The sound in the commercial
Sound in advertising: types, functions and contributions of meaning
by Mario Campanino
1
Foreword
In the field of television advertising, the idea of a soundtrack does not always correspond, in the concrete realization of the commercial, to the presence of a complete piece of music. It can be a musical fragment already known, a piece composed for the occasion, a clever mix of sounds and noises deriving from the mechanism or the plot, or even a mere "composition" of noises and environmental sounds or, in the extreme, a band of silence. For this reason, before entering into the reflections that we intend to propose here, it will be useful to dwell on two assumptions that should serve, we hope, to reinforce its validity. First of all, the adoption of the perspective that does not consider the separation between sound and noise as musically relevant, while being aware of the cultural and historical value of this difference. If the provocative experiences of Italian Futurism in the early twentieth century were not enough (the musician and poet Luigi Russolo was even responsible for the construction, in those years, of a series of instruments he called "intonarumori"), all the research and experimentation from the fifties onwards affirmed the identity of the two parties, which were unified, in theory and practice, under the all-encompassing category of "sound object".[2] Secondly, and consequently, what directs us here is the faith in that communicative power that sound (and from now on this should be read not as "musical sound" but as "any sound, including noises") has in itself, independently from all the symbolic or iconic references to which it can give rise, from all the associations between sounds and other cultural facts, historical and social facts of the world (distinct cultures, epochs, societies and social subgroups, places, specific moments in the life of every single individual), in short, in that specific sound of musical communication that we so much want to bring to light (or, at least, this is the most vivid intention of the writer) and then so much we tend to confuse with everything else.
Again, it is inevitable to premise that this attempt at classification, if it is to be an attempt at functional classification, must assume a framework of at least initial functions, of comparison, that the soundtrack can perform in the context of and in support of the advertising message, and therefore it is urgent to make it explicit.
The assumption could be described as follows: the task of the soundtrack is, in any case, to enhance the characteristics that, at least on paper, must distinguish a good advertisement. To this end, it may be useful to compare ourselves with Fabris' model of the four "i "s and four "c "s.[3] In this model, which is more the fruit of empirical observation than theory, the principal variables considered fundamental in the communicative process established by advertising are indicated: impact, interest, information, identification, comprehension, credibility, coherence, and conviction. What we want to ask ourselves, therefore, is whether the single characteristics can be in some way influenced by the soundtrack and, if possible, to what extent, knowing full well that the various aspects can be considered individually only in an analytical context, when in reality all these characteristics, and all these functions, can be present in various ways and at the same time.
In one of his most popular works, Sounds emotions meanings,[4] Michel Imberty concludes his research of a psychological semantics of music by pointing out those features of the sound flow that would induce in the listener the formation of meanings and senses: the unconscious one of the primordial emotions and the formal one of the complexity, speed, etc. of a piece of music. As much as we may not fully agree with some specific cues contained in his work, there is no doubt that this conclusion is, instead, as simple as it is shareable when it brings into play - tightening even more - the characteristics of the subject and those of the object, the personal, social, psychological history of the user and the external aspect of the sound stream he is listening to. Now, if everything concerning the listener exceeds at the same time our capacities and the aims of this paper, on the side of the characteristics of the object what we are asked is to make explicit the arguments which allow, at least in our perspective, to describe the sensitive configuration of the sound flow to which the listener is - more or less intentionally - exposed, and which determines the contributions of sense that the sound brings to the audiovisual message as a whole. And from this comes, therefore, our initial theoretical proposal, of a very general nature and applicable - in our opinion - to the whole world of sounds (and therefore, certainly, also to that small sub-world of soundtracks of commercials). The proposal is based on the conviction that everything we can hear must be included in no more than three dimensions of existence of the musical (or, more generally, sound) work (construct): the dimension of sonority pure and simple, the dimension of the form that one or more sounds can give rise to, and finally the dimension of inter-objectivity, i.e., the relationships that each sound object can have with other objects in the external world.
