Happy Half Birthday, “Songs In My Head Upon Waking!”

My “Songs In My Head Upon Waking” turned six months old this week. That is 185 songs, for those of you who might be counting. My goal is to continue this project for the rest of the year, and then compile one giant playlist that has all the songs in it.

To commemorate getting this far, and also because I was curious about this phenomena and its persistence, I decided to dabble in some light research. First, I found out about “musical halluncinosis,” which sounded a little like what I might have, but after further reading, I learned that this afflicts mainly elderly and actual deaf people, and is more about truly hearing the music and not having it just going through your mind. This was relieving because apparently “Musical hallucinosis is commonly seen in persons with hearing loss, advanced age, brain disease, cognitive impairment, female gender, social isolation, a variety of localized lesions, and sometimes epilepsy.” (Mike Pennock, Nov. 16 2010)

Though the lazy, internet research I did this morning didn’t turn up an actual name for this condition, at least I’m not alone. I typed “song in head wake up” into a Google search and found there are lots of people with the same situation. Someone even, like me, recorded them, but the name they came up with was MUCH catchier (Morning Jukebox).  By searching through these forums and comments, I found a lot if interesting suggestions about what this all meant, including that the song in your head is some kind of prediction about things to come.

Most likely though (as I originally suspected), the song just has something to do with either my dream or my state of mind/being that day–even a subconscious one.  I don’t feel the same way this guy does:  “. . .it’s scary. That’s right, I said it, scary. Because when your mind is trying to tell you something that you don’t want to hear you have little choice but to listen, right?” More, I’m just curious, in a “Huh look at that” kind of way.What am I trying to tell myself when I wake up to “Love Shack” by the B-52s, or Eddie Money’s “Take me Home Tonight.” Huh.

Of course, I might just chalk it up to what this guy said:

“Maybe pink was right……… Maybe God is a DJ after all?”

Songs In my Head Upon Waking This Week:

“Dancing on my Own” by Robyn; “Spanish Makeover,” by Electrosound; “Spanish Makeover,” by Electrosound*; “Melancholy Hill,” by the Gorillaz; “Paint It, Black” by Sixth Finger; “Aeroplane Over The Sea,” by Neutral Milk Hotel; “Last Living Souls” by the Gorillaz

* and yeah REALLY what am I trying to tell myself when a song gets repeated?