The science of why you can remember song lyrics from years ago

By Kelly Jakubowski, Associate Professor in Music Psychology, Durham University

Why is it that many people can’t remember where they put their car keys most mornings, but can sing along to every lyric of a song they haven’t heard in years when it comes on the radio? Do song lyrics live in some sort of privileged place in our memories?

Music has a long history of being used as a mnemonic device, that is, to aid the memory of words and information. Before the advent of written language, music was used to orally transmit stories and information. We see many such examples even today, in how…

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