Earworms: Those songs that get stuck in your head - Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis

「繞樑餘音」：那些你腦中揮之不去的歌 - 伊莉莎白．赫爾莫思．瑪古利斯

譯者: Harry Chen 審譯者: Geoff Chen

Have you ever been waiting in line at the grocery store,

你是否曾經在雜貨店裡排隊等候

innocently perusing the magazine rack, when a song pops into your head?

什麼念頭都沒有地瀏覽著雜誌架 霎時一首歌在你的腦海裡響起

Not the whole song, but a fragment of it that plays and replays

不是整首歌，而是部分片段 一遍接著一遍迴響於耳邊

until you find yourself unloading the vegetables in time to the beat.

與拍子分秒不差地契合 直到你發現到自己將蔬菜取出結帳

You've been struck by an earworm, and you're not alone.

你已經受擾於「繞樑餘音」了 而且你還不是唯一的苦主

Over 90% of people are plagued by earworms at least once a week,

超過 90% 的人每個禮拜至少有一次 會受到「繞樑餘音」的侵擾

and about a quarter of people experience them several times a day.

而大概有四分之一的人 是每天會好幾遍的這種經驗

They tend to burrow in during tasks that don't require much attention,

他們會在工作不是太需要 注意力時沉浸於其中

say, when waiting on water to boil

像是說在等待水煮開的時候

or a traffic light to change.

或是等交通號誌變換時

This phenomenon is one of the mind's great mysteries.

此現象是人類腦袋裡最神秘的事情

Scientists don't know exactly why it's so easy

科學家們也不清楚曲調會如此輕易地 深植於我們腦海裡的原因

for tunes to get stuck in our heads.

From a psychological perspective,

來自心理學的角度來看

earworms are an example of mental imagery.

「繞樑餘音」是心理的假想

This imagery can be visual,

這種假想可以是視覺性的

like when you close your eyes and imagine a red wagon,

就像當你閉上眼睛想像一輛紅色的台車

or it can be auditory,

或者也可能是聲樂性的假想

like when you imagine the sound of a baby screaming,

就像當你在想像著嬰兒哭泣的聲音

or oil sizzling in a pan.

或是像平底鍋裡油吱吱做響的聲音

Earworms are a special form of auditory imagery

「繞樑餘音」是特殊的聲樂性假想

because they're involuntary.

因為這些音樂會不由自主地迴響起

You don't plug your ears and try to imagine "Who Let the Dogs Out,"

你不必摀住耳朵然後試圖想像 「是誰放出狗的？」這首歌

or, well, you probably don't.

或者你大概什麼事也不需要做啦

It just intrudes onto your mental soundscape

它恰恰可以侵入進你內心的聲樂天地

and hangs around like an unwanted house guest.

而且就像個不請自來的客人 在你的腦中到處閒晃

Earworms tend to be quite vivid

「繞樑餘音」會是相當鮮明的

and they're normally made up of a tune, rather than, say, harmonies.

一般來說它們比較像旋律 多過於合聲所組成

A remarkable feature of earworms is their tendency to get stuck in a loop,

「繞樑餘音」奇特之處是像陷在 繞圈圈般不斷重複的傾向，

repeating again and again for minutes or hours.

不斷重複播放長達數分鐘或數小時之久

Also remarkable is the role of repetition in sparking earworms.

同樣引人注意的是重複撥放在 觸發這些音樂所發揮的功用

Songs tend to get stuck when we listen to them recently and repeatedly.

當我們在近期內不斷重複地聽到 這些歌就可能會讓你無法擺脫了

If repetition is such a trigger,

假使重複撥放是後果嚴重的一件事情

then perhaps we can blame our earworms on modern technology.

那麼也許我們可以怪罪於現代科技 帶來「繞樑餘音」的現象

The last hundred years have seen an incredible proliferation

在過去100年裡看到了

幫助你一再重複聽取相同內容的 電子裝置不可思議般的激增

of devices that help you listen to the same thing again and again.

