A Year Later and the Earworms Still Slime My Brain

I wouldn't have it any other way

When I began this Earworm and Song Loops Substack 53 weeks ago, my goal was to write a newsletter at least once a week for 20 weeks.

That sounded challenging but not overly ambitious.

Then, when I hit that goal, I decided why not try to make it to 30? And then I hit 40 and suddenly the holy grail of 52 straight weeks writing a fairly exhaustive (and exhausting, based on some readers’ feedback) exploration of both a song and a personal story seemed not just possible, but likely.

Even when my life became a whirlwind of family drama and physical injury, I found a way to fight through the urge to pause the newsletter and stay up until 2am to get something written that felt both honest and true.

Sure, I’ve ended up having to repurpose an essay once or twice. But that was more for you all to get a breather than for me.😛

As my earworms come unbidden, I do very little pre-planning of these essays. If I try to write about an earworm I had a month or two ago, when it no longer holds repeating space in my current brain, then the urgency is gone and my writing feels flat.

My usual process for these is to figure it all out as I go. I know what song I plan to discuss, but that’s simply a jumping off point. I might get 3000 words written and have barely even mentioned the song in the title at the top of the page.

I do try to research the artists and bands that I feature; but only as far as to not seem like a dumbass. Including a complete historical background of an artist or band is less important to me than discovering the place where music and memory merge.

It might be a head-on collision or it might be two cars parallel parking on opposite sides of the street.

Last week, I had to drive down to southern California to handle a myriad of medical issues for both my aunt (who I’ve written about several times here) and my parents.

It just so happened to be week 52 of this Substack (AKA: 1 year anniversary). I had grand intentions of a massive celebratory recap to honor this milestone.

Laughter and tears and group sing-alongs to be had by all.

But that couldn’t happen. I was too fried. I couldn’t form a sentence for the life of me.

What I did have the ability to do though, was create a spreadsheet. I could feed my hyper-organized, OCD tendency. The part of me that desperately craved something resembling order and control in my world.

So I went through every EW&SL post and wrote down the artist, song and year the song was released. I skipped about 7 or 8 posts that didn’t feature a single song. Mostly bonus posts and my monthly ReCOWmendations.

The snapshot above lists the first 25 or so earworm songs featured in this Substack. I could of course spend the time to make hyperlinks to each of them, but that’s way too much work and my OCD, while it can be quite anal, isn’t that ambitious.

If you’d like to read any of these essays, either again or for the first time, simply

click here

to get to the archive page and read at your leisure.

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It seemed to me that I surely would discover some sort of pattern, some sort of method to my madness by laying it all out in front of me chronologically.

Well, the madness part seemed apparent but the method, not so much.

Looking at the breakdown now, a week later, I can say that I was surprised that the 1980s, the decade that covered ages 13-23, aka: Junior High School to senior year of college, did not dominate my earworm list as much as I had expected when I started this project.

Here’s how the breakdown of all my earworm picks landed, according to decade:

• 1960s - 2

• 1970s - 6

• 1980s - 16

• 1990s - 13

• 2000s - 5

• 2010s - 1

• 2020s - 3

So yes, the 1980s were the decade with the most earworms. But the 1990s were a close second. And 9 of the 46 essays featured songs from the 21st century. That’s 1/5th of all the earworms.

I started this all off with Britney Spears and Ended with Oasis. Or maybe REO Speedwagon. The Oasis (or AISIS) piece was less about a specific earworm song than my usual essays. But you have to admit, what an awesome concert a Britney, REO and Oasis show would be, right? Perhaps that’s just the thing to get the Gallagher brothers to reunite.

I’m getting off topic here. Which is sort of my thing. If you have been reading these for a while, you already know this and for some reason you keep coming back for more.

And for that I am eternally grateful. And for all my newer readers, I’m grateful to you too, for just slightly less than eternity. But still a super long time.

For all of you, or more precisely, for all of you who use Spotify, I have a special anniversary gift. A playlist featuring all of the earworm songs featured in Earworms and Song Loops!!! Woo Hoo!

Who knows what’s in story for year 2 of EW&SL. If life allows, I will keep writing weekly newsletters and stories for you. With the usual bonus posts thrown in to keep you on your toes.

I supposed this is where I should remind you that although all of the posts are available for free, I do offer a paid subscription option that will include a few extra goodies. I spend many hours each week putting this together and getting even a little bit of compensation helps me stay focused and honest and inspired. I totally get that we all have limited budgets, so it’s all good either way.

• As far as talking points. I’d be curious if any of you who have read more than a couple of these have a favorite that really connected with you. Let me know in the comments.

Okay, enough blabbing. Here’s the playlist.

In words,

Steve