Music in advertising
Encyclopedia
Music in Advertising means integrating music in (mass) electronic media
advertisements
in order to enhance its success. Music for this purpose provides different characteristics which makes it especially interesting for usage in advertisements.
and ways of life and communication
.
Entertainment
The entertainment
aspect of music
helps making an advertisement more appealing to the viewer by simply making it more attractive respectively more aesthetic. By this increase in attractiveness an advertisement is able to engage more attention. From this point of view “music need not necessarily manifest any special affinity with a particular product or service in order to play an effective and useful function.” The music functions more as bridge between viewer and advertisement in this case.
Structure and Continuity
Another basic attribute of music is to support an advertisements structure and continuity. Therefore “music is used to mediate between disjoint images” Also it can emphasize dramatic moments within the advertisement. Accompanying i.e. a TV commercial music structures the told narrative, can tell a narrative
itself or function as anchor which completes the overall meaning. It can i.e. create antagonist
and protagonist
within this narrative by giving them typical musical figures, harmonies or melodies.
Memorability
It is far more likely to memorize a piece of music than spoken language
or images because “music tends to linger in the listeners mind.” “Early advertising music also had different aims. Music then was primarily used as a mnemonic
device. Rhyme and reception were enlisted to keep a brand name in mind. ‘Singing commercials’ or jingle
s made up a self-contained genre.” Huron adds that it is “the most common musical technique for aiding memorability and hence product recall
.” Companies use these for example to make the customers remember their phone number, webpage, their company name or at least a catchy slogan
linked to the brand. But also non-jingle music can perform this task and stick in the customers mind.
Lyrical Language
In contemporary adverts the advertisers must overcome the viewer’s skepticism
which developed over years through desensitization
. This can become a pretty hard task. But since advertisers favor mostly poetic, emotional appeals over logical, informational appeals due to the shift from modern to postmodern advertisement music turned out to be a perfect tool to reach this goal. Music can provide a message without the customer consciously noticing it. For providing rational facts in the same time “mixtures of speech and song provide advertisers with opportunities for both logical, factual appeals [through spoken and written language] and emotive, poetic appeals [through music].”
Targeting and Authority Establishment
Different types of music can be attributed to certain kind of groups or life styles which makes it possible to appeal to these groups over using certain kinds of musical genres. Music can therefore function as a “nonverbal identifier” for certain groups with different musical taste because it is “arguably the greatest tool advertisers have for portraying and distinguishing various styles.”
Looking at these contributions of music towards advertisement it becomes obvious that these attributes work together in inseparable ways. Of course there could be added other categories. There is for example a difference between diegetic (the source of the music is visible) and non-diegetic (the source of the music is not visible) use of music which can have totally different effects in result depending on the adverts context. The overall task of advertisers nowadays should be to develop a “considerable practical experience in joining images and music to social and psychological motivation
” and by this process create meaning which appeals to the target group
and helps the advertisement to succeed.
or popular culture
oriented customers. The reason is that “musical styles and genres offer unsurpassed opportunities for communicating complex social or attitudinal messages practically instantaneously.” One could literally say that music is worth a thousand words. That’s why music became more and more important to advertisers. They have the chance to transfer specific characteristics connoted to certain musical types to their products. “Music now is more often employed as ‘borrowed interest’ capturing a feeling, setting a mood, recalling past experiences and playing them back on behalf of the sponsor
s.” All these attributes help an advertisement appealing to the life world or lifestyle of the targeted group.
And of course “music transfers its own attributes to the story line and to the product, it creates coherence, making connections that are not there in the words or pictures; it even engenders meanings of its own […] the music interprets the words and pictures.” It is obvious that a brand’s, product’s or service’s value is enhanced by the connection to music. It adopts meanings which are inherent in the music because “the object itself is not enough to sell it; it must also be linked to some sort of personal meaning, the very essence of branding.” That means that a brand or product has to pick up some kind of connotation which is added by the music. Also a certain artist can change or shape an advert so that it fits a certain target group. “Advertising is not about what the product does but who the consumer is” and so advertisements have to find a good balance between adopting meaning from a used musical piece or artist and providing context in return to become authentic. Both the music and the advertisement can benefit from this symbiosis
. There are artists and music bands that became famous through having their music inside of adverts which can in return mean to sacrifice their music to the brand.
