Science Solves How To Get Mariah Carey Out Of Your Head This Christmas

It’s that time of year: no matter where you go, you’re bound to hear Christmas music, with Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You leading the charge.

If you need help getting that song out of your head, the Earworm Eraser is here to help. A 40-second audio track designed to get rid of earworms, the visualiser on YouTube was directed by Laura Jayne Hodkin for Atlassian.

The Earworm Eraser is a scientifically engineered audio track “designed to squash earworms for good,” per a press release, with the help of agency Droga5. In the video, your earworm is taken on a unique journey through random musical vignettes, with a scene crafted by Harry Bhalero in his signature style.

The Earworm Eraser changes styles throughout its short runtime, switching between fast and slow tempos and swapping time signatures and musical styles so that whether it’s classical or electronic, it won’t get stuck in your head.

Kelly Jakubowski, an Associate Professor of Music Psychology at Durham University in the United Kingdom, was part of the team that software company Atlassian contacted for the Earworm Eraser.

Jakubowski said of the project (per NPR), “One really effective way of blocking out earworms is to listen to something else,” adding that the Earworm Eraser works by avoiding making what typically makes a song catchy: predictable, memorable melodies and sounds.

“I've shown in my research that songs that have a more danceable tempo tend to become earworms,” Jakubowski said, “And we also have found that having a predictable overall melodic shape can make a song become an earworm.”

You can test the Earworm Eraser for yourself below.

This week marks the 30th anniversary of Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas album, which spawned the immortal hit All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Carey is celebrating the album with special anniversary releases, including All I Want For Christmas Is You, available in 7” and 12” vinyl, cassette, and CD single formats with festive bonus tracks. Merry Christmas has also been re-released in a new Digital Deluxe Anniversary Edition.

New physical editions will be released next Friday (13 December), such as a zoetrope vinyl pressing of Merry Christmas, a 2LP Deluxe Edition featuring a 24-page photo, a Mariah Carey Christmas card, and a remastered version of her 1994 St. John the Divine concert on Disc 2. You can purchase those here.