Creating the Itch: The Lasting Power of the Jingle

They’ve been around for as long as radio and advertising have existed. They are messages put to music; a clever way to tuck a targeted message inside a pleasurable tune. They’re jingles, or “rhymes or sounds in a catchy, repetitive format,” according to Mirriam-Webster’s Dictionary. Yeah, catchy and repetitive like a worm in your brain. It’s an ear worm, and if you’ve ever tried to dislodge one, you know how persistent they can be. Ever hear of a little ditty called “filet-o-fish,” courtesy of the McDonalds Corporation? You can thank me at 2:30am, when you’re desperate to fall asleep against an onslaught of singing large-mouth bass and the smell of fryer oil. You’re welcome.

The jingle’s power is in the slippery nature of the ear worm, and the chemistry between beat and brain is why the jingle has maintained its strong presence in advertising since the 1920s. Not every song has the power to be a worm – there are 3 qualities to a piece of music that increase its chance of gnawing away inside your mind for hours and days: Repetition, Musical Simplicity, and Incongruity. If the melody is one that repeats itself several times within the song’s length, your brain catches on to it like a child learns the alphabet – or a dog learns a trick. Repetition is biology’s education, which brings us to the quality of Musical Simplicity. Complicated compositions are, well, complicated and therefore our brain must work harder to memorize them. Simple rhymes and lyrics, however, are the key to idea-planting. Repeat the same simple sound 4 times in a row. Then, read a sentence aloud 4 times in a row. Observe which material is still in your memory bank later today, or even tomorrow. Here’s a hint, or shortcut for those who choose not to participate in the group activity with the rest of the class: It will be the simple repetition that wins over the sentence.

Finally, a musical piece with Incongruity is more likely to get “stuck” in your head than one that fits neatly into an automatic musical package. The brain abhors a puzzle – that is, a puzzle that has not been solved. Your mental biology will automatically try to fill in the intellectual vacuum. This is why, when your most annoying friend sings the first line of “It’s a Small World,” your mind starts a race to the finish of the song and you can’t do much about it. This is when you make a mental note to hum the melody of the Gilligan’s Island title song in your most annoying friend’s ear, as soon as possible. Incongruity also applies to a song that doesn’t stick to a predictable framework. Lyrics that emphasize one word, unpredictable melodies, and irregular musical timing all contribute to the likelihood that a song will burrow into your brain. Again: your brain hates an unsolved puzzle and will deliberately try to mimic the music and its exact irregularity. Your brain wants to work to hit those incongruities and to make sense of it all. It’s like a game of catch for your mind. This is part of why foreign languages are most easily learned, besides immersion, by listening to music in that language. Your brain wants to understand the lyrics and make sense of the song; the repetition of the music helps you remember the lyrics, so your brain can practice them over and over.

Let’s put these three qualities together, to illustrate why music works so well in advertising – and why the radio jingle will never die. If a song is repetitive, simple, and a part of it catches you off guard, you (the lucky listener) are doomed to repeat it to yourself. The filet-o-fish song is still in your head from when I mentioned it earlier, isn’t it? If not, don’t worry – I’ll put it back. “Give me that filet-o-fish, give me that fish…” uses a melody and lyrics that are almost painfully simple. Then, the song takes a strange and musically-uncomfortable turn. The catchy tune switches to what can only be described as a ridiculous time signature and lyrics that are so awkwardly-written that they sound like intentional kitsch. “What if it were you hanging up on this wall? If it were you in this sandwich you wouldn’t be laughing at all!” It’s annoying. It hurts my brain, but I can’t get it out. It makes me want a filet-o-fish, plain, with just ketchup.

Sources & Helpful Articles:
http://onlinewritingplaces.blogspot.com/2010/03/freelance-writing-101-why-you-should.html
http://www.uc.edu/news/kellaris.htm
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jingle
http://www.markethold.com

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