The ultimate aim of this work will be, therefore, to show how the explication of the guidelines that guide our descriptive approach - with respect to these three dimensions (three-dimensional description of the musical work?) - is equivalent to being able to analyze and know the flow of sound in relation to the induction or expression of senses and meanings in the musical field.
2
The dimensions of sound
What we have to face now, therefore, is an effort oriented to the selection of those characteristics of the sound which - first of all - should be considered in order to specify how it can contribute to the construction of the global sense of the audiovisual advertising message.[5] This effort will move according to the three dimensions announced in the Foreword: the dimension of sonority, that of articulations and finally that of inter-objective references. It should be noted that the recognition of the traits we are about to list can refer to more or less extensive fragments - in a temporal sense - of the sound object considered (ranging from small portions of it to the entire object), and that - in the case of several sounds produced simultaneously[6] - can refer to just one of the elements heard (the voice, in a context of voice accompanied by guitar), to sets of elements (the drums and electric bass, in a pop music base where this set contrasts with the guitars and keyboards) or to the overall whole (symphony orchestra in a fort at the end of a concert for piano and orchestra). The choice of proceeding from global considerations to more and more particular surveys will depend on the depth one wishes to give to this work of analysis.
The dimension of sonority
La sonority concerns aspects related to the materiality of sound. It will be easier to talk about it starting from an example related to another type of materiality. Let's imagine we are in front of a chair. Of this chair I can perceive the colour, the size, the heaviness of the material (or materials) of which it is made, the porosity, the greater or lesser opacity of the surfaces and their roughness. In addition, I can also recognize that it is made of wood, I can even know that it is walnut wood, and this is already a different process, which pertains more to the cognitive sphere than to the perceptive one (it makes use, in fact, of the subject's pre-knowledge) but in any case remains in the field of materiality - and helps me to place the object in the set of objects that have some traits in common with it. According to a completely analogous selection, I can therefore consider the materiality of sound by evaluating the following three main variables:
Weaving. It refers to that parameter of sound which is called, in traditional music theory, height. It is the characteristic that allows us to distinguish a high-pitched sound from a low-pitched sound, for example the chirping of birds in a forest from the rumble of thunder. In a piano, the highest sounds correspond to the keys on the right while the lowest sounds are produced by the keys on the left. This characteristic is largely determined by the size of the body that produces sound when it vibrates (in a piano, the strings on the left are progressively longer and thicker than those on the right) and physically corresponds to the vibration frequency of the sound source (number of vibrations per second). It is, of course, a relative dimension. The definition of low or high pitch is not absolute but valid if it has a reference term, for example, another sound. Therefore, I can say that a sound is higher or lower than another sound that I have heard before, but undoubtedly, we could say that the chirping of birds is "objectively" high-pitched and the sound of thunder is "objectively" low-pitched because they are actually at the opposite extremes of the range of sounds that we are used to perceiving every day. For ordinary human experience, then, there is a possibility of objectification of these terms.
The term weavingThis is because it is assumed that in most cases we are in the presence of a bundle of several pitches at the same time and not just one pitch at a time (several sounds together, superimposed, and not just one sound). Therefore, it is possible to identify high, medium and low pitches; pitches that are limited to precise areas of the entire range or that occupy several bands in a nuanced way; wide or narrow pitches.
Intensity. Intensity, a parameter that is also identified with the same name in traditional music theory, depends on the amplitude of sound vibration and determines what we commonly call the "volume" of sound. The concept of loudness can refer to that of strength, since we usually speak of "loud" and "soft" sounds (in music and on scores, the terms used are usually fort e plan). When listening to a sound flow, it can be easy to establish whether the intensity is high or low (in this case, too, we are in the presence of relative indications with the possibility of objectification in reality), but it will be more interesting to listen to the differences in the intensity of sounds in complex ensembles, with the play of predominance of some sounds over others, where the composer (or the performer) guides our perception (decides what he wants us to hear most) in the discovery of sound figures and backgrounds.
