Have you ever had a song stuck in your head?

That’s an earworm… and we’re collecting them!

We are researchers at Goldsmiths, University of London. In collaboration with BBC 6Music and the British Academy, we are conducting research to find out about the music in people’s heads, sometimes called ’musical imagery’.

We want to know all about it; which songs are the most common, whether people like it or don’t, what triggers it, if some people have music in their head all the time… and so on!

In particular we are interested in earworms which are a special type of musical imagery. An earworm is a short part of a tune that comes  into your head and then repeats for a while, for anything from a few minutes to hours. It can have words or it can just be a melody or a rhythm. Earworms are generally very persistent and it can be difficult to make them stop! The experience of an earworm can be pleasant, unpleasant or move between the two over time.

We have developed a number of ways for you to get in touch and tell us about the music in your head. Follow the link below to take part in our questionnaire. If you want to quickly tell us about an earworm experience there is a short report form available at the BBC 6 music site. You can fill in as many of these short reports as you like, the more the merrier!

We really appreciate all information and can promise complete confidentiality and we look forward to hearing from you.

For more information about our project head over to the Goldsmiths site.

1953 people have taken part so far!

Huge thank you to all!!