This paper is published in Volume-12, Issue-2, 2026
Area
Cognitive Neuroscience
Author
Anya Dayal
Org/Univ
The Shri Ram School, Haryana, India
Pub. Date
16 April, 2026
Paper ID
V12I2-1163
Publisher
Keywords
Earworms, Hook, Catchy, Popular Music, Impact of Music on Human Psychology.

Citationsacebook

IEEE
Anya Dayal. Understanding Popular Music: What Makes it Catchy?, International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, www.IJARIIT.com.

APA
Anya Dayal (2026). Understanding Popular Music: What Makes it Catchy?. International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology, 12(2) www.IJARIIT.com.

MLA
Anya Dayal. "Understanding Popular Music: What Makes it Catchy?." International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology 12.2 (2026). www.IJARIIT.com.

Abstract

Music is an emotional stimulus that reflects important human psychology of the listener based on their taste. It can also reveal the emotional state of humanity by referring to the most played or popular songs. It imprints on listeners a memory, which, if it is pleasing to the brain, tends to get replayed. This replay of a song in the brain is almost always a certain part of the song, known as the hook, and is known as an "earworm." Earworms are generally caused by a piece of music played by the listener that sounds catchy or intriguing to the brain. The purpose of this paper is to understand and analyse what features of a certain music piece influence its catchy quality, whether it is based on the lyrics, the melodies, the synth or acoustic quality, the gender of the artist, or a music video and various other factors. It does so by analysing the number of streams that a particular song has received, which shows the number of times people have listened to it due to its catchy nature.