This experiment originated one day by me having the most annoying song stuck in my head. So, I decided that whenever a song got stuck in my head, I would whistle my favorite whistling song: The Girl From Impanima.
I began whistling that song a LOT because I was so focused on not getting any song stuck in my head that I would whistle that song without even thinking. Which made me think. "Hmm," I thinks to myself, "maybe I could use that against people. Make them so paranoid about getting a song stuck in their head that they get the song I want stuck in their head."
The testing began that week when a couple of friends came over for dinner. I had previously determined when and how to introduce the song into their heads. As we ate dinner, they talked and I schemed. When there was at least a 3-second lull, I began whistling softly "The Girl from Impanima", and stopped about 10 notes into it, and immediately started talking about something else, carrying on the conversation. Preparatory, I thought. After about 5 more minutes, I began whistling from note 5 to note 20. I stopped and immediately got up from the table and refilled my glass of water, whereupon I started the song over again. And that was it.
The first result was incredible. As I filled up my glass, the wife began humming The Girl from Impanima. I was so tickled that my persistence had paid off that I started laughing. I tried so hard to hold it in that I began to shake. Once I composed myself, I went out to the table again and sat back down. That's when her husband started humming it. I couldn't contain myself and started laughing.
To their credit, they knew right away why I was laughing and determined to not hum that song anymore. Perfect, I thought. Now I can start the second phase.
Phase 2 began about 10 minutes after they vowed to not hum that song. I made sure that we were doing something repetitive so that I could wedge my new song into their heads without them knowing. My target was the husband this time. As I victoriously dominated the first round of the card game (and my experiment), I triumphantly sang the Darth Vader theme song from Star Wars. The wife asked, "Are you singing the Darth Vader song?" Whereupon I replied, "Oh it's just stuck in my head." She smiled. It was too perfect, because I knew that if she identified the song, her husband wouldn't stand a chance not singing it.
As the second round of the game game was close to ending, I began quietly humming the Darth Vader song, and positioned the husband to win the round. (I had to sacrafice that round, but the satisfaction from this experiment heavily outweighed the satisfaction from winning.) When the husband won the round, he, with equal zeal and energy, began to shout the Darth Vader song.
The second test results were equally comical. He was humming it the rest of the night.
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Since that first test, I have introduced new techniques and tested situations, types of songs based on my "lab rat's" mood, presentation of the song, and methods of entry. As each person is unique, I had to adapt the tests to be more elaborate (or simple). But I am successful with every experiment, even if the people know what I'm doing. (Sometimes that helps)
My suggestion for your own experimentation of Head-Sticky Songs is this: identify a pattern in a person's behavior, detect the situation and timing of demonstrated mimicking behaviors, then exploit them.
My record for Head-Sticky exploitations is getting 4 songs stuck in one person's head in one night. Has anyone done better than this or figured out how to get past that threshold? If so, please let me know how.
Sometimes I think that I think too much. I'm still coming to a conclusion.
Since that first test, I have introduced new techniques and tested situations, types of songs based on my "lab rat's" mood, presentation of the song, and methods of entry. As each person is unique, I had to adapt the tests to be more elaborate (or simple). But I am successful with every experiment, even if the people know what I'm doing. (Sometimes that helps)
My suggestion for your own experimentation of Head-Sticky Songs is this: identify a pattern in a person's behavior, detect the situation and timing of demonstrated mimicking behaviors, then exploit them.
My record for Head-Sticky exploitations is getting 4 songs stuck in one person's head in one night. Has anyone done better than this or figured out how to get past that threshold? If so, please let me know how.
Sometimes I think that I think too much. I'm still coming to a conclusion.
