Symptoms of a devastating epidemic struck my coworker Julia yesterday. She slumped forward on her desk, pressed her hands against her ears, and groaned, “Oh, it’s still in my head. It’s been there for days. It just keeps going and going and it won’t stop.”
This mysterious and severe affliction has swept across America and around the world. Parents are the population that suffers most.
It’s called “Let It Go,” and scientists have pinpointed Disney’s animated feature Frozen as the origin of the earworm.
To help Julia escape the song’s merciless grip, I quickly wrote her a prescription—specifically, last week’s installment of Listening Closer. It was loaded with links to other catchy songs that have become unpopular, melodies that might worm their way into her head and devour, or at least subdue, the “Let It Go” virus for a while.
But the conversation left me wondering: why “Let It Go”?
I’ve spelled out some reasons why I think the song caught on, and some reasons why we should question its widespread popularity, in my latest Listening Closer column over at Christ and Pop Culture.
And I’ve also recommended an alternative — a song that I argue will do us more good, even as it turns out to be a much better song all around.