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Alicia Linkhorn
Boudreau
ENC 2135
15 November 2016
Music from Within the Screen
We live in a society that is based around consumerism. Advertisements help promote
consumerism by using several marketing techniques that help promote a specific item, person, or
place. But what is it that makes certain advertisements more effective than others. We can see
that one marketing technique is executed by the addition of music in televised advertisements.
Whether the music is in the form of a jingle on a commercial selling a brand of cat food or in the
form of an instrumental selling a car or even in the form of a popular song in a commercial for a
new television show, music has an impact on marketing.
Advertising has been around since humans learned to speak. However, music wasnt
introduced into advertisement until electronic media was developed (Huron, par 8). The joining
of images and music had social and psychological motivations (Huron, par 10). These
advertisements are known as commercials. Music has been shown to affect a person mood and
behavior. So as advertisements adapted with technology, the music within the advertisements
adapted to what was popular. Popular music is used to attract public attention towards
commercial products (Strachan, par 1). The music in an advertisement can come in any form. It
may take the form of specially composed music, songs or jingles, or of existing popular music
or songs...to promote a particular product, (Strachan, par 1).
The person who chooses the music in any form of media is known as a music
supervisor. Background music can be a sorts of first impression, especially when it comes to

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commercials that are promoting a brand new show. You dont fall in love with a show until it
airs, however a commercial promoting a new show can catch your attention through the use of
music. The audience that the show is trying to target will contribute to the song that is chosen
for the background music.
When you look at cable today, you can notice how commercials have taken over nearly
every channel. For an hour long program about fifteen to twenty minutes are allotted to present
commercials that promote nearly anything. This is where music has a very important part on
television advertisements. Music contributes to the effectiveness of the advertisement, whether
if the advertisement is trying to sell a product or promote a new show. There are basic ways
music contributes to the effectiveness of advertisements, these ways are known as entertainment,
structure, memorability, lyrical language, targeting, and establishment of authority (Anderson,
par 11).
There is a blog post written by entrepreneur Danny Greer that outlines why music is
essential to television commercials. For upcoming business that know little about advertising,
but wishes to have a television ad, this blog post gives a good idea on why adding music to their
advertisement would be a great idea. It is easy accessible to anyone and Greer does an amazing
job at pinpointing the major benefits that music has to a commercial. Greer lists five benefits
that music can add to a televised advertisement. Similar to what Anderson said Greer includes
the benefit of entertainment, creating structure and continuity, makes the commercial memorable,
and of helping target key demographics (Greer, par 1). One thing that Greer differs from
Anderson is through the benefit that music speaks to the emotion.
The following statements are made based on my personal observations of different
commercials I have seen on television that use music and demonstrate musics benefits listed by

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Greer. In terms of entertainment, music is made for entertainment, it keeps a person engaged in
what is going on. The benefit of entertainment can and usually will mix well with the benefit of
emotions. Music is usually written for the purpose of connecting people with the artist.
Emotional barriers are broken in order to create that kind of bridge. This is key in many
commercials who try to evoke emotion. This is shown in many ASPCA commercials, but is also
shown in commercials advertising TV shows, for example for the new show This is Us, the use
of music is key to the commercial because it helps put viewers in a state of emotion.
The way a commercial becomes more memorable through the use of music can be shown
in many commercials that use short jingles, this is shown especially in the commercial that sell
Chia-Pets, their jingle is very well known. The memorability can also come from a popular
song, if you notice a lot of the popular songs that we have now a days, follow a same musical
pattern that is very memorable and help it become popular.
The idea that music can help in targeting key demographics comes from the idea of using
certain popular songs to connect to the target audience. For example if you are trying to connect
with an audience from the 70s you would use different music than that when trying to connect
with a group from today. You can see this in Sprites The Spark televised advertisement that
use rapper Drake and his famous song Forever. Sprites use of the song and rapper is to create
a creditability over the product. Most people know what Sprite is, and as well as knowing who
Drake is. The advertisement basically shows how Drake is in the studio recording his song
Forever. In the commercial it show Drake having a hard time record until he drank a bottle of
Sprite and was able to perform his song. It was as though Sprite gave him the spark in order to
do his job. The musician and his music speak a young audience, and by using this song created a
better way for the company to speak to their target audience.

