Referential function of advertising music
Abstract
Music has the ability to immediately allude to and point out non-musical issues, as well as to provoke emotions. Integrating music in a message means combining several human languages. When studying the relationship between music and other contents of an advertising, we realize that languages with mainly aesthetic purposes are combined with other components that are mainly communicative –such as verbal content– to complete the meanings of the work and to give rhythm. Music reinforces meanings already expressed verbally and visually, but it can also bring new meanings. Although the simplest resource could be the use of recognizable musical works, the musical syntax hides tricks capable of challenging a wider audience. By a recurring association with non-musical elements, certain musical resources have the power to act as referents. The advertiser presumes a relative cultural and cognitive consensus among his target audience.
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