Roughness. Roughness is one of the traits through which can be described what, in traditional theoretical terminology, is called stamp of sound. Strangely enough, it is not easy to find a precise answer to the question "what is the timbre of sound" in the endless bibliography that deals with the characteristics of sound. The most common definition identifies timbre as "the colour of sound", but we could also say "the formal quality of the sound surface" (the imprint) that, upon perception, allows us to attribute sounds of equal pitch and intensity to different sound sources (a flute, a clarinet, an oboe; or the voice of Laura, Anna, etc.). Moreover, timbre is sometimes defined as "multidimensional" in the sense that it does not offer a single scale of quantities on which to measure its value (unlike pitch and intensity).
Roughness - a term that is unlikely to be found in sound theory textbooks - is the quality that in this context is intended to be evaluated and also allows for a more or less exact arrangement of timbres along a scale of magnitudes. It corresponds to the "grain of sound" and is perceived, on the side of auditory sensations, exactly as we can perceive the roughness of a surface (in the direction of coarse-grain ® fine-grain, we could for example list: tuff stone, wood, metal). On the side of sound perceptions, the sound of a distorted electric guitar will be rougher than that of a violin, which in turn will be rougher than that of a flute (this is in a very theoretical sense: the performer can do a lot to vary the roughness values of their sound). However, the roughness that interests us is also the roughness produced by several sounds that are produced simultaneously. Without going into complex examples (the closing of a piece by a typical hard rock instrumental group; the forte of a symphony orchestra), it is enough to think of a cluster piano (set of keys pressed simultaneously with the open hand or closed fist) produced on the left side of the keyboard.
According to this orientation, it will be possible to identify coarse or fine roughness (size of the grains) and high or low roughness ("atomic" intensity of the grains, i.e. the prominence that each grain has, perceptually with respect to the average intensity of the sound fragment).
The size of the joints
This dimension concerns everything that can be said about the form or the structure of the sound and, therefore, tightening, about the relations that at least two sounds entertain reciprocally.[7] Returning to the example of the chair, my gaze on it can identify a horizontal plane of trapezoidal shape, four elements of cylindrical shape - in which the dimension of length is preponderant - placed vertically under the plane previously described in correspondence to the four corners, a vertical plane placed in correspondence to one of the perimetral sides of the horizontal plane (the smaller side of the two parallels). I would call this a formal description. I may not yet know, at this point, that I have identified, in order: the seat, the legs and the back of a chair. If I know this, then it means that I know the functions of each of the previously described elements (and the function of the whole object), so I can also make a structural description of it: the legs support the horizontal plane, which supports the person sitting on it, and the vertical plane supports the back, which rests on it.
Also in the case of the articulations of sound I can identify elements that serve to identify them, and they are:
Continuity. It concerns the presence or absence of impulses within the sound flow and is linked to the parameter of intensity. Sudden intensity variations at short intervals of time create a discontinuous sound image, while maintaining constant intensities for long stretches (even for the entire duration of the piece) creates continuous sound images. It is not so influential whether the intensities are rather high or low: we can have the case of a low but continuous intensity and a high intensity with stretches of discontinuity. Continuity is not linked to the number of sounds heard. We can hear a large number of sounds of homogeneous intensity (for example, a fast guitar arpeggio) that will be continuous and a "rarefied" series of sounds of variable intensity that will give a strong impression of discontinuity. In addition, it is possible that in a sound segment, we find several overlapping sound bands that present continuity of different degrees. This is the typical case, in a pop context, of a rhythmic percussion section associated with a "carpet" of keyboards.
Continuity can be considered a form of "amplification" of roughness, on a much larger scale, or, with another formula, a second level roughness. Roughness, in fact, is also a discontinuity, but at the microscopic level of the sound surface (grain), while the discontinuity of articulation has much larger dimensions (we are always talking about time intervals). Using an analogy, let's say that, if you want to walk on the sonic fabric, for the roughness you can encounter more or less friction, but for the discontinuity you stumble!
