Music, in its essence, is a sequence of air vibrations that our ears capture and our brains interpret. Memory plays a crucial role here, as we only perceive sound in fleeting moments. Our brains assemble these fragments, presenting them to us as a continuous stream of auditory experience. This inherent processing leads us to seek patterns and coherence in sounds, even when they are not inherently musical. If you loop a sound for just a couple of seconds, your brain will instinctively search for a rhythm and structure within it, often finding one even where none was intentionally designed. This natural inclination sets the stage for understanding what happens when we encounter music meticulously crafted to become indelibly lodged in our memory.
This brings us to the phenomenon of “Baby Shark,” a children’s song of debatable artistic merit that chronicles a multi-generational shark family. While its exact origins are murky – possibly emerging from summer camp sing-alongs in America – Pinkfong, a Korean YouTube channel for children, popularized it. The Pinkfong version features a blend of synthesized bass and an incredibly persistent melody that seems to burrow directly into your subconscious. As the lyrics progress through baby, daddy, mommy, grandma, and grandpa shark, the accompanying “shark mouth dance” gestures widen incrementally, culminating in a feeling of being utterly consumed by the song. And, inevitably, you find yourself playing it again.
Last year, “Baby Shark” achieved the unexpected feat of reaching number 32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. At that time, it had been streamed an astonishing 20.8 million times in a single week. This raises a fundamental question: what exactly makes a song so catchy? Periodically, a particularly earworm-inducing hit song prompts casual discussions about the elements that make a melody so difficult to dislodge from our minds. These conversations often remain superficial. Therefore, I decided to delve deeper, consulting with experts to understand the hooks and patterns in music that contribute to their memorability and to explore whether there is a scientific basis for creating such intensely Catchy Songs.
Insights from Ethnomusicology: Thomas Hodgson, King’s College London
Thomas Hodgson, a Teaching Fellow in Ethnomusicology at King’s College London, shared his initial, somewhat reluctant, encounter with “Baby Shark”: “I’ve just listened to it for the first time on YouTube – that’s 1:45m of my life I’ll never get back. I don’t think there’s really much to say about the song.” However, he offered some insightful perspectives on its catchiness. “Part of the answer is to do with familiarity. It follows a basic I-IV-V-I chord progression in C Major (So C, F, C, G), which you could say is a very common pattern in pop music,” Hodgson explained, citing examples such as The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout,” The Troggs’ “Wild Thing,” and The Ting Tings’ “That’s Not My Name.”
Hodgson also pointed to the simplicity of the lyrics and melody: “In terms of the lyrics and melody, there’s not much going on here, is there? I wonder whether nonsense lyrics – the ‘doo doo doo doo’ – appeals to certain audiences precisely because it’s nonsense.” He suggested that the lack of complex language requirements might broaden the song’s appeal, especially for a children’s song. He also questioned the significance of stream counts, wondering if the song’s popularity was simply due to background play or incessant repetition by children.
In considering what makes music truly engaging, Hodgson stated, “Interesting music is usually interesting because it deviates in some way from what we expect, or speaks to a part of us.” He emphasized the human element in music creation, contrasting it with the potential for AI-generated music in the future. “On a basic level I think we respond to music because we recognise it was written by someone as their experience of the world, something we can empathise with. Can we empathise with an algorithm?”
Hodgson concluded his analysis with a touch of humor, “I’m now going to listen to some other music in a probably vain attempt to get that song out of my head!”
The Cognitive Perspective: Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, University of Arkansas
Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, a Distinguished Professor and Director at the Music Cognition Lab, University of Arkansas, offered a cognitive science perspective on catchy songs. She highlighted the role of physical engagement in enhancing a song’s stickiness. “There’s some evidence that we perceive songs as catchier when we move along with them. Those adorable little shark gestures in ‘Baby Shark’ may actually be helping the tune burrow into your brain.” This suggests that the accompanying dance moves for “Baby Shark” are not just a visual element but contribute directly to its memorability.
Margulis also emphasized the balance between predictability and surprise in catchy tunes. “Catchy songs also tend to feature an optimal mix between a conventional attribute that make them easy to remember, and surprising twists that make them distinctive.” This blend keeps the listener engaged without being overly complex or unfamiliar.
