forward. That is why advertising jingles lodge in your head and why kids learn the alphabet to a melody. The rhythm and rhyme give each word a built-in cue for the next one.

The same trick powers the earworm, the song stuck on loop in your mind. An unfinished or catchy pattern keeps prompting your brain to fill in what comes next, so the loop replays itself.