Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Too Many Jingle Bells on the Brain? Try Earworm Eraser

14/12/2024

Too Many Jingle Bells on the Brain? Try Earworm Eraser 'Tis the season for incessant holiday music. If you need an escape, give this scientifically engineered audio track a try, or listen to our playlist of nontraditional winter tunes.

By

Bryan Parys

December 13, 2024

Image courtesy of Cottonbro Studio/Pexel

Its the most wonderful time of the year, but it is not always the most wonderful time for your ears. From November to the end of the year, a walk through a any mall or a few spins of any radio dial will yield an endless loop of holiday music.

It can get to be too much even for the most festive among us, and though its easy enough to avoid malls or turn off the radio, once you hear these songs, they have a way of rocking around your Christmasd brain for a long time after the songs are over.

Enter the Earworm Eraser-a 40-second collection of sounds designed to help you exorcise that endless jingling. Designed by software company Atlassian in partnership with music psychologist Kelly Jakubowski, the idea was to make something intentionally not catchy as a way to scrub out anything stuck in your head.

Cant get Jingle Bells out of your head? Try Atlassians Earworm Eraser:

Jakubowski explained to NPR that the hallmarks of earworm-worthy music tend to be danceable beats and a predictable melodic shape. So, the team made a sound collage where, as she explains, Every few seconds, it switches between fast and slow tempi, while also changing time signatures and musical styles. And while many at Berklee might read that description and think Oh, you mean jazz, the Earworm Eraser dares even the most avant-garde ears to find a groove.

The track isnt foolproof, as a cursory scan of the tracks YouTube comments reveal. And the problem isnt always the music, but the memories that these songs can conjure, as songwriting professor Kat Reinhert explains in this exploration of why some people just cant stand holiday music. If you need a more musical solution, try immersing yourself in the following playlist curated by the Berklee community designed to bring the winter vibes, but without the baggage.

Related Categories

News

Most Popular

Rihanna sings during the Concert for Valor in Washington, DC, November 11, 2014.

Image by EJ Hersom / CC-BY-2.0

This Rihanna Song Has Secret' '80s Easter Eggs The SOS songwriter revealed a nostalgic twist to the lyrics, and it's going viral on TikTok.

Latest

Daedelus

Image by David Bodnar

Berklee Professor Daedelus Talks Performing with Andr 3000 The Electronic Production and Design faculty member joined the superstar multi-hyphenate on stage for Andr 3000s New Blue Sun tour stop at Bostons Wang Theatre.

Berklee concert at the Gnaoua and World Music Festival on June 29, 2024, in Essaouira, Morocco.

Image by Zakaria Latouri

Berklee at the Gnaoua and World Music Festival Returns for Its Second Year The Berklee on the Road program will be held June 16-21, 2025, in Morocco.

Students performing at Berklee at Umbria Jazz Clinics in Perugia, Italy, in July 2024.

Image courtesy of Berklee Global

Berklee at Umbria Jazz Clinics to Celebrate 40th Anniversary in July 2025 Applications for the 2025 edition will open December 17, 2024.

Read All

Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
LINK: https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-now/news/too-many-jingle-bells-try-ear...
See more stories from berklee

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

03/09/2026

Yospace releases new Ad Presentation solution, unlocking revenue opportunities with non-linear ad formats

Yospace will be at IBC from 11th - 14th September (booth 5.C78). For more inform...

03/09/2026

Creative Technology Group Announces Leadership Transition Effective January 2027

NEP Group has announced leadership changes at Creative Technology Group. Founder and CEO Graham Andrews will step away from day-to-day leadership at the end of ...

03/09/2026

NFL and TikTok Renew Multi-Year Partnership

The NFL and TikTok have announced a multi-year partnership renewal expanding the league's presence on the platform. NFL posts on TikTok increased more than ...