Records, cassettes, CDs, or streamed audio files.

如同唱片、卡式錄音帶、CD片、 串流音樂...等

Have these technologies bread some kind of unique, contemporary experience,

這些技術真的帶來某種 獨有的、短暫的經驗嗎？

and are earworms just a product of the late 20th century?

「繞樑餘音」只是二十世紀末 才有的產物嗎？

The answer comes from an unlikely source:

答案來自於一個我們猜不到的人

Mark Twain.

「馬克吐溫」

In 1876, just one year before the phonograph was invented,

在 １８７６ 年的時候 正是留聲機被發明的前一年

he wrote a short story imagining a sinister takeover

他寫了一偏短文 想像著押著韻的叮噹聲

of an entire town by a rhyming jingle.

凶兆般的掌控住整個城鎮

This reference, and others,

這個描述以及其他的內容

show us that earworms seem to be a basic psychological phenomenon,

向我們說明了「繞樑餘音」 看起來像是一種很普通的心理現象，

perhaps exacerbated by recording technology

也許錄音技術令其變得更加嚴重

but not new to this century.

但絕非是本世紀的新玩意兒

So yes, every great historical figure, from Shakespeare to Sacajawea,

從莎士比亞到薩卡加維 每一位偉大的歷史人物

may well have wandered around with a song stuck in their head.

也許都有一首歌盤據在腦袋裡四處亂晃

Besides music, it's hard to think of another case of intrusive imagery

除了音樂以外很難想到另一個

that's so widespread.

如此廣泛的侵擾式假想案例

Why music?

為什麼是音樂？

Why don't watercolors get stuck in our heads?

為什麼不是水彩畫佇留在我們的腦海？

Or the taste of cheesy taquitos?

又或是墨西哥起司捲餅的味道？

One theory has to do with the way music is represented in memory.

有個理論提及音樂在記憶裡呈現的方法

When we listen to a song we know,

當我們聽著一首熟悉的歌

we're constantly hearing forward in time, anticipating the next note.

我們經常聽到比當下正播放的要更後面 預料著下一個音符

It's hard for us to think about one particular musical moment in isolation.

單單想著一個特定的音樂橋段 對我們來說是困難的

If we want to think about the pitch of the word "you" in "Happy Birthday,"

假使我們要去想 "you" 這個字 在生日快樂歌裡的音調

we have to start back at "Happy,"

我們必須回到 "Happy" 來做開始

and sing through until we get to "you."

一直唱下去直到我們唱到了 "you"

In this way, a tune is sort of like a habit.

這樣來說曲調就有一點像是一個習慣

Just like once you start tying your shoe,

就好像是打從你開始綁鞋帶

you're on automatic until you tighten the bow,

直到你綁好蝴蝶節前是不假思索的

once a tune is suggested

一但想到某個調子

because, for example, someone says, "my umbrella,"

例如因為某人說了「My unbrella」

we have to play through until it reaches a natural stopping point,

我們就得在腦中播歌直到 唱到了原本的停頓處

"ella, ella, ella."

「ella, ella, ella.」

But this is largely speculation.

不過這充其量也只是一個猜測

The basic fact remains we don't know exactly why we're susceptible to earworms.

事實上我們仍未確切地明瞭為什麼我們 會這麼容易受到「繞樑餘音」的影響

But understanding them better could give us important clues

但是更清楚認識它們可以給我們

to the workings of the human brain.

有關人類大腦運作的重要線索

Maybe the next time we're plagued

也許下回我們受擾於

by a Taylor Swift tune that just won't go away,

盤據於腦內久久不去的泰勒絲曲調

we'll use it as the starting point for a scientific odyssey

我們會利用它來當一段科學旅程的開端

that will unlock important mysteries about basic cognition.

那將會解開基本認知的重大迷團

And if not, well, we can just shake it off.

假若不行，我們就忘了它吧！