A Hypothesis

[kaasirpent]

I was listening to a podcast today about earworms (I call them stuck songs). The show was NPR's RadioLab with Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich. They were playing some of the ones that their listeners had called in to report had been stuck in their heads, and I formulated a hypothesis.

Here are some of the ones that I've had stuck in my head that I can remember off the top of my head mixed with some that their listeners reported.

Dance With Me (Orleans)
Reminiscing (Little River Band)
We Built this City (Jefferson Starship)
Don't Stop Believing (Journey)
Rocketman (Elton John)
Hit Me Baby One More Time (Britney Spears)
Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant)
Staying Alive (Bee Gees)
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones)
Ricky Don't Lose that Number (Steely Dan)
Blue Bayou (Linda Ronstadt)
An Innocent Man (Billy Joel)

That's probably enough to introduce my hypothesis. Think of the music of the songs...

As an aside, it struck me that the people who sang the songs on the answering machine message were perfectly on tempo with the original music (which RadioLab proved by playing the listeners singing over the original bands) and it was astounding how perfectly they hit each beat...and most of them were on pitch, too.

Anyway...think of those songs, but not too hard (I don't want you to get them stuck in your head. No, really. I don't. Really!).

Am I wrong or are most of those almost the same tempo? About...the same as a heartbeat?

Think about it. But not too hard. Because, you know...earworms.

Comments

[solcita.livejournal.com]

I know that Stayin Alive, at 100 BPM, is the perfect tempo at which to perform CPR compressions, so... yeah. :) So is Another One Bites The Dust, but the message isn't quite as uplifting, if you know what I mean. ;)

[oxlahun.livejournal.com]

I smell confirmation bias. Many (most?) popular songs have approximately that same tempo, and while there may be individual cases of any of them getting stuck, it's not the same mass effect that some songs get.

And there are often-stuck outliers, too. "O Canada" comes to mind. The same way it has for the past several weeks. :/

[kaasirpent]

Heh...I was wondering who would bring up Confirmation Bias first. :)

O Canada, huh? Wow.

I've had the Fraggle Rock theme in my head for 2 days. :)

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Your title is driving me crazy. It's An Hypothesis, Jurgen.

[kaasirpent]

My understanding of 'a' vs. 'an' before words beginning with 'h' is that you only use 'an' if you don't aspirate the 'h.'

So you can say "a historic" if you aspirate the 'h,' but you'd say 'an (h)istoric' if you drop the 'h.'

Besides that, "an hypothesis" just sounds wrong because I pronounce the 'h' and 'h' is a consonant in that word, thus requiring 'a' instead of 'an.'

And it's Jürgen. With an umlaut. Or a diaeresis, if you prefer.

[kaasirpent]

Heh. I just realized how awkward that would have been if I'd used indefinite articles about my indefinite articles:

My understanding of using an 'a' vs. an 'an' before words beginning with an 'h' is that if you only use an 'an' if you don't aspirate the 'h'.

Hehehehe

Also, yes, I moved the period outside the single quote that time. Because I CAN. :)

[etherial.livejournal.com]

I prefer to use umlauts, which are easy on a Mac, and damned close to witchcraft on a PC.

[territan.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that a lot of the dancible electronic genres (house, techno, electro, etc.) prefer to play at 120-126 BPM, which is about right for a heart rate elevated by light aerobic movement (e.g. dancing).

I've also heard it claimed that the tempo was a contributing factor to the popularity of disco—the other is a very strong kick drum, which is also a major trait of house, which is disco's spiritual successor.