03/09/2026

Grass Valley Appoints Ronny Van Geel as Vice President, Cameras

Grass Valley has appointed Ronny Van Geel as Vice President, Cameras. Van Geel began his career in 1999 at Philips DVS and moved into product management in 2005...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Telestream to Preview Vantage Super Resolution

Telestream has announced Vantage Super Resolution, an AI-powered upscaling capability for the Vantage media workflow platform, developed in collaboration with N...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Solid State Logic TCA Tour

Solid State Logic (SSL) will debut the TCA Tour at IBC2026 (Hall 8, Stand 8.B45), a portable production system built from System T components in a desktop frame...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: DPA Microphones Launches 6388 CORE+ Headset Microphone

DPA Microphones has announced the 6388 CORE Headset Microphone, making its debut at IBC2026 (Hall 8, Stand D60). The supercardioid headset features a physicall...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Qvest to Demonstrate Multi-Vendor Dynamic Media Facility Showcase

Qvest will present a multi-vendor Dynamic Media Facility (DMF) showcase at IBC2026 (Booth 10.C24), demonstrating how the EBU's DMF architecture can be imple...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Imagine Communications Debuts Magellan PanelFlex

Imagine Communications will showcase the Magellan PanelFlex control surface and other control portfolio updates at IBC2026 (Stand 1.B73, RAI Amsterdam, Septembe...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Bridge Technologies Launches Software-Based VB440 Deployment Option

Bridge Technologies will announce at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71) that its VB440 production probe is now available as a software-based solution, deployable on commerci...

03/09/2026

Audio-Technica Launches BP350ST Mid-Side Stereo Microphone in Two Variants

Audio-Technica has unveiled the BP350ST MS (mid-side) microphone in two versions: the camera-mount BP350ST-UL and the boundary or gooseneck-mountable BP350ST-UB...

03/09/2026

IBC 2026: Jnger Audio flexAI Adds CastCompanion, 12G-SDI, NDI, and TVU MediaMesh Integration

Telos Alliance will introduce updates to the J nger Audio flexAI audio processin...

03/09/2026

DUNKMAN to Expand in 2027 with Team Competitions, Junior Division, and Global Qualifiers

DUNKMAN, the professional dunk league founded by Shaquille O'Neal in partner...

03/09/2026

Orlando Magic Tap DAZN as DTC Streaming Partner, Will Join OTA Distribution Plans for 2026-27 Season

Orlando's WRDQ TV 27, WFTV Channel 9 previously named over-the-air broadcast...

03/09/2026

EverPass Media Expands NFL Agreement with Netflix for Commercial Venues

EverPass Media has announced a multi-year commercial distribution agreement with Netflix, expanding on an existing partnership that has delivered NFL Christmas ...

03/09/2026

Yahoo Sports and Apple TV Partner on MLB and MLS Alternate Broadcasts

Yahoo Sports and Apple TV have announced a partnership to deliver alternate broadcasts of select Friday Night Baseball and MLS games on the Yahoo Sports website...

03/09/2026

BIG EAST's Scott Hecht on the Evolution of Campus Production and What Comes Next

With another academic year underway, college athletic departments across the cou...

03/09/2026

ESPN Debuts Revamped, Cutting-Edge Studio W in Bristol as New Home to NFL Live, College Football, and More

Facility becomes permanent home of NFL Live on Sept. 9; centerpiece studio for c...

03/09/2026

Anthony Marinelli launches Bass DNA course

Create musical synth bass sounds from scratch Anthony Marinelli Music have recently announced the launch of Bass DNA, a new online course that teaches music...

03/09/2026

IK Multimedia unveil the Tonex Board

Most powerful Tonex hardware to date IK Multimedia's latest release introduces their most advanced Tonex hardware unit to date, combining their AI Machi...

03/09/2026

Penteo Audio Plugins announce Penteo 8

Upmix & downmix software upgraded Penteo Audio Plugins have announced that the latest version of their powerful upmix and downmix software is now available....

03/09/2026

Young talents begin their training at SGL Carbon in Germany

With the start of the new apprenticeship year, young talent has once again begun their professional careers at SGL Carbon's sites in Germany. Recently, the ...

03/09/2026

Calrec advances EBU's Dynamic Media Facility vision at IBC 2026

With the industry increasingly embracing hybrid, software-defined production models, Calrec will preview a series of Argo and ImPulseV software enhancements at ...

