Your Brain's Broken Record

An earworm (from the German Ohrwurm) is a piece of music that repeats involuntarily in your mind. Almost everyone gets them at some point. A typical episode lasts 15 to 30 minutes, though some people report being haunted by the same fragment for days. It is one of the most common forms of involuntary cognition.

Earworms are not random. Research shows they share specific musical traits: they tend to have faster tempos, rising and falling melodic shapes (arch contours), and unusual intervals — just enough surprise to catch your brain's attention.