Density. Density consists in the number of distinct sounds heard in a time unit. The higher this number, the denser the sound fabric will be, in a way that is analogous to what happens for other types of density: of population (number of inhabitants per square km, i.e. the unit of surface area adopted), of gaseous particles (number of molecules in the unit of volume).
A problematic factor in defining what we mean by density is the identification of what we have called "distinct sounds", which do not always correspond to a single note or a single sound. A chord, i.e. a superposition of different sounds, can be considered a single distinct sound, as can the cluster mentioned above. Therefore, a distinct sound will be the one that, at a perceptual level and in the context of the overall economy of the writing of the piece in question, turns out to be a sound unit. There are also some borderline cases: cases in which two consecutive sounds (very short and close together) can give the sensation of a single distinct sound and cases in which two completely overlapping sounds (but perhaps of very different pitches and tending not to perceptually "merge") can give the sensation of two distinct sound units and thus create the effect of an increase in density.
Melodic identities. Melodic identity occurs when two or more sounds, due to their formal characteristics and their reciprocal position within the sound fabric, tend to form a sound "figure". This constitution is regulated by the Gestalt laws that govern the same phenomenon in different domains (e.g. the visual domain): proximity, similarity, good closure and continuation. For example, some sounds that are close and of short duration, preceded and followed by sounds that are significantly longer, will give the sensation of belonging to the same sound figure and will tend to orient perception towards the recognition of other figures (that follow or precede). On the other hand, a series of sounds with adjacent or very close pitches will tend to detach themselves from more distant sounds along the direction of frequency. On the contrary, a series of sounds that avoids satisfying the above laws will not favour a perceptual segmentation into figures of the sound fabric and will tend to orient perception in the direction of a less "constructive" and oriented listening. Moreover, the laws mentioned above can enter into synergy or competition with each other.
It is necessary to specify that the sound identity does not necessarily require repetition: a figure can be constituted even if it appears only once within the sound fabric, but naturally the eventuality that it is repeated will reinforce its identity, as well as the possibility of recognition, and will represent a sort of second-degree identity constitution.
Rhythmic identities. The formation of rhythmic identities at a perceptual level is regulated by the same Gestalt laws already listed for melodic identities. In this second case, we will naturally speak not so much of sounds endowed with specific pitches and more or less long durations as of impulses and, therefore, temporal distance between impulses, independently of the sound object from which these impulses derive. In fact, every melodic identity generally includes a rhythmic identity, so that the latter can be considered a sort of abstraction of the former. Also in this case we can apply the reflections already made about repetition. Moreover, since it is an abstraction of the temporal element, we can guess how much more complex are the possibilities of repetition of the rhythmic identity: the rhythmic figure can be involved first in a percussive line, then in an accompaniment one, then in a foreground melodic line or even in the simply spoken human voice. This suggests how wide is the potential aggregator of the rhythmic context of a piece, and how contravening certain usages of Western rhythmic "etiquette" could have had the effect of estrangement that we know.[8]
Syntax. By "syntax" of the sound texture we mean the way in which, at a level broader than that of the figures and, in any case, of the single sounds, the sound flow is (or is not) organised. There are three syntactic procedures that we should consider here:
1) Repetition. To begin with, let's remember what has already been said about melodic and rhythmic identities. It is necessary to add that at the level of syntax the procedures can be identified on different scales: there can be immediate or delayed repetition of single figures, groups of figures or entire sections of the piece. It will be opportune to highlight how the possibility of recognising some syntactic procedures is strongly linked to the presence of identities, which have a greater possibility of being remembered (a higher degree of memorability) at longer distances: the possibilities for the memory to recognise the return of an "unconnected" series (not aggregated into identities) of sounds after an interval of, say, only 20 seconds, are very low, while the presence of identities allows the recognition and reconstruction of syntactic articulations even at much longer time intervals.[9]
