How to get rid of an earworm — those songs that get stuck in your head : NPR

The holidays are upon us. ‘Tis the season for chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose — and getting songs like Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” hopelessly stuck in our heads.

But don’t worry. Help is at hand.

The Earworm Eraser is a 40-second audio track designed specifically to squash earworms — a song on repeat circling around and around in your brain that can’t easily be shaken off.

Around 90% of people report this problem at least once a week, according to a 2011 study in the journal Psychology of Music.

“One really effective way of blocking out earworms is to listen to something else,” said Kelly Jakubowski, an associate professor of music psychology at Durham University in the United Kingdom.

But if the replacement tune is equally memorable, it might just bring on another pesky earworm. So the Earworm Eraser avoids the features that typically make songs catchy.

“I’ve shown in my research that songs that have a more danceable tempo tend to become earworms,” said Jakubowski, who was part of the team that software company Atlassian tapped to create the Earworm Eraser. “And we also have found that having a predictable overall melodic shape can make a song become an earworm.”

That’s why the Earworm Eraser sounds like someone who can’t make up their mind what to listen to: Every few seconds, it switches between fast and slow tempi, while also changing time signatures and musical styles, which range from electronica to classical.

The Earworm Eraser has gotten more than 100,000 hits on YouTube since it launched last year. But the tool isn’t foolproof. Some people in the YouTube comments section say it doesn’t work for them.

Most say it does the trick, however.

Philadelphia-based tech worker Lauren Ettlinger said the Earworm Eraser rescued her after she visited her 1-year-old niece in Phoenix.

“She’s the light of my life. But she listens to these really annoying kids’ songs,” Ettlinger said. “And she went through a long phase where she was obsessed with the song ‘Baby Shark.'”

Ettlinger said she initially tried to get rid of this song — which happens to be the most viewed YouTube video of all time — by listening to tracks by her favorite artists, including Taylor Swift.

“Taylor Swift comes to mind of just having really catchy songs,” Ettlinger said. “But something about that ‘Baby Shark’ song was relentless, and it wouldn’t let go.”

Ettlinger said it took the Earworm Eraser to best “Baby Shark.”

“It just drowned out the noise, left me calm, left me relaxed,” she said.

Ettlinger said when she hosts her niece for the holidays this year, she might have to play the Earworm Eraser — on repeat.

Jennifer Vanasco edited this story for broadcast and digital. Chloee Weiner mixed the audio.