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You see many marketing companies use famous actors and musicians to promote their
brand. This is another tactic used by marketers in order to sell their product. They use someone
that people trust and relate to in terms of listening to their music. In many commercials using
musicians, you can hear that they also play their music in the background. Similar to the
aforementioned The Spark commercial, you see this tactic also used in Sarah McLachlans
ASPCA commercial. The commercial is used to inform people of the hardships of animals that
suffer abuse from their previous owners. They use a series of informative slides intertwined with
sad pictures of animals to spark emotion. At the same as this they play Sarah McLachlans song
In the Arms of an Angel to spark even more emotion. Following the sad pictures with the
equally sad song, they show the famous musician holding an animal, with her song in the
background as she tells you how you can help. The marketers do this with many ASPCA
commercials where they use her and her other sad songs in order to raise the donation amount to
the ASPCA foundation. In this commercial the marketers were able to hit every rhetorical
appeals used for persuasion. The marketers of the ASPCA commercial keyed into these
rhetorical strategies by using not only Sarah McLachlans song, but also uses the musician
herself. By using Sarah McLachlans song In the Arms of an Angle the marketers are using
this song to invoke emotion. By using the Sarah McLachlan as the spokesperson the marketers
are using the by establishing creditability by using a well-known music artist.
In Sarah McLachlans commercial of ASCPA we see that music has an effect on the
emotional behavior of humans. Music was used as a central component in the process of
associating products with particular life styles and attitude (Strachan, par 5). Music has a high
impact on human emotions. We see this everyday listening to music. Music artist create music
in order to connect with their listeners, they try to create something that everyone can relate too.

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This is why you see certain songs become so popular, because they are relatable. This can be
shown in many instances from listening to songs about heartbreak during a break up or listening
to upbeat music when you get a promotion. Music flows with the human emotions. No matter
what you are feeling, there is a song that puts that feeling into words. Its kind of like magic the
feeling you can get when listening to a song. It is no wonder music is played in the background
of advertisements. Advertisements are made to promote a product, the best way to do this is to
set a person in the mood you wish to relay, for something that you want to promote as happy one
can easily use an upbeat song in a major key to relay positive vibes, to promote a sad product
such as in the ASPCA commercial mentioned earlier one would present a slow paced song in a
minor key with lyrics that arent too happy. Music has an emotional impact on television
commercials (Wintle, par 3).
The Association for Consumer Research posted two stories about the effect that music
has on visual advertisements. They also posted a piece about music television and how it affect
consumer culture. Music television has influenced advertisements in many ways, they have
created an emotional viewing context in which a consumer looks at an advertisement (Englis, par
2). Most people know of the highly recognized music television known as MTV. While MTV is
no longer the way it used to be, back when the channel first aired back in 1981, MTV showcased
many music videos (Englis, par.3). MTV targeted the younger population, the ads that were
presented with the videos were then targeted at that age group as well (Englis, par 5). In
advertisement music is viewed as an important background feature because of its wide use and
ability to enhance viewer arousal and affect (Morris, par 1).
Gerald Gorn decided to test whether subjects were more likely to select a specific color
pen if that pen was paired with pleasant rather than unpleasant music (Kellaris, page 113). His

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finding concluded that, in fact, were more likely to pick the pen if paired with pleasant music
(Kellaris, page 113). We then see Kellaris and Cox replicate Gerald Gorns experiment due to
much controversy on the matter. In each of the three experiments performed by Kellaris and
Cox, you can see that the pen advertised with a high music appeal was always chosen slightly
more than any other option (Kellaris, page 114 117). However the results concluded that
Gorns findings were incorrect (Kellaris, 117). They went through three experiments and results
came to be similar to Gorn, even in Experiment 3 which was a near replica of Gorns experiment
showed there to be no conditioning effects (Kellaris, 117). While this experiment was tested
on pens, it is possible to replicate on different products. The study can show that the use of
music in ads does not have an effect on the whether or not the pen would be sold.
So it must be understood that no matter what the person, place, or thing that an
advertisement is trying to sell music wont change the product. There was a study that showed
that music in an advertisement had no effect in brand attitude and purchase intent, but did show
to have an effect on emotional response (Morris, par 2). For the most part if a person wants
something, they are going to get it, no matter what music is playing in the background. Music
just enhances the emotional connection to a certain product, and it makes the advertisement
simply more entertaining.
We now live in a world where attention spans have shortened and we want everything
now. It comes down to the fact that we dont want to watch advertisements because it takes up
too much time. You can find more and more people moving from cable to products such as
Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO now due to not having commercials. Reported by Forbes
Magazine, Millennials are the ones that are cutting cable out of their lives (Hughes, par 1).
Products like these dont have commercials, and they are constantly creating new shows, making

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cable seem to be useless. When you dont have to suffer through advertisements, these products
seem like the best deal out there. Theres also the option of recording a show and being able to
fast forward the commercials given from your cable provider for a higher price. Even in
products such as YouTube an advertisements can be skipped within the first five seconds. These
visual advertisements are beginning to be hated by many, but its possible that music might be
their savior. By using music, especially popular music, advertisements could be more enjoyable
to watch.
You see, songs may be used in commercials to connect with the audience, but sometimes
commercials are used to connect people with new music. As soon as an advertisement plays
besides seeing whats going on you hear what is going on. If its a song or melody that you like
you are more prone to staying and watching the full advertisement. Ed Reyes said that music is
discovered through different channels now (Anderson, par 2). This is very true, in Tim
Andersons article, he gives the reader a quote that shows how a college student and her friends
learned of different songs and bands due to their favorite show (Anderson, par 1). In reference to
the music being played in the show, the student said It was stuff that really wasnt getting
played a lot or at all on the radio. Thats how a lot of people I know got into Death Cab,
(Anderson, par 1). Using television to connect with new music is very easy, it is one of the best
ways to keep up with the best and new music. And now with apps such as Shazam finding out
what song is playing is simple, with one click of a button you let the app listen to the ad and in
seconds you know what song is in the background. Even EW, an entertainment magazine, once
and a while posts a series of commercials and the songs played within them, so just in case
Shazam doesnt work, the most popular songs in the most popular commercials can be easily
accessed (Rahman). Everyday music changes, when a music style changes the use of a specific