2) Development. It consists in the re-proposition and re-elaboration of elements of the sound texture already known, in order to explore the possibilities of transformation and mutual interaction (in the case of two or more elements) and to direct the proceeding of the sound flow. It is always the result of a combined interplay of repetition (elements of similarity) and variation (elements of difference), therefore of the recognition of already known traits and the identification of the differences that mark their evolution. Also in this case, the presence of melodic or rhythmic identities can be necessary, but - not wanting to refer here to the "classical" notion of development, which confines it to a precise historical context - it should be pointed out that it can rely on timbral elements, dynamics (intensity), texture, density, etc., in the broad sense that should be given to it. In the case of the presence of identities, we will have development if they tend to appear more closely together - even partially overlapping - or at a distance, if they are made up of sounds of greater or lesser duration, in different textures, etc. In the case of the absence of identity, the succession of tracts of the sound texture with increasing (or decreasing) sound densities or intensities, for example, or a timbre characterised by degrees of roughness that are added (or subtracted), will be sufficient for us to speak of development (even though, obviously, in this case, it will be more difficult to identify it).[10]
3) Juxtaposition. It is linked to the identification of consecutive zones of the sound construct having one or more differentiating elements, which mark a less directional progress of the discourse (with a less univocal aim) than the one proposed by the development.[11] Speaking of juxtaposition, the dialectic repetition/variation sees the predominance of the latter over the former. It is necessary here to make a clarification regarding the term "variation": in the context of academic music theory, it indicates a procedure according to which a generally melodic figure (identity) undergoes slight changes (rhythmic, dynamic, etc.) while always remaining recognizable and traceable, in each of its different appearances, to the original form; in our case we mean, in a broader sense, the phenomenon of change applied to different elements and levels, which can also consist in the absolute absence of elements of similarity. Just as in the case of development, also in the case of juxtaposition the presence of identity can favour the recognition of the discontinuity between different phases of the sound discourse, therefore the passage from one to the other; but it can also be recognised when several zones are perceivable that are reciprocally differentiated but internally homogeneous with respect to, for example, density, dynamics, etc., as well as the presence of identity.
Punctuation. Particular configurations of the sound texture can suggest the occurrence of the different topical moments in which the sound narration can be articulated: the opening, the closing (partial or definitive), the transition (in traditional music theory we often speak of "bridge"), the passage - through the demarcation of a clear boundary - between one zone and another, and various others at formal levels of increasing detail (therefore on scales that are more and more restricted). The set of these topical moments constitutes, precisely, what can be called the punctuation of the musical discourse, and has the function - again! - to orientate the listening and the finding, at a perceptive and cognitive level, of the formal sense of the sound construct. For the purposes of this paper, and considering that the object of our reflections - the soundtrack of the commercial - rarely exceeds the duration of 60 seconds, it will be sufficient to consider in more detail the first two of the mentioned elements:
1) Openness. There are two main models of opening that are most common, and both of them leverage, in different ways, on creating expectation in the listener. The first has something in common with a rather fast curtain-opening, and is always made up of one or more start "signals", just as the shot signals the beginning of the race. In the classical sphere, one of the most explicit examples is the beginning of Beethoven's Third Symphony, in which two short, strong chords, played by the orchestra, precede and announce the beginning of the musical discourse proper (the entrance of the themes, their developments, etc.) and activate the listener's attention. In pop music, there are numerous examples in which a brief "break" of drums precedes the entrance of the other accompanying sounds. The second model, on the other hand, can be likened to a slow and gradual unveiling of the sound discourse: typically, one instrument enters after the other until a final completeness is achieved (which can also be disregarded) (a completeness that is entirely relative, linked to the single work, genre, style, etc.).
