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Compared to the original story of “go-
ing to Louisiana with a banjo on the knee to
meet the true love”, the MIXUE version has
a plainer line. It simply, directly expresses
“love” in Chinese and writes itself instantly
into your memory with easy-going amiabil-
ity. The punchlines of each lyric and catchy
flows make the Chinese version easy to trip
off your tongue. In contrast, the absence of
such catchy elements waters down the En-
glish version.
However, not everyone is happy to buy
this earworm, with some complaining it as
“spiritual pollution”. Vicky Williamson, the
music psychologist from Goldsmiths, Uni-
versity of London, was once bothered by
such involuntary musical imagery . Accord-
[2]
ing to her research, music played by mixed
instruments can cause multi-sensory stimu-
lation, enhancing memory of messages car-
ried in the song. Professor James Kellaris
from University of Cincinnati defined such
feeling as “cognitive itch”. Interestingly,
listening to the whole song could reduce the
catchy effect, as music cuts around 20 sec-
onds exert the strongest earworm power. As
this length happens to be close to that of
MIXUE song, a viral spread is inevitable.

Earworm Going Viral times. If you have a close look at the danmu
(bullet screen) and comments, you may
On June 3, 2021, the milk tea brand notice that the word “familiar” shows up
MIXUE uploaded its theme song video on frequently. As many netizens recall, similar
Bilibili website after a month of silence. In melodies can be found in old-school Canton-
the 25-second video, cute animation accom- ese opera films and Hong Kong songs from
panies a catchy twice-repeated 8-bar song . the last century; the melody was even once
[1]
Two days later, a new 104-second video in- recomposed by Li Jinhui, the Father of Chi-
cluding the English version was posted. As of nese pop, and recorded in Wang Renmei’s
August 1, the shorter video has been played album “Don’t cry, Su San” in 1933. Dating
over 5 million times, and the longer one 1.75 back to the very beginning, the original
million times. melody comes from the globally-viral Oh!
Over the last two months, the two vid- Susanna created in 1847 by Stephen Collins
eos were recreated by clever netizens. The Foster and released in the next year. When
songs were translated into 20 languages from talking about the earworm milk tea song,
14 countries, and even got mixed with Peking maybe it is more proper to say the original Maybe it is more proper to say the
opera and electronic music. Most of these melody was catchy and thus got popular original melody was catchy and thus
innovative videos are played over 100,000 around the world.
got popular around the world.

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