Earworm?

Like any good academic (note the sarcasm) I try my best to define my terms- whether or not my resources are academically sound I’ll leave up to you…

So what is an earworm? As urban dictionary (i.e. some random person from god-knows-where with access to a computer) defines it, an earworm is:

Earworm (n.)

1) a catchy song that gets stuck in your head a lot. Sometimes one you don’t know (evil), don’t like (evil), or you know and like (happy!)

via Urban Dictionary: earworm.

For me, earworms most often emerge as I unintentionally sing them aloud in the supermarket without realizing that they are typically incredibly inappropriate, and unrecognizable to boot. Examples to come…


image source: http://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu/2009/12/11/linkage-1211-google-webs-and-earworms/