Why can we remember song lyrics so easily?

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. Instead that random song from 2003 pops into your head and you before you know it you are humming it and remembering the lyrics. 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. It turns out there is a reason for this phenomenon, evolution.

spongebob

According 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. This is why humans are able to respond so strongly to music. Its potent effect on the pleasure center holds a very significant place in our brains. When listening to music dopamine is excreted and this is has a large effect on the rewards section of our brain. 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. This is the reason that children have an easier time remembering things taught to them in song format then just spoken to them.

baby music

 

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. We also attach music to our emotions and senses; this is why some songs can spark memory and feelings such as sadness or happiness. 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.

The reason we remember certain song lyrics has been theorized to be due to “ear worms”. Often people only remember certain segment of songs, typically the chorus or opening. 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. This repetition causes us to commit the lyrics to memory for very long amounts of time. Often our memory can be jogged by just hearing the first words of the song or opening beat. These annoying segments burrow deep into our memory hence the name earworms. 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. Unfortunately for us college students our textbooks don’t stimulate us nearly enough to allow us to memorize as much as we need to.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/26/health/mental-health/music-brain-science/

http://figureoneblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/why-do-we-remember-countless-song-lyrics-but-not-our-studies/

 

4 thoughts on “Why can we remember song lyrics so easily?

  1. William Spencer Hershon

    As kids and especially as college students we can all relate to this. So many times I just find a song stuck in my head at the most random of moments. Learning the science behind why this happens is actually quite interesting. 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. The link below is shares another reason why we remember song lyrics so well. 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. “Alliteration, assonance, repetition and rhyme” all contribute to why we remember songs over books. Books we usually read in a monotone voice which has none of what is mentioned above. The afore mentioned literary tools really help seal in song lyrics to our memories.
    http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/how-be-brilliant/201206/why-we-remember-song-lyrics-so-well

  2. Kevin Zheng

    This is a great post! It makes so much sense. For me specifically, I always had a hard time learning things from my history classes in high school. What I would do, strategically, is to make songs out of different lessons and they helped me memorize things in that class. The thing about music is that it’s so catchy, which is why everyone memorizes lyrics so easily. Unfortunately, the Teapot Dome Scandal is not a very catchy part in history…

  3. Jenna Rae Stoklosa

    I think this is a great topic because so many of us understand exactly what you are talking about. If I was tested on song lyrics instead of the quadratic equation, my grade would improve greatly! What I found interesting on this topic was that music has actually helped many people who face dementia. People with dementia can go through what its called “music therapy” and it help them communicate with therapists and family members. Some songs and sounds can jog the memories of the patients. So music isn’t just having an effect on students but the elderly as well! Here is an article that discusses how music helps dementia patients!

    http://todaysgeriatricmedicine.com/news/story1.shtml

  4. Stephanie Rose Polinak

    I can really relate to this. I have such a hard time memorizing things for exams and classes but can easily remember song lyrics whether or not I actually like the song. In seventh grade, my science teacher taught us a DNA song that was sung to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” It actually helped a lot during tests and I can still remember most of the lyrics to this day. I wonder if there is a way to induce dopamine during class so it’s easier for kids to learn and remember. This article explains how dopamine effects a lot more than just our memory; however, we can increase our dopamine by setting goals, which will release dopamine when we get positive feedback. http://lifehacker.com/how-to-harnass-your-brains-dopamine-supply-and-increas-1496989326

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