“The joining of music culture, through either a licensed track or the appearance of an artist, with a product or service in a commercial brings new connotations to both artist [and also the music] and company while naturalizing the relationship between the two. The value of articulating popular music
to a product can be seen as especially important to advertisers competing with products similar, if not identical, in use-value.”
Music beds make it possible for a voice over to be spoken over the top, without the spoken words being interfered with by the sung vocals. For this reason, companies usually have different cuts of their jingle, so they can use each of the different versions for different purposes, depending on the context.http://jinglemonster.com.au/2011/02/music-bed-definition/
Electronic media
Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user to access the content. This is in contrast to static media , which today are most often created electronically, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end-user in the printed form...
advertisements
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
in order to enhance its success. Music for this purpose provides different characteristics which makes it especially interesting for usage in advertisements.
The Function of Music in Advertising
Music can fulfill several tasks when it is used in advertisements. David Huron therefore chooses six categories in which “music can serve the overall promotional goals in one or more of several capacities.” Mostly the use of music is not only intended by one of the following attributes but they are interdependent and interrelated to each other. The categories he claims are described as follows. also music can show the ways of life and different types of cultureCulture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and ways of life and communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
.
Entertainment
The entertainment
Entertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
aspect of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
helps making an advertisement more appealing to the viewer by simply making it more attractive respectively more aesthetic. By this increase in attractiveness an advertisement is able to engage more attention. From this point of view “music need not necessarily manifest any special affinity with a particular product or service in order to play an effective and useful function.” The music functions more as bridge between viewer and advertisement in this case.
Structure and Continuity
Another basic attribute of music is to support an advertisements structure and continuity. Therefore “music is used to mediate between disjoint images” Also it can emphasize dramatic moments within the advertisement. Accompanying i.e. a TV commercial music structures the told narrative, can tell a narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
itself or function as anchor which completes the overall meaning. It can i.e. create antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
and protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
within this narrative by giving them typical musical figures, harmonies or melodies.
Memorability
It is far more likely to memorize a piece of music than spoken language
Spoken language
Spoken language is a form of human communication in which words derived from a large vocabulary together with a diverse variety of names are uttered through or with the mouth. All words are made up from a limited set of vowels and consonants. The spoken words they make are stringed into...
or images because “music tends to linger in the listeners mind.” “Early advertising music also had different aims. Music then was primarily used as a mnemonic
Mnemonic
A mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...
device. Rhyme and reception were enlisted to keep a brand name in mind. ‘Singing commercials’ or jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
s made up a self-contained genre.” Huron adds that it is “the most common musical technique for aiding memorability and hence product recall
Product recall
A product recall is a request to return to the maker a batch or an entire production run of a product, usually due to the discovery of safety issues. The recall is an effort to limit liability for corporate negligence and to improve or avoid damage to publicity...
.” Companies use these for example to make the customers remember their phone number, webpage, their company name or at least a catchy slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
linked to the brand. But also non-jingle music can perform this task and stick in the customers mind.
Lyrical Language
In contemporary adverts the advertisers must overcome the viewer’s skepticism
Skepticism
Skepticism has many definitions, but generally refers to any questioning attitude towards knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, or doubt regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere...
which developed over years through desensitization
Desensitization
Desensitization can refer to:* Desensitization * Desensitization * Desensitization * Desensitization of explosives, see Phlegmatized...
