An earworm, sometimes known as a brainworm, is a catchy piece of music that continually repeats through a person's mind after it is no longer playing. Phrases used to describe an earworm include "musical imagery repetition", "involuntary musical imagery", and "stuck song syndrome". The word earworm is a calque from the German Ohrwurm. The earliest known usage is in Desmond Bagley's 1978 novel Flyaway.