03/09/2026

NAB Backs Most Proposed EAS Changes at FCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

TiVo Expands FAST Channels, AI Discovery with Latest OS Update

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

Eluvio Advances Content Fabric, AI at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

Haivision Adds Bonded 5G Cellular Support to Makito ONE

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

Alex Pannell Joins Gravity Media as Chief Business Officer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

AI-Media To Feature Multilingual AI Developments At IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

Tuxera and ATTO collaborate to deliver blistering macOS n...

Recognizing the ever-increasing demands for media throughput in challenging environments like post-production, two leaders in network technology have worked tog...

03/09/2026

EVS and Matrox Video Join Forces to Accelerate Dynamic Me...

EVS, a leader in live video technology and production infrastructure solutions, and Matrox Video, a leader in software-defined media technology and IP-based vid...

03/09/2026

AJA Debuts OG-FiDO-4 openGear Four-Channel SDI/Fiber Conversion Cards

AJA Debuts OG-FiDO-4 openGear Four-Channel SDI/Fiber Conversion Cards Brie Clayton September 3, 2026 0 Comments New product family expands 12G-SDI and...

03/09/2026

Nice Touch launches V2 of its AI edit assistant for professional editors

Nice Touch launches V2 of its AI edit assistant for professional editors Brie Clayton September 3, 2026 0 Comments Built by two editors with twelve ye...

03/09/2026

Accedo and MediaKind Launch End-to-End Streaming Solution...

Accedo, a global provider of video streaming software and services, and MediaKind, a world-leading video technology company and the number one independent provi...

03/09/2026

14 Percent of live sports viewers have considered switchi...

International research from Big Blue Marble puts a consumer churn number against a technical failure, and sets out what streaming providers must fix before 2030...

03/09/2026

Broadpeak expands CDNaaS for streaming at scale with new...

High-performance points of presence power video streaming delivery to large audiences across Latin America with guaranteed quality of experience Broadpeak , a ...

03/09/2026

Dalia Delivers New Agentic Workflows Changing How Media W...

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, will unveil the next evolution of Dalia at IBC2026 (7.A43), its media-aware agent...

03/09/2026

CGI showcases AI-assisted newsroom and radio workflows pa...

CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the world's largest independent IT and business consulting services firms, will showcase CGI OpenMedia Evolve and CGI d...

03/09/2026

LiveU Joins IBC Accelerator Smart Stories Consortium to D...

LiveU is participating in the IBC Accelerator Incubator 2026: Smart Stories The New Knowledge Architecture for Content Production, an industry-wide initiative...

03/09/2026

Christer Palsson brings global experience to Broadcast So...

Broadcast Solutions, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast and media industry, has taken another major step in its...

03/09/2026

Quortex brings AI and IP transition into focus at IBC 202...

Quortex today announced that it will showcase how it is accelerating innovation and the transition to IP at IBC 2026. The company will debut its newest intellig...

03/09/2026

Grass Valley Names Ronny Van Geel Vice President Of Cameras

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/09/2026

VisualOn and EZDRM Enable Visualization of C2PA Provenanc...

The EZDRM approach to Revenue Security on streaming video can be visualized as a multi-dimensional set of solutions. A growing dimension of that approach is the...

03/09/2026

Kiloview Brings Hybrid AV-over-IP to Life at IBC 2026 wit...

From field capture to management, control and production, Kiloview will demonstrate one connected Hybrid AV-over-IP workflow including a complete 4RU producti...

03/09/2026

Mediagenix Curation Unlocks Greater Catalog Value Through...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced Mediagenix Curation, a new...

03/09/2026

LucidLink brings distributed media into active workflows...

LucidLink, the Emmy-winning cloud-native file streaming platform for instant, secure access to large files, today announced the next step in its vision to make ...

03/09/2026

Fraudulent communications purportedly from Screen Australia

Fraudulent communications purportedly from Screen Australia 3 September 2026 Screen Australia is aware of scam attempts involving fake emails and promotional m...