2) Closure. Also in this case, at least two typical cases should be made explicit. The first consists - similarly to the first model of entry - in a "signaled" closure: repeated chords of the symphonic orchestra, rhythmic cadences of the drums in pop music, generally preceded by a crescendo of dynamics (volume) and agogics (speed), tightness (close repetitions of melodic-rhythmic fragments), by a thickening of the roughness, so as to clearly mark the final achievement of the closing signal and the immediate subsequent silence. The second - more similar to the model of entry by unveiling, but on the contrary - constituted by a more gradual closing of the discourse, in which the final part of the sound object is a sort of coda in which the parameters are treated by decrease (less volume, less velocity, less roughness, less complexity on the articulation level): this is the case of many pop songs in which, with the musical form now exhausted, after all the possible stanzas and refrains, the singer is left with the space to pronounce his message of love or despair again briefly, almost in silence and in a fluty voice.
The dimension of interobjectivity
This third dimension concerns the knowledge of the sound object as a sign, and therefore every kind of reference that a sound object can make to something else - an object, a situation, an event, a feeling etc. - that is not the sound object itself. - that is not the sound object itself. It is the dimension proper to semiotics, on which many authors have given different hypotheses of segmentation and classification. The one proposed here derives directly from Peirce's tripartition (to which many of the previously cited classifications refer more or less directly) and, because of its simplicity, clearly addresses an essential initial knowledge of the sign nature of sound. It proposes a classification of the musical sign according to three categories:
The icon. For Peirce the iconic sign[12] is that which is based on a relation between a material configuration and an object that have a property in common, or better, that are similar in some aspect. In this sense the sign-icon is motivatedi.e. the representamen does not refer to its object by convention. The sound sign, therefore, is iconic when the configuration of the sound, as we have described it so far, imitates a sound of the external world and refers, in a broader sense, to the object to which that sound can be traced. The classic example is that Spring by Vivaldi in which, after the famous opening of the string orchestra, the solo violin imitates the chirping of the birds.
Although Peirce himself, who never dealt directly with musical semiotics, in his rare examples attributes to sounds mainly iconic sign functions, as we will see, it is not in the iconic sign that music bases the most important part of its possibilities of signification. However, the presence of iconic musical signs can be extremely effective in determining the entire range of meanings to which a piece of music can refer: the iconic sign of chirping that we find in the example just cited, in fact, can refer - through other mechanisms that we will now go into - to broader and more general dimensions of signification (birdsong → spring → awakening → luminosity, etc.).
The symbol. Symbol for Peirce is that sign whose signification is conventionally established. In the case of the symbol, therefore, the relation between sign and object is entirely arbitrary, and therefore not dictated by elements of similarity as in the case of the icon. In the field of sounds, symbolic is, for example, the hunting horn or the trumpet that in a barracks plays the Silence. Also symbolic is the mechanism of signification by which Mameli's Hymn designates Italy and a whole series of national realities related to it: sports teams, public figures, institutional figures, etc. But what happens if the hunting horn is heard, for example, inserted into the musical discourse of a classical or romantic symphony? Are we still in the pure sphere of the symbol? What happens, is that in the first instance the hunting signal heard (which in this case is not a hunting signal, because no hunting party is about to begin) is an icon of a real hunting signal, and only in the second place does it become a symbol of hunting, nature, competition, etc., and only in the third place does it become a symbol of the game. This circumstance already makes us realize that the three spheres of musical signification that we are investigating - icon, index and symbol - are only ideally separated, and are rather almost always found together, mounted "in layers" in the process of communication that takes place when listening to a sound flow.
The index. The index is a sign that is in a dyadic contiguous relationship with its object, a link that is based on a spatial and/or temporal proximity. It allows, therefore, to infer the object or the process it represents. The characteristic of the indical relation, compared to the sign relation, therefore symbolic, is that through it there is a reference to an object (and thus the transport of a message) which is motivated by the circumstances in which the communication takes place, by the communicative scene, with its temporal and spatial coordinates and its centre (which corresponds to the point in which the index is needed). For example, thunder is an index when it indicates that the thunderstorm is coming or is passing very close to us. This dyadic relation between what we could call expression (the thunder) and the real situation to which it is connected (the storm that is coming), must be based on facts, and obviously this presupposes that we know, through experiential, perceptive, cognitive and emotional processes, that this relation exists (or at least that it exists in a significant number of cases): the relation cannot be arbitrary, because this would bring us back into the sphere of symbolic signification.
