Whenever a song that I like comes on the radio, I have no problem remembering the most specific of lyrics. However, when it comes to studying and memorizing information for school, I find that I have a much more difficult stuff getting it into my head and relaying it on tests, quizzes, and exams. I've asked my friends if they have the same problem and all of them agree.
What may seem a little puzzling first quickly becomes obvious if we take a closer look. The media is constantly playing popular songs. Commercials, movies, television shows, radio stations are constantly drilling the popular songs of the moment in our heads. This repetition is key in remembering the lyrics of a song. With school and studying, we could be doing this for hours, but only see a particular piece of information come up once or twice. The repetition of songs are far more constant in our lives than the information we are expected to learn and memorize and this is all thanks to media.
Another reason lyrics are so memorable as opposed to school subject related information, is because we can relate to them. Many songs are often about love: falling in love, being in love, falling out of love, being betrayed by a love one, etc. We can relate so much more to these songs on an emotional level than we can relate to a simple fact regarding history.
These are just my thoughts about why lyrics stick with us more than facts that I have thought of and typed up right off the bat. There are most likely many more reasons, both obvious and science related, but these are just the ones that seem pretty obvious to me.
This is so true! It is so much easier to remember things that we can actually relate and connect to! I will write a math song with all of the trigonometric identities and replay it over and over again like the songs on the radio and see if that will help me.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that it's easier to remember lyrics. I'm pretty sure that scientifically, it's easier to retain music than other things. However, I don't completely agree with the relating to the lyrics thing. I've never been in love, and many of our peers probably haven't either. Most of the lyrics to top ten songs I can't relate to. I think the combination of a tune and words help us to remember the words. When you can't think of a song, you hum it, you don't speak the lyrics, because the music stuck with you.
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