a colleague and i recently lapsed into another lengthy episode of the earworm game in the office at the instigation of other coworkers' folly.
what is the earworm game, you ask?
why, it is the way these things go.
surely you are familiar with earworms. that word
may have evolved a more technical definition over time, but i understand it to mean, broadly, not merely a song that gets stuck in one's head, but a song having an inherent (or developed*: i don't think there is anything inherent at all in "hungry like the wolf" but heavy airplay during years my neurons--and those of others in my generation and media environment--were still actively plastic has made it something that waits there, to be invoked and recalled and recalled and recalled and recalled) propensity to adversely infest awarenesses: "i've got a song stuck in my head" is a not uncommon water-cooler complaint. usually, it is not a song in whole, but some fragment of a song. in my experience it is often three of the four lines of a verse, or just the first line of each of several verses with nothing in between but attention sucking vacuum.
there are solutions from the folklore: one old saw prescribes simply singing the song aloud.
i have had some success with this method, but it can be challenging -- say, when the song stuck in one's head is
instrumental; here
whistling or humming might be of use (i heard a guy whistle a pretty-amazing brandenburg concerto once...) -- insofar as many around the water cooler are too inhibited to sing. it sounds, to me, that most would prefer others to not sing, and i often agree in particular instances while cherishing the notion of everyone feeling free to sing.
when someone does sing, whistle or hum, it may relieve the singer's plaint, but it may also lead to transmission of the earworm. if language is a virus, song is among its best replication strategies, and earworms, its most virulent strains. this, in turn, may lead to the earworm game: trading volleys of fragments of catchy jingles with other persons in an effort to secure the most mindshare for one's proffer.
it was learning, through the dynamic of this competitive effort, to immediately start thinking of another known earworm upon recognizing one, that led me to the notion of inoculation. just about every american since the invention of mtv, if not the phonograph or radio, has the resources already at hand to inoculate him or herself! the inoculation may be performed by playing the earworm game alone and as quickly as one can for some time, but essentially inheres in developing the capacity to propose catchy passages of songs in rapid sequence: a denial of service defense to deploy (out loud or internally) against any earworm assault.
playing earworm with the guy at the next workstation in the sweatshop is not generally performed singing, or with only very quiet singing: usually some sense of the intonation of words is retained together with the meter (one can hardly say "come on shake your body baby do that conga, no, you can't control yourself any longa" or "ain't nothing gonna break-a my stride" without singing it). the game often devolves into a mere session of listing hit or memorable songs from yore, which, nevertheless, remains sufficiently distracting to defend against any particular infestation; this may also be a best outcome insofar as none of the participants are left subject to any earworm. sometimes it also flares across the sweatshop floor into a brief epidemic which, with too many cooks, usually will burn out in the acoustic equivalent of a flash (though some fragments from that flash may remain "stuck in the head" of one unfortunate auditor or another, perhaps in a dormant state).
so we had a nice session, during which the question of "
yacht rock" arose, but my description failed to do it justice or even properly identify the personalities involved. so i followed up after hours with the proper selectors. but my clarification was taken as a challenge, and earworm developed and was played, slowly, via email over several days, during which all sorts of momentous events ensued beyond the game:
-------- Original Message --------
Date:
Sun, 11 Jan 2015 21:37:19 -0500
Subject: Re: not the beegees & kristofferson
>>Let the sun shine, let the sunshine in.
Sunrise, sunset.
>>Don't let the sun go down on me.
sunshine daydream, wading in a cold stream!
>> You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
sunny days, chasing the clouds away!
>> We had fun, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun...
I'm happy, feelin glad, got sunshine on a bag!
>> Walking on sunshine, oooh-oooh.
I got sunshi-e-ine on a cloudy day.
>> Ah!
>>Here comes the sun.
I got you babe.
>> Baby come back! You can blame it all on me.
baby face: you've got the cutest little baby face.
>> Baby I'm a-want you; baby I'm a-need you
break on thru to the other side
>> Take the last train to Clarkville
we've got to get out of this place!
>> Baby on board, something something Burt Ward.
I been waiting for a girl like you to come in to my life...
oh girls just wanna have fun (we just wanna--we just wan-na-a-a!)
>>Walk like an Egyptian
we got the beat we got the beat we got the beeeeaaaat yeah we got it!
>> How can you mend a broken hear-eh-art?
sugar! (......) oh honey, honey ...
>> Oh Mandy, you came and you gave without taking, but I sent you away, oh Mandy.
when you get lost between the moon and New York City...
>> And it's run for the roses, as fast as you can...
the leader of the band is tired and his eyes are are growing old, but his blood runs in my instrument...
>> The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
where have all the soldiers gone?
(yay the sixties; that's where I'm a Viking!)
>>Bye, bye miss American Pie
woah oh oh oh thunder road, oh thunder road, woah.
>>Muskrat Suzie, Muskrat Sam..
ain't noting gonna breaka my stride
>> Don't give up on us baby.
Frankie says relax.
>> Here's a little song I wrote
>> You can sing it note for note
>> Don't worry, be happy.
hey little sister .... SHOTGUN!
>> Come on Eileen
don't you want me baby?
>> Oh Micky you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind, hey Micky!
turn around, bright eyes.
>> Do you really want to hurt me?
who can it be now?
also: careless whisper; wham
>> Men at work - living in the world down under.
but the doobie brothers & Christopher cross.
* the culturally constructed field of effective song fragments is naturally not inherent at all, but a factor of overlapping media environments of players' individual experience --
that song from the music man may not be familiar to a significant chunk of the population -- so playing the earworm game calls for assessment of other players' . . . likely susceptabilities . . . and selection of fragments calculated to thrive there.