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 ...

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...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

07/07/2026

Comcast's Sky to Acquire ITV Media and Entertainment

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/07/2026

Digital Alert Systems Details ATSC 3.0 EAS Capabilities to FCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/07/2026

New appointments to Screen Australia board

New appointments to Screen Australia board 7 July 2026 The Albanese Labor Government has made new appointments to the Screen Australia board. Dr Tania Chamber...

07/07/2026

The right team. The right time.' How The Killings at Parrish Station stuck to their creative guns.

The right team. The right time.' How The Killings at Parrish Station stuck t...

07/07/2026

July 06, 2026

Scripps Research scientists train the immune system to make antibodies against numerous HIV strains Preclinical findings mark progress toward a long-sought vacc...

06/07/2026

Inside OneSoccer's FIFA World Cup Ops: Canada's Soccer Network Goes Behind the Scenes for CanMNT's Historic Moment

Long-developed relationships and informal access, three production models, and c...

06/07/2026

Lumine Group Acquires Imagine Communications, Continues To Build Portfolio of Media Businesses

The deal follows Lumine's recent acquisition of Synamedia's video-networ...

06/07/2026

SVG All-Stars: Stuart Mitchell, Senior Coordinating Producer, Spectrum SportsNet LA

This former SportsCenter producer is shaping local-team studio coverage to surro...

06/07/2026

Case Study: How IMS Productions and FOX Sports Scaled Coverage of the 109th Indianapolis 500

IMS Productions and FOX Sports deployed more than 100 cameras, 32 onboard feeds,...

06/07/2026

Lumine Group Completes Acquisition of Synamedias Video Network Business

Lumine Group Inc. has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Video Network Business from Synamedia. The business will operate as a standalone compan...

06/07/2026

NASCAR and Motorsport Network Announce Content and Commercial Partnership

NASCAR has announced a content and commercial partnership with Motorsport Network, a motorsports and automotive media platform, to distribute NASCAR original co...

06/07/2026

Versant To Acquire Full Swing for Approximately $530 Million

Versant Media Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Full Swing, a sports technology company, from Bruin Capital and a group of minority investor...

06/07/2026

DAZN Secures Global Rights to 3ICE Hockey

DAZN has announced global broadcast rights to 3ICE, a professional hockey format featuring three skaters and a goalkeeper per side, with no power plays or offsi...

06/07/2026

Synth Anthology 5 From UVI

Bundle gains 100 new synths & more Synth Anthology 5 the largest and most feature-packed edition of UVI's hardware synth emulation bundle, bringing toge...

06/07/2026

MOTU 16A, 848 & 10pre gain Milan certification

Available now via free firmware update MOTU have just announced that three of their popular audio interfaces now boast official Milan Certification. The 16A...

06/07/2026

Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Communications System

Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Co...

06/07/2026

The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the quality of packaged goods in real time

The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the ...

06/07/2026

INVITATION FOR SOUTH AFRICAN FILMMAKERS TO SUBMIT FILMS FOR THE 99TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS (OSCARS) INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM CATEGORY

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...

06/07/2026

Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice President, Operations

Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice Pre...

06/07/2026

Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development

Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development Brie Clayton July 6, 2026 0 Comments The strategic new appointment supports...

06/07/2026

Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve

Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve Michael Cioni July 6, 2026 0 Comments This is a step-by-step guide that demonstrates how to setup your...

06/07/2026

Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro

Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro Colin Smith July 6, 2026 0 Comments Here I showcase the innovative automatic caption translation f...

06/07/2026

Flavor's FirstEver Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Executive Producer Kate Smith Rises to Lead the Studio

Flavor's First Ever Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Execu...

06/07/2026

How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat

How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might think...

06/07/2026

Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with the first drop

Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with ...

06/07/2026

NVIDIA and Hugging Face Bring New Models and Frameworks to LeRobot for the Open Robotics Community

Open source AI has shown how quickly developers can innovate when models, data a...

06/07/2026

Techtel debuts insyght: making ST 2110 media discovery easy

Techtel debuts insyght: making ST 2110 media discovery easy intellisphereinsyght2026 6 July Written By Suzanne Costello Sydney, Australia - 06 July 2026 T...

06/07/2026

Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a commercial streaming champion for the UK

Monday 6 July 2026 Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a ...

06/07/2026

Pico Lopes joins RT's FIFA World Cup 2026 Live panel

Fresh from his World Cup heroics with Cabo Verde, Roberto Pico' Lopes will join the RT panel for Argentina v Egypt tomorrow and for the England v Norway q...

06/07/2026

How Nations Are Deploying AI for Strategic Priorities

Nations have long invested in domestic infrastructure to advance their economies, protect and use their data, and take advantage of technology opportunities in ...

06/07/2026

How Open Models Are Driving AI Research

Every year, the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) reveals where thousands of AI researchers have decided to put their work. This year's ...

06/07/2026

New RT documentary The Girl in the Water follows one family's search for answers following the death of their 23-year-old daughter

A death can be unsuspicious, but it has to be explained What happened to Ke...

05/07/2026

Fox Sports AR/XR Studio Graphics Team Shows Power of Next-Generation Operations

We've gone to another level of integrating the graphics into the set architecture' - Zac Fields, SVP, Graphic Technology and Integration, FOX Sports...

05/07/2026

Free Behringer Synth Editor

Browser-based and desktop apps available Digital Sunset Studios have been busy working on an interesting project: a free software tool that provides compute...

04/07/2026

Inside OneSoccers FIFA World Cup Ops: Canadas Soccer Network Goes Behind the Scenes for CanMNTs Historic Moment

When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...

04/07/2026

Rhodes to launch the MK8/80AE

Celebrates company's 80th anniversary Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...

04/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program

Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program Brie Clayton July 3, 2026 0 Comments Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...

04/07/2026

iZotope Joins Boris FX

iZotope Joins Boris FX Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026 0 Comments iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

03/07/2026

VSL reveal Synchron Brass (muted)

New bundle & three Single Packs Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...

03/07/2026

London Symphony Orchestra upgrade LSO St Luke's

Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...

03/07/2026

Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV

Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV 3 July, 2026 Media releases National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...

03/07/2026

2023

1 February 2023 SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...

03/07/2026

Broadcast Solutions Acquires BFE

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

03/07/2026

AdClarity Expands CTV Offering to 20 Countries

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...