Singability is another key factor, according to Margulis. “‘Baby Shark’ is pretty easy to sing, which might make it harder to resist singing along in your head while you’re listening. Once you’ve done that, it’s that much easier for it to start auto-singing in your head without the external trigger.” The ease of singing along internally reinforces the song’s presence in our minds.
Margulis referenced studies on earworms, noting, “Some studies have exposed people to catchy music in the lab, and then counted the number of earworms they experience later during a mundane task. They tend to experience more earworms if they had moved to the music while listening.” This further supports the idea that physical movement enhances musical memory.
However, Margulis also tempered the idea of a definitive formula for catchy songs. “Science doesn’t have a precise formula for a catchy song, because catchiness also depends on factors outside the notes themselves – for example, how recently and how often a person has heard a song, and their overall listening habits. Catchy songs tend to feature an optimal mix of surprise and predictability, but what seems predictable to any one listener can vary depending on the kinds of music they’ve listened to before.” This highlights the subjective and contextual nature of musical catchiness.
The Marketing Professor’s View: Dr. James Kellaris, University of Cincinnati
Dr. James Kellaris, a composer, musician, and Professor of Marketing at the University of Cincinnati, offered a perspective rooted in marketing and musical composition. He identified three key characteristics of catchy songs: “Catchy songs in general tend to have three characteristics in common: simplicity, repetition, and incongruity. ‘Baby Shark’ is a perfect storm of all three. Creating an earworm is more art than science, but those creating a catchy hook can apply known design principles of simplicity, repetition, and incongruity.”
Simplicity, Kellaris explained, aids learning and memorization. “Simplicity facilitates learning – perhaps ‘over-learning’.” Repetition reinforces this learning, encouraging mental replay. “Repetition reinforces learning and may convey an implicit suggestion to the brain to continue the repetition mentally, even after the external source of the music is turned off.”
Incongruity, or unexpected musical elements, creates a “cognitive itch.” “Incongruity is what causes a ‘cognitive itch’. Like a mental mosquito bite, when information is incongruous (or violates listeners’ expectations) it motivates cognitive effort to resolve the incongruity. This cognitive effort involves thinking about the offending song.” This mental effort to resolve musical surprises further embeds the song in our memory.
Kellaris provided a specific example of incongruity in “Baby Shark”: “Spoiler alert: the incongruity in ‘Baby Shark’ is that whereas concluding musical phrases generally end on the tonic…to signal finality, ‘Baby Shark’’s final phrase comes to rest on the dominant…which signals continuation.” This musical “cliffhanger” contributes to the song’s loop-like quality and its tendency to get stuck in our heads.
He humorously alluded to a “secret ingredient” for catchiness, before circling back to fundamental learning principles, “But really, which did you master first as a young child: the letters of the alphabet or the melody of the alphabet song?” emphasizing the innate human connection to melody, referencing animal “singing” as further evidence.
Kellaris also touched on the involuntary nature of earworms, comparing them to intrusive thoughts and referencing ironic process theory (the “white bear effect”). He offered practical advice for banishing earworms, suggesting strategies based on the cause, such as limiting exposure or completing the song by looking up the lyrics.
Finally, with good humor, Kellaris concluded, “I think you have milked the limited wisdom I have to offer! Fun stuff…”
The Enduring Mystery of Catchy Tunes
The experts’ opinions, while varied, converge on several key elements that contribute to what makes songs catchy. Repetition, simplicity, and a degree of unexpectedness or “incongruity” emerge as common threads. “Baby Shark” exemplifies these traits almost too perfectly, which might explain both its inescapable catchiness and its capacity to induce a sense of musical overload. It is almost too effective.
It is reassuring to hear Professor Margulis’s point that science lacks a definitive formula for creating catchy songs. While common characteristics exist, there remains an element of mystery and subjective appreciation in the music we connect with. Ultimately, the indefinable beauty in our favorite songs is what truly keeps us listening, and that is a comforting thought for music lovers.
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This article was amended on Wednesday 23 January to reflect that Pinkfong is a Korean company, though it publishes material in Japanese, Korean, Spanish, English and Mandarin.
