For years I have searched for a word which means the condition of having a tune on your mind -- on your mind to the extent that it has become annoying -- in my own case.
Welcome LarryGrannis. I'm sorry I don't know the answer to your question, either. Do you have something in mind[besides the song]? What do you call it besides annoying? Want to coin a word for it? All I've got are more questions, no answers.
Dear LarryGrannis: There is a long list of symptoms that my occur in Obsessive-Compusive disorders. There is such a thing as a compulsion to have the illusion of hearing a particular piece of music over and over. Perhaps it is related to some important event in your long ago past, the memory of which you are repressing.
I have tried to coin a word for this tunefull condition as have friends, but we haven't come up with a winner yet. One reject is tuneration (tune plus part of perseveration). I work on houses and will find myself in the middle of the day humming "Here Comes Santa Claus" and this can be in July. I am sure there is a medical diagnosis if the condition becomes severe enough. The most common form is when one finds oneself humming the last song heard on the car radio on the way to work. I think there may be a French word for this comdition.
Great question Larry! As far as I know there is no word for this in English. German has the noun, 'ein Ohrwurm' (literally an earworm), which can either be a hook, ear candy or simply a catchy tune. But one can also have an 'Ohrwurm', i.e. be stuck with a certain song or musical phrase on one's mind. I believe French has a similar meaning word too (BelM please confirm). Wait for others to chime in [sic], but otherwise I think you can start coming up with your own neologism.
Dear Doctor, I notice you are a retired physician--a shrink perhaps? I don't believe my condition is that bad "yet". Haven't you ever found yourself humming a tune that has come unbidden to your mind? Perhaps even humming it silently and only to yourself. Please Doc, tell me I'm not crazy, please!
Dear LG: my initial impression was that it was the same tune all the time. If not, it is trivial. I was an institutional psychiatrist, not a glamours have couch will travel. My boss, a terrible Teuton, called me obsessive-compulsive for behaviour much less bizarre than his.
You wrote: But it is just one song at a time, that's true....
...unless it was something like the sextet from Lucia di Lammermoor. Imagine that one being the thang you carried in your head every hour of every day!
I shall try again. If you are a relative of Paul Grannis, the only social worker ever killed in the line of duty in Kentucky, may I extend my sympathies. Please send me a Private Message, if you like. I am glad to see you back here. I believed you were gone for good. Welcome.
Checking past posts I see we have had the topic before... someone came up with a translation of ohrwurm as mindworm, which, though not really right, is not bad really.
Let me take the chance to talk about another annoying thing that happens when listening to music. Anybody who listens to a lot of music will know this problem. All most every chain of notes that form a tune or every chord progression on the planet has been used more than a handful of times. For example the structure 1-4-5-4-1 is the basis for 'Wild Thing', 'Stand' (by R.E.M.), the verse of 'Walking in Sunshine', 'Summer Loving' (from Grease), and countless other songs. As such, when you hear most pop songs you can almost instantly hear two or three other songs in it - if you know a lot of music. One band whose songs sound like this are The Corrs. That 'Radio song is just two different bits of old songs (bits that don't fit mind you) put together to form a single. 'Covering' has become so common too, that one isn't even required to attribute the new version to any song either (i.e. ripping off). So you end up walking round thinking, 'Now where did I hear that riff then. Sometimes, hours later, you realise that the 'new' song is just a conglomerate of two or three old songs, depending on how much time the over-paid producer had on that day. But often you never find out - how annoying. Not as bad as hearing a really good song in the radio, then not finding out who wrote it though.
Hurray! another Kentuckian! I'd like to extend greetings to you from Lexington.
Anyway, "earworm" is what came to my mind too. The only French term even close that I know of doesn't really pertain to music: idee fixe (I probably spelled it wrong but there it is ), which I am pretty sure means an idea on which one becomes fixated. I suppose a tune is an idea in the most abstract sense but I think "earworm" is better.
This is a musical term for what you might otherwise call a theme, i.e. a recurring tune usually introduced in the exposition (the start) of a piece and then passed through the instruments and developed on.
[Aside: maverick's puns do get worse - be prepared Larry.]
I don't know about the earworm thing though. I know there is nothing to mean that "stuck in your head song" thing in French Québec apart from "fatigant" (annoying)
Well, I'm a bit late on the WELCOME wagon, but better late than never! Have you been and gone, or been observing for a year? Anyway, no mind, but it's good to have you here.
This is a *great question... I know the exact thing you are talking about -- I hear a really catchy song on the radio and it plays in my head (and sometimes escapes out my mouth) for ages. It seems the more you get annoyed by it, the more it sticks. And it's contagious... once you've let it escape your own mind, then other people seem to catch it too. That can be kinda fun sometimes! [cheeky-e] I like BelM's idee fixe with some variation. Not being multi-lingual, I can't think of anything appropriate at the moment. Any other ideas?
Welcome, Larry! Hope you find a catchy enough tune here to stick around for awhile!
And, yeah, I know just what you mean...something triggers an old song off for no apparant reason and it just doesn't want to go away. I've always said stuck in my head, but that's not quite right either. 'Course a good Bill Monroe bluegrass tune'll do that for you...just mention Blue Moon of Kentucky and it'll still be playing in your head for hours!
I frequently have this happen with whatever tune is playing on our radio alarm in the mornings when I wake up. I have a English term for it, too: Bloody Annoying!
It's a common enough phenomenon. Usually it manifests itself when one hears a snippet of a tune from someone else, often some trivial little pop tune or a TV show theme song. I had it once when Hanna of Hanna and Barbera died and the theme song from The Flintstones attempted to swallow my brain. Fortunately my main man, AnnaStrophic, gave me a gift of Quia Fecit from the J.S. Bach Magnificat in D; it has the power to exorcise any other piece of music.
We also suffer from this phenomenon for about a week after any one of our twice yearly concerts, but at least it's quality music running through our brains.
I have this tune-problem (melody malady, as Bridget said) quite often. But I tend to express it out loud, often with the wrong words (or new words, as the mood takes me), which drives my husband bananas. Sometimes, to exorcise the demon, it is sufficient to find the CD and play the song, and allow the natural progression to the next song. Or play the song on an instrument, depending, of course, on the song itself.
yes, this topic has come up before -- I will even go so far as to call it a yart, but only because no one has come up with the word I offered just recently:
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 09:48:34 -0600 (CST) Subject: today's wwftd is... endomusia To: wwftd minions From: wwftd master
the worthless word for the day is: endomusia
silent recall of a melody; endomusia often appears as a type of obsessive thought (Psychiatric Dictionary, 4th ed., Hinsie and Campbell) -- for those of you with a tune stuck in your head
Hey I am a severe sufferer of this condition. I do have a degree in music- so at least my repertoire is larger than Kid Rock and Eminem, but the manifestation IS quite bad. I pretty much have a tune in my head every waking minute. I subconciously tap my fingers or *tap my teeth.* Every time I go to the dentist they want to know if I grind my teeth in my sleep.
I do have a (blessing/curse) to absorb a melody without actually listening to it, (especially those vapid department store muzak tunes.)
My refuges are few. Alcohol doesn't do it, but some computer games do, for which I value them highly.
Christmas is an espcially bad time of the year, as you can imagine.
Its not crippling, but it sure is annoying.
I'd love a word for it too- at least so I can explain it better.
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]? What do you call it besides annoying? Want to coin a word for it? All I've got are more questions, no answers.
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wagon, but better late than never! Have you been and gone, or been observing for a year? Anyway, no mind, but it's good to have you here.
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