Putting the Worm back in Earworm

[akirlu]

I just noticed a while ago: a portion of my brain appears to have become devoted to subvocalizing the old Nivea ad jingle. This process leaves a rather icky aftertaste, and it won't stop. And once I noticed it was there, I realized, this was a familiar feeling. This isn't the first time the Nivea jingle has been running an endless do-loop, stealing precious brain cycles that could be used for, oh, I dunno, summarizing Proust or something. What's bizarre is that I have no idea what triggers this, or how often it happens, but I'm sure it's happened before.

In an attempt to exorcise the demon:

From your fingers to your toes
You've got just one set of permanet clothes
And with a little daily care
It will last for years of wear (Years of wear!)

Nivea, Nivea, Nivea!

Bleargh. It's still there.

Time to drag out the big guns: ELO's "Can't Get It Out of My Head".

Comments

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I find "Buffy: The Musical" is an earworm of monumental proportion and will drive out all other earworms for days.

By the way, I have not made you the promised Baebes CD. But I will have time to do that starting the day after tomorrow.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I will be happy and thankful to receive the Baebes CD whenever you have a chance. It's not like I was Speedy Gonzalez on the Gaudetes, for one, and I know about real life intervening for two. There's always Potlatch if nothing else.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My friend Rachel WINOLJ says that to get a song out of your head, you should sing it in the style of Bob Dylan. If that doesn't work, or if it's a Bob Dylan song, the style of William Shatner is a good backup.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of allergic to Bob Dylan's voice, so I'm not sure the cure isn't worse than the disease. And it's been a blissfully long, long time since I heard William Shatner try to sing, and so I'd probably have to refresh my memory to make that one go, and again, cure worse than the disease. If I want cheese, I can always to back to that Apache video the Nielsen Haydens linked to recently.

[bedii.livejournal.com]

I generally use the record/CD "Chuck Barry's Golden Decade" at medium volume to break earworms. If that doesn't do it, TNH helped me break one so awful I'm not even going to mention it by pointing out that "Excelsior" can be sung to the Underdog theme song.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

And "The Marine Corps Anthem" can be sung to "Clementine." But then, the complete works of Emily Dickinson can be sung to "Clementine". But dont.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

That happens to me a lot. Usually it's music that gets stuck but sometimes it can be a set of ordinary words. Drives me insane for days on end and then just disappears. I'll have to remember the ELO trick for next time and see if it works for me.

MKK

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It doesn't have to be ELO, just any substitute you don't mind having in your head instead.

[kateyule.livejournal.com]

Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" seems to drive things out well for both of us, without installing itself on infinite loop.