Lamont Dozier, part of the Motown songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland, died Monday at the age of 81. I'm David Bianculli, professor of television studies at Rowan University in New Jersey, in for Terry Gross. The afore mentioned literary tools really help seal in song lyrics to our memories.This is FRESH AIR. Books we usually read in a monotone voice which has none of what is mentioned above. “Alliteration, assonance, repetition and rhyme” all contribute to why we remember songs over books. This theory states, along with agreeing to the one proposed in the blog is that we remember song lyrics because of the way tone changes in it. The link below is shares another reason why we remember song lyrics so well. It now makes sense to me and I will have an answer next time the person I’m sitting next to in a lecture hall asks me why I’m singing soulja boi in the middle of an exam. Learning the science behind why this happens is actually quite interesting. So many times I just find a song stuck in my head at the most random of moments. Post navigation Previous post: ← Can Animals Be Gay? Next post: Why Do People Feel More Pain Than Others? →Ĥ thoughts on “ Why can we remember song lyrics so easily?”Īs kids and especially as college students we can all relate to this. This entry was posted in Uncategorized on Septemby Heather Elise Wagner. Unfortunately for us college students our textbooks don’t stimulate us nearly enough to allow us to memorize as much as we need to.
So overall it seems that music is able to hold such significance in our memories due to its ability to induce dopamine and its relation to our early evolution. These annoying segments burrow deep into our memory hence the name earworms. Often our memory can be jogged by just hearing the first words of the song or opening beat. This repetition causes us to commit the lyrics to memory for very long amounts of time. The reason for this is the neural circuits in our brain are forced into a loop and wind up repeating the song, causing a song to get stuck in our heads. Often people only remember certain segment of songs, typically the chorus or opening. The reason we remember certain song lyrics has been theorized to be due to “ear worms”. The song brings us back to when we were listening to it often enough to allow us to memorize its lyrics, and we recall what emotional state we were in. We also attach music to our emotions and senses this is why some songs can spark memory and feelings such as sadness or happiness. Normal conversation does not induce as much dopamine therefore is doesn’t induce as many synaptic connections to cause people to keep the memory of the conversation. This is the reason that children have an easier time remembering things taught to them in song format then just spoken to them. Music is a pleasure to hear and the response we receive from it is strong enough to force our memory to give it significance and retain its lyrics and melody. When listening to music dopamine is excreted and this is has a large effect on the rewards section of our brain. Its potent effect on the pleasure center holds a very significant place in our brains. This is why humans are able to respond so strongly to music. It turns out there is a reason for this phenomenon, evolution.Īccording to Daniel Levitin, a psychologist who studies the neuroscience of music at McGill University in Montreal, humans developed a structure in the brain that responds to music before we developed one that responds to language. You know all the words to SpongeBob’s theme song, Avril Lavine’s Girlfriend, and countless other useless songs, yet you cant remember the information you try to force yourself to learn. Instead that random song from 2003 pops into your head and you before you know it you are humming it and remembering the lyrics. It’s a classic situation you are sitting in class taking an exam and trying desperately to remember the answers to the question yet nothing is comes to mind.