. This can become a pretty hard task. But since advertisers favor mostly poetic, emotional appeals over logical, informational appeals due to the shift from modern to postmodern advertisement music turned out to be a perfect tool to reach this goal. Music can provide a message without the customer consciously noticing it. For providing rational facts in the same time “mixtures of speech and song provide advertisers with opportunities for both logical, factual appeals [through spoken and written language] and emotive, poetic appeals [through music].”
Targeting and Authority Establishment
Different types of music can be attributed to certain kind of groups or life styles which makes it possible to appeal to these groups over using certain kinds of musical genres. Music can therefore function as a “nonverbal identifier” for certain groups with different musical taste because it is “arguably the greatest tool advertisers have for portraying and distinguishing various styles.”
Looking at these contributions of music towards advertisement it becomes obvious that these attributes work together in inseparable ways. Of course there could be added other categories. There is for example a difference between diegetic (the source of the music is visible) and non-diegetic (the source of the music is not visible) use of music which can have totally different effects in result depending on the adverts context. The overall task of advertisers nowadays should be to develop a “considerable practical experience in joining images and music to social and psychological motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
” and by this process create meaning which appeals to the target group
Target Group
Target Group is a provider of software and outsourcing solutions to financial services and insurance companies. It specialises in delivering business solutions to the following markets: loans and mortgages, investments, general insurance, utilities and finance brokers.Target operates...
and helps the advertisement to succeed.
Interaction of Music and Brand
In general one could say that music can be altered in meaning depending on its context. This is of course an opportunity for advertisers to create meaning for their brand by employing musical pieces for their own interest. But music has “a potential for the construction or negotiation of meaning in specific contexts.” That means that some music can match better with one type of products than with another type. Different musical types can i.e. target high cultureHigh culture
High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture...
or popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
oriented customers. The reason is that “musical styles and genres offer unsurpassed opportunities for communicating complex social or attitudinal messages practically instantaneously.” One could literally say that music is worth a thousand words. That’s why music became more and more important to advertisers. They have the chance to transfer specific characteristics connoted to certain musical types to their products. “Music now is more often employed as ‘borrowed interest’ capturing a feeling, setting a mood, recalling past experiences and playing them back on behalf of the sponsor
Sponsor
To sponsor something is to support an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. A sponsor is the individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor.-Definition:...
s.” All these attributes help an advertisement appealing to the life world or lifestyle of the targeted group.
And of course “music transfers its own attributes to the story line and to the product, it creates coherence, making connections that are not there in the words or pictures; it even engenders meanings of its own […] the music interprets the words and pictures.” It is obvious that a brand’s, product’s or service’s value is enhanced by the connection to music. It adopts meanings which are inherent in the music because “the object itself is not enough to sell it; it must also be linked to some sort of personal meaning, the very essence of branding.” That means that a brand or product has to pick up some kind of connotation which is added by the music. Also a certain artist can change or shape an advert so that it fits a certain target group. “Advertising is not about what the product does but who the consumer is” and so advertisements have to find a good balance between adopting meaning from a used musical piece or artist and providing context in return to become authentic. Both the music and the advertisement can benefit from this symbiosis
Symbiosis
Symbiosis is close and often long-term interaction between different biological species. In 1877 Bennett used the word symbiosis to describe the mutualistic relationship in lichens...
. There are artists and music bands that became famous through having their music inside of adverts which can in return mean to sacrifice their music to the brand.
“The joining of music culture, through either a licensed track or the appearance of an artist, with a product or service in a commercial brings new connotations to both artist [and also the music] and company while naturalizing the relationship between the two. The value of articulating popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
to a product can be seen as especially important to advertisers competing with products similar, if not identical, in use-value.”
Music Bed
A music bed is a part of a jingle, or alternatively the entire jingle, where there are no sung vocalist. In other words, if refers to a section where only instruments are heard.Music beds make it possible for a voice over to be spoken over the top, without the spoken words being interfered with by the sung vocals. For this reason, companies usually have different cuts of their jingle, so they can use each of the different versions for different purposes, depending on the context.http://jinglemonster.com.au/2011/02/music-bed-definition/