Welcome to Earworms & Song Loops!

Steve Goldberg's exploration into all the stuff that gets caught in the head and repeats on an endless loop

Hi friends,

This is a welcome note to you about a new Substack newsletter I’ve begun, and I would love it if you could subscribe and support this new project! I promise I won’t inundate you with email updates. My plan is a weekly post that will be emailed to you to read in your browser or in the Substack app. Email me back and I’ll explain more if you have questions.

Read on for Post #1!

What is an earworm?

Glad you asked! Here’s how it’s defined on wikipedia:

An earworm, sometimes referred to as a brainworm, sticky music, stuck song syndrome, or, most commonly after earworms, Involuntary Musical Imagery (INMI), is a catchy and/or memorable piece of music or saying that continuously occupies a person's mind even after it is no longer being played or spoken about. Involuntary musical imagery as a label is not solely restricted to earworms; musical hallucinations also fall into this category, although they are not the same thing. Earworms are considered to be a common type of involuntary cognition. Some of the phrases often used to describe earworms include "musical imagery repetition" and "involuntary musical imagery."

Wow. That’s way better than how I would have attempted to define it.

Song Stuck Syndrome! That’s what I should have called this Substack! Oh well, I already made my cute little logo and header bar with the worms and the doggie.

What I would add to this excellent summary is that the majority of earworms that appear come from our formative years. Well, my expanded definition of formative. I would say anything before the age of 25. So, for me, this would be primarily the 1970s and the 1980s. Yes, I’m old. But I am told I act like a child, which I interpret as “young at heart.”

If you’re one of the lucky few who’ve been following me on my similarly themed musical blog, fuzzyswarbles.wordpress.com, you already know that my brain will never give me a break from the constant tuneage. There are days when 4 or 5 or 10 songs will request a room at my cerebral hotel, usually renting by the hour or the half day. These are the looping visitors I tend to prefer, as I know they’ll be gone and on their way soon enough. It’s the extended-stay customers, the ones that show up clutching several over-stuffed suitcases, bits-o’-lyrics poking out from the pockets of their ratty bell bottoms and Levi 501s, that push me to the brink of insanity. Often I have to resort to more drastic measures to send those songs packing. These methods will be explained in future posts.

For example: songs like Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” and Jim Croce’s “Time In A Bottle” have been extended-stay tenants. With multiple return visits. And anything that falls within the Yacht Rock genre can sink its teeth into my cranium and hold on for dear life. Christopher Cross’ “Sailing” is one example. Even just writing this sends a cold chill down my spine, like I’m poking a stick at a sleeping earworm mid-hibernation. 

Thankfully the playlist of songs and jingles that (ear)worm their way into my noggin is endless and extensive. And so I should never run low on songs to share with you folks! Yay! 

If you are like my wife and don’t suffer from this earworm affliction (weirdos!), good on you. As long as you are a fan of music and silly explorations into the place where mental health, memoir, nostalgia and catchy tunes collide, Earworms and Song Loops will be the perfect place for you to come visit!

So I invite you to sign up to my newsletter, which will alert you via email when I release a new post (my plan is for on average once per week), so you don’t have to download the Substack app to read them. (But the app is also cool!)

I’m hoping that Earworms and Song Loops becomes a dialogue, not a one-way monologue. That you, you amazing slice of human perfection, will be inspired to comment on a post or even offer up the earworms and song loops that have spun and continue to spin endlessly in your heads. 

I’m also opening this up for guest contributors and am playing with the idea of a podcast version, so stay tuned for more updates on those developments. 

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I know there are a zillion forms of media — podcasts, tv shows, movies, magazines, etc — to fill your time, so I am ever grateful that you might be open to adding this Substack newsletter to your pile. 

And to be clear: this is a free Substack. I know a lot of the Substacks out there are offering free and paid versions, where the best goodies are saved for paying members, but I am not going to do that. Even if I add lots of fancy extras, I will find a sugar mama (or daddy, or child-free rich person) to subsidize such things should they come to pass. 

Okay, enough blathering. The next post will feature an earworm that extended stayed for almost a full week. Oh, I shiver at the thought of reliving that one….