A new study purports to explain the kind of tunes we can’t seem to shake off.

Research at the School of the Arts & Media has shown 98 per cent of people have an experienced an earworm – i.e getting a song stuck in your head.

Empirical Musicology Laboratory professor and author of the report Emery Schubert told Ian Blackley on 6PR Afternoons it doesn’t matter if you love or hate a song: all tunes have equal chance of boring their way into your brain.

“When a song gets stuck in your head it plays over and over again, and it happens without conscious effort,” Professor Schubert said.

Press PLAY to hear more about how and why songs get stuck in your head