According to Vladimir Karbusicky,[13] the index is the mode of signification privileged by music, which primarily does not represent (iconic function), does not designate (symbolic function) but expresses (indical function). As an example of the various stratification of the three functions, and as an explanation of the pre-eminence of the indical function over the others, he proposes a brief consideration concerning the Pastoral Care by Beethoven:
A cuckoo's cry is an acoustic image of the bird, thus an Icon. But it can also be perceived as an Index: 'Here is spring!' And in another context it can symbolize nature in general; so it is in Beethoven's Pastoral symphony: but he [the cuckoo cry] indexes with another voice of nature Beethoven's experiences, his spiritual conditions, especially when everything resonates in an atmosphere full of nostalgia; thus the iconic function, which consists in the isoform of imitation, is subordinated to the indical function; and that this is dominant is the composer's intention ('More expression of feelings than painting').[14]
It would seem at this point that talking about expression (of feelings, of emotions), in the field of sound, is not necessarily equivalent to saying that sound means that feeling or emotion. But this is precisely a feature of the index, as Peirce made clear many years after his first theoretical formulations: 'An index has nothing to do with meanings: it must lead the listener to share the speaker's experience showing what he's talking about."[15]
3
Types of sound
A brief review of the main types of sound which are generally found in commercials will help to carve out, in the field of possible sounds in the audiovisual field (really many), those forms and their characteristics which will be the object of reflection here: the jingle (with its maxi variant), the more extended sound of decorative or impact type, the limited or absent sound (which often, in an only apparently paradoxical way, can also be loaded with meanings and effects in the context of the audiovisual communication).
The jingle. Probably the "simplest" and most essential form of music in advertising, the jingle is a strongly characterized tune whose purpose is very often to express the company mission (if sung, such as "Belté, Beltè, non ce n'è più buono") and to make the product or brand easily memorable when it accompanies the company logo at the end (such as the two deaf notes for the AUDI brand). It differs from the other types of sound for some of its specific characteristics: it may not soundtrack the whole commercial; it is composed for that specific product or brand; its function is almost always paratextual with respect to the commercial itself; in the majority of cases it acts as a sound pay-off and therefore, in the same way as this, it accompanies the brand for long periods of time.
Very often jingles have been accused of being too simple and associated with a dated type of advertising (like Carosello, for example) and for this reason their use (after having been abused) has rather waned. This does not mean that when it is still used it still manages to achieve the objectives for which it was conceived, in particular that of satisfying the need for personalization and memorability of the message.
The maxi-jingle. In some commercials, there are songs that have similar characteristics to a jingle (simplicity, memorability, originality, product or brand focus) but do not share the same brevity, and the song can even last for the entire duration of the commercial. Even though it is a common occurrence, this last type of sound cannot be considered in the same way as a jingle, because where the jingle has the function of the company's "signature" sound, the maxi-jingle assumes, instead, the role of commentary/narrative element.
In some exceptional cases, the maxi-jingles are not composed for the specific ad, but are adapted from pre-existing songs: this is the case of the lucky "Tico Tico" that in the Tic Tac commercial, performed by Michelle Hunziker, becomes the maxi-jingle Life is ticking. The peculiarity of this typology consists in the strong personalization of the song with respect to the product or the text: the maxi-jingle refers, in fact, to the former commenting on some of its qualities through the words of the sung text (as in the previous example), or it comments on the images as in the case of the Chicco commercial in which, to the song Reckless Life by Vasco Rossi, are associated with images of