The 20 Catchiest Songs (According to Science)

The catchiest song is "Wannabe," by the Spice Girls! At least that's the conclusion researchers in the UK have come to after a year-long study.

In the experiment, developed by the UK's Museum of Science and Industry, people played an interactive online game called Hooked on Music, created by computational musicologist John Ashley Burgoyne and a team at the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht. The game contained 1000 clips of best-selling songs spanning seven decades, from the 1940s until the present day. There were four different ways to play, as Cnet describes:

Recognise that Tune, where users had to hum along with the track, continuing when the sound dropped out and gauging whether they were still in time when the sound resumed; What's the Hook, where users had to listen to two different clips from the same song and choose which clip was catchier; Time Trial, where users had to recognise as many songs as possible in three minutes; and In a Row, where users had to recognise as many songs in a row as they could.

Researchers analyzed the data of 12,000 participants, which revealed that, on average, it took users just 2.29 seconds to recognize "Wannabe." Here's the full list:

1. "Wannabe," Spice Girls - 2.29 seconds
2. "Mambo No. 5," Lou Bega - 2.48 seconds
3. "Eye of the Tiger," Survivor - 2.62 seconds
4. "Just Dance," Lady Gaga - 2.66 seconds
5. "SOS," ABBA - 2.73 seconds
6. "Pretty Woman," Roy Orbison - 2.73 seconds
7. "Beat It," Michael Jackson - 2.80 seconds
8. "I Will Always Love You," Whitney Houston - 2.83 seconds
9. "Don't You Want Me," The Human League - 2.83 seconds
10. "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," Aerosmith - 2.84 seconds
11. "Poker Face," Lady Gaga - 2.88 seconds
12. "MMMbop," Hanson - 2.89 seconds
13. "It's Now or Never," Elvis Presley - 2.91 seconds
14. "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet," Bachman-Turner Overdrive - 2.94 seconds
15. "Billie Jean," Michael Jackson - 2.97 seconds
16. "Karma Chameleon," Culture Club - 2.99 seconds
17. "Baby One More Time," Britney Spears - 2.99 seconds
18. "Devil in Disguise," Elvis Presley - 3.01 seconds
19. "Rivers of Babylon," Boney M - 3.03 seconds
20. "Candle in the Wind," Elton John - 3.04 seconds

The researchers hope to figure out not only what makes a song catchy but how musical memory works, which could help people with dementia. "There has already been some research that shows that if you can find the right piece of music, something that had a very strong meaning, playing that piece of music can be very therapeutic," game creator Burgoyne said. "But the challenge is figuring out what is the best piece of music."

[h/t The Science of Us]