Music Function In Advertisement example essay topic

In this essay, I will begin with some historical aspect of advertising, since the early days where music was not used in advert until now music has become important parts of any television advertisements. Also I have chosen 2 television adverts to talk about the music that have been used and what did they functions in those adverts. Advertising is the means by which one group of people attempts to convince or attract another into purchasing a particular product or service. It differs from the sort of one-on -one sales pitch and individual might encounter at the point of sale in that it addresses a larger, more general audience. Advertising therefore differs largely from persuasive conversation insofar as it relies completely on mass media and so on wide spread social meanings rather than personal or individual motivations for purchasing.

Historically, advertising was first introduced in print media. Early newspapers were short broadsheets entirely filled with news text; newspaper revenues came only through reader subscription. The beginning of newspaper advertising created a dual revenue system in which income was gathered from both subscriber and advertisers. With the introduction of photography and photolithography, the illustrated news broadsheets gave birth to the modern magazine. While retaining a partial news orientation, the magazine fostered review, biographical pieces, analytic features, and photo spreads. More important, technical innovations permitted more complicated advertising, employ eye catching full-page photographs.

Approximately two third of newspaper and magazine revenues are now generated from the advertising. After all, the ads in newspapers or magazines are not accompanied by sound. Music can appear only in mass electronic media. However, if we examine the revenue situation for radio and television, it is clear that they are financially identical to controlled-circulation magazines. With the exception of some public broadcasting and pay TV, radio and television broadcasting is entirely supported by advertising revenues, it is possible to tell between the entertainment industry properly understood (the cinema, concert halls, discotheques, or repertory theatres) from commercial radio and television.

Like the controlled circulation magazine, commercial broadcasters are in the business of matching media markets to advertising needs. Entertainment is not the product, but is just a tool of the trade. The true product of broadcast media is the audience. And the true consumers are the advertiser.

Uses of music in Advertising Around sixty billion broadcast advertising hours encountered by North Americans each year, approximately three-quarters employ music in some way. Music can serve the overall promotional goals in one or more of several capacities. Six basic ways are identified in which music can add to an effective broadcast advertisement. 1) entertainment, 2) structure / continuity, 3) memorability, 4) lyrical language, 5) targeting and 6) authority establishment. 1) Entertainment Good music contributes to the effectiveness of an advertisement just by making it more attractive. A good ad engages the attention of an audience, and the simplest way of achieving this is to make it entertaining.

Historically, the use of music in advertising originated in early vaudeville, where music served to candy coat a spoken narrative sales pitch. Music served to engage listener's attention and render the advertisement less of an unwanted intrusion. The word entertainment means to engage the attention, or to draw interest. 2) Structure / continuity Music may also be employed in various structural roles.

Perhaps the most important structural role is in tying together sequence of visual images and / or a series of dramatic episodes, narrative voice-over, or a list of product appeals. This is the function of continuity. 3) Memorability To increase the memorability of a product or the product's name. It is one of the peculiarities of human audition and cognition that music tends to remain in the listener's mind. Despite the largely visual orientation of human beings, photographs and visual images do not infect human awareness to the same level that some melodies do. 4) Lyrical language A fourth technique of musical development is the use of lyrical language.

Vocal music permits the carriage of a verbal message in a non spoken way. Language utterances can sound much less na " ive or self indulgent when implied within a musical phrase rather than simply spoken. A person can respectably sing thins which would sound quite trite if said. 5) Targeting Musical style has long been identified with various social and demographic groups.

Musical style might therefore help in targeting a specific market. The style may function as a socioeconomic identifier, a device for addressing a specific audience. 6) Authority establishment Closely related to the targeting function is the use of music to enhance an ad's credibility, to establish its authority. Indeed, it may be the case that effective targeting is merely the result of proper authority is through expert testimony such as race car driver Jackie Steward advocating Ford motor cars, or expert endorsement such as Crest toothpaste's approval by the American dental Association. In the next paragraphs an example of television adverts chosen to be discussed how music function in advertisement. This first advert is an advert of a toothbrush brand Altrasonex.

The advert was shot in a hotel reception area. There is a beautifully dressed woman sitting on a sofa in the hallway. Suddenly there is a unfamiliar noise, this sounds squeaky and disturbing. The audience would not be able to identify where it is coming from as same as the other woman in the advert, the hotel staff. She looks questioning and trying to find out where the weird noise is coming from. A hotel concierge is pushing the trolley full of luggage's across the hallway, so the female hotel staff was looking at the trolley to see if the noise is coming from it.

As soon as the porter walked pass and off the screen, the noise is continuing. So the hotel staff turns around and checked the chair behind her to see if the noise is coming from it, then disappointed. So she hurriedly walked across the hallway to door, the sound of the footstep is suggesting that she is a rush. She swings the door in and out, it's not the door she reckons. Now we can see the beautifully dressed lady who is sitting on a sofa moving her tongue across her front teeth. And we found out that is where the squeaky noise came from.

Then the beautiful lady smiles as if she is having fun teasing the hotel staff. Then this next shot is not of the hotel, but a graphic image of the toothbrush showing how it works. There is a voice- over, introducing the product". New Altrasonex is the only toothbrush to use the altrasonex wave, which penetrates below the gum line. For a deep down clean that clinically proven for whiten teeth, get that Altrasonex squeaky clean feeling". The final shot was back to the hotel lobby, where the hotel staff is still looking confused, as she has not yet found out the cause of the strange noise.

We can here classical music playing softly in the background from the beginning to the end of the advert. Except for when there is a voice over selling the product. Classical music is probably used here to suggest that it is a hotel surroundings. It suggests a classy atmosphere, where the lady was beautifully dressed and the old man was also smartly dressed. Squeaky noise is supposed to be disturbing our ear, just like if you are listening to a classical piece and keep hearing this squeaky noise we well get really irritated just like the hotel staff. The use of music in this advert is might be to make it more attractive and to draw viewer's attention in to it as it will be so boring if there is no music in the background.

Another example is an advert of a portably CD player by Philips A man dressed in a comfortably outfit. T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms walked in to a gym, there is nor one else in the room. The environment is so quiet, suggest that there is nothing going on there, and no one else is there too. The only sound we can here was his footsteps. He is carrying something in his right hand. We cannot recognise what it was.

But as he gets closer, the camera zooms in to the object in his hand. There was a portable CD player by Philips. He opens it and inserts a CD in to it. Then he pressed play.

Suddenly dance music begins to play, and he put the earphones into both his ears and starts moving his head as he is extremely enjoy the music he is listening to. He starts lifting this dumbbell by one arm. Then after a while he looks at that arm and realises that it is now full with muscles. He smiled as if he is impressed, but then turn and look at his other arm, it is still thin and small he was amazed. As it is still small compares to the other one. Then there is a voice over, introducing the product.

It said" Philip expanding. 10 hours of music on one CD". This suggested that he was so involved wit the music and forget that he has been working out on one arm for so long. As a result one arm becomes exaggeratedly big and muscularly than another. The type of music used in this advert is dance music. Where they often played in a gym for people to who's working out.

This kind of music makes you become energetic and using this kind of music is probably for targeting a specific audience, and a specific age group. I think it should be targeting at the age between 18-30, the kind of music play in nightclubs. Music functions differently in each advertisement. This depends on the target audience, and produce that the advertiser is trying to sell. In conclusion music determines characters, expression, mood, atmosphere, transition, orientation and meaning.

Therefore when music is used in a television advertisement, it draw our attention to the advert itself and occasionally it even tell the story and help us to understand the intention of the advert.

Bibliography

Frith, S and Goodwin, a. ed. 'On Record' 1990 Gorman, C 'unheard Melodies' 1989 Paul Willis, 'The Golden Age' Trin T. Minh-Ha, 'Holes in the Sound wall' ', Judith Williamson The function of Art in Advertising' Mark Booth,' Jingle-Pepsi Cola hits the Spot' http; // web Chanel 4 adverts Chanel 5 adverts BBC 1 adverts BBC 2 adverts ITV adverts.