The Top 20 Catchiest Songs of All Time, According to Science (Cnet.com)
"The catchiest song of all time has been revealed, and it ought to surprise absolutely no one. When it comes to recognisability, Spice Girls' "Wannabe" is number one, with users taking, on average, just 2.29 seconds to pick the song. The result was part of a year-long study, conducted by the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, UK. Users were directed to a special website where they could play an online game called Hooked on Music, which contained clips from 1,000 hit songs from the past 70 years. The game collected data from over 12,000 people, who, on average, found Wannabe the most recognisable song. The average overall time it took to recognise a clip was 5 seconds. 'You may only hear something a couple of times yet 10 years later you immediately realise that you have heard it before. Yet other songs, even if you have heard them a lot, do not have this effect.' - University of Amsterdam computational musicologist Dr Ashley Burgoyne." - cnet.com
avg. score: 15 of 20 (76%)
required scores: 1, 12, 15, 17, 19