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song in marketing changes. Marketers wish to stay on top of popular music in order to connect
the target audience. You see this use of music in many commercials advertising Chevy,
Samsung, and even the University of Phoenix (Rahman).
Word by mouth is the longest living form of advertising, it works, and its much cheaper
than making a commercial. But theres a market for commercials, and in a society based off of
consumerism, why would we [our society] get rid of commercials when it makes so much
money. So by making commercials with music youre not only connecting with your target
audience to a certain degree, but you also are possibly connecting them to new music. The
addition of music to advertisements might just be the technique that saves televised
advertisements.

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Self-Reflection
I feel like my paper did reflect my interest on the subject manner. I have a high interest
in advertising because it just seems to be something that is everywhere. Advertising isnt just on
TV, online, or posters. Its actually everywhere, and you are constantly advertising yourself
every day to strangers. Then theres the factor that one day, I personally want to own a business,
and knowing how to create the perfect advertisement will come in handy. Music can help create
the perfect advertisement. And it doesnt just stop there. I think that is what surprised me the
most. The fact that we use music to connect people to the product were advertising is interesting
to me by itself, but then you bring the fact that advertisements connect people to new music
amazes me. It wasnt something I had ever thought of and now personally I find myself hearing
songs in commercials or in a television show and I am adding them to my playlist. My research
question did change it really went from how does music affect television to how does music
affect advertising in television. It evolved into something I didnt really think at first, when I
first started I had the mentality of researching how songs were chosen for specific scenes
especially in one of my favorite TV show One Tree Hill, but then it changed to how music
affects advertising, which evolved into the idea of how music could possibly save advertisements
in the way of making them more likable. At first I mainly struggled with finding what was
surprising to me, but once I found it things kind of fell into place. My sources were helpful, they
really taught me things that I didnt know and I felt like using them really brought the whole
paper together. I think I am going to be okay for Project 3, personally I do believe that Project 3
will be easier simply because as much as I love writing and researching, I love creating and I feel
like Project 3 is really going to help me show my creative side better. So for the genres for
Project 3 I am thinking about making a sculpture, comic strip, poem, a short film based off a

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recipe, and a commercial, to be honest I have a lot of ideas that could work, I just really have to
narrow them down. I am going to be expanding on the idea of music being a savior to
advertisements and cable. I am going to get my points across differently and I will be adding
some surprise to Project 3. I think I am going to carry over the basic ways that music helps with
the effectiveness of an advertisement over to Project 3. I am still quiet interested in what I am
working on, I feel like the more I write the more exciting the topic gets.

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Works Cited
Anderson, Tim. "From Background Music To Above-The-Line Actor: The Rise Of The Music
Supervisor In Converging Televisual Environments." Journal Of Popular Music
Studies 25.3 (2013): 371-388. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.
Greer, Danny. "Five Ways Music Will Enhance Your Television Advertising." The Beat A Blog
by PremiumBeat. PremiumBeat, 04 May 2012. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.
Hughes, Mark. "The Millennial Trends That Are Killing Cable." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 21
Mar. 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2016.
Huron, David. "Music in Advertising: An Analytic Paradigm." The Musical Quarterly 73.4
(1989): 557-74. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.
Kellaris, James J., and Anthony D. Cox. "The Effects of Background Music in Advertising: A
Reassessment." Journal of Consumer Research 16.1 (1989): 113-18. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.
Morris, Jon D., and Mary Anne Boone. "The Effects of Music on Emotional Response, Brand
Attitude, and Purchase Intent in an Emotional Advertising Condition." Association for
Consumer Research. Association for Consumer Research, n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2016.
Ostleitner, Elena. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education 74 (1983): 88-90.
Web. 6 Oct. 2016
Rahman, Ray, and Kyle Anderson. "What's the Song? TV Ad Edition." Entertainment Weekly's.
EW, 1 Mar. 2013. Web. 1 Nov. 2016.
Rutgers, Basil G. "Music Television and Its Influences on Consumer Culture, and the
Transmission of Consumption Messages."Association for Consumer Research.
Association for Consumer Research, n.d. Web. 6 Oct. 2016.

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Strachan, Robert, and Marion Leonard. "Part I Social And Cultural Dimensions: 3. Social
Phenomena: Popular Music In Advertising." Continuum Encyclopedia Of Popular Music
Of The World 1.(2003): 312-318. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.