Attack of the earworm

The concept

The Hooked on Music concept was designed by Ashley Burgoyne, a computational musicologist from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and his colleagues. “I work within a group that studies music cognition in general — any way in which the brain processes music — and we were particularly interested in why exactly is it that certain pieces of music stay in your memory for such a long time,” he told the BBC.

The study

Users were directed to a website where they could play an online game called Hooked on Music, which contained clips from 1,000 hit songs from the past 70 years — the top-selling 40 tracks of each decade since the 1940s.
More than 12,000 people participated. The time taken to recognise a song was recorded.
The four modes

Recognise that Tune: Users had to hum along with the track, continuing when the sound dropped out and gauging whether they were still in time when the sound resumed.
What’s the Hook: Users had to listen to two different clips from the same song and choose which clip was catchier.
Time Trial: Users had to recognise as many songs as possible in 3 minutes.
In a Row: Users had to recognise as many songs in a row as they could.
The 20 tunes

Below is the full list of the UK’s catchiest tunes, the length of time it takes the average person to recognise the song and the moment when people are quickest to sing along.

singer song Time
Spice Girls Wannabe 2.29 s (0:45)
Lou Bega Mambo No. 5 2.48 s (0:50)
Survivor Eye of the Tiger 2.62 s (2:04)
Lady Gaga Just Dance 2.66 s (1:39)
ABBA SOS 2.73 s (2:25)
Roy Orbison Pretty Woman 2.73 s (1:07)
Michael Jackson Beat It 2.80 s (0:38)
Whitney Houston I Will Always Love You 2.83 s (3:09)
The Human League Don’t You Want Me 2.83 s (3:05)
Aerosmith I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing 2.84 s (2:22)
Lady Gaga Poker Face 2.88 s (0:57)
Hanson Mmmmbop 2.89 s (1:44)
Elvis Presley It’s Now Or Never 2.91 s (2:14)
Bachman-Turner You Ain’t Seen 2.94 s (1:48)
Overdrive Nothin’ Yet
Michael Jackson Billie Jean 2.97 s (1:25)
Culture Club Karma Chameleon 2.99 s (0:41)
Britney Spears Baby One More Time 2.99 s (0:33)
Elvis Presley Devil in Disguise 3.01 s (1:21)
Boney M Rivers of Babylon 3.03 s (0:23)
Elton John Candle in the Wind 3.04 s (0:39)

The results

People taking part in an experiment recognised the 1996 No. 1 in just
2.29 seconds, compared to
an average of 5 seconds for other popular songs.
The second most recognisable was
Lou Bega’s Mambo No 5, which participants could identify in 2.48 seconds.
The third was Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger, with an average time of
2.62 seconds.
Lady Gaga has two songs on the list, as does Elvis Presley.
Earworms?
“While there still isn’t a strict definition of what constitutes an earworm, it is considered to be a constant loop of 15-20 seconds of music lodged in your head for at least a few hours, if not days,” wrote The New Yorker in 2014.

(Compiled by Aleesha Matharu)