Queen Classic Leads List of Most Addictive Songs

(Radio.com) The Queen classic "We Will Rock You" has topped the list of the 20 most addictive songs which was compiled by a team of researchers at the University of St. Andrews.

If you ever wake up with a certain song in your head and you can't shake it, well, you've got an earworm. As neurologist Oliver Sacks explained, they are those pesky bits of music that arise out of nowhere and get stuck in your head for hours or days on end.

The researchers have been studying the inexplicable phenomenon and they discovered an interesting fact: Queen's songs are some of the most addictive. Of the top 20 most addictive songs, Queen made the list three times with "We Will Rock You" coming in at number one (via NME).

Researcher Bede Williams told NME an earworm depended upon five key factors: surprise, predictability, rhythmic repetition, melodic potency and receptiveness (how the listener feels about the song). "If you look at the songs which emerged from the research, they all have a distinctive rhythmic fingerprint. If we remove the melody, they're still recognizable by their rhythm alone," Williams said. Read more and see the list here.

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Copyright Radio.com/CBS Local - Excerpted here with permission.

Queen Classic Leads List of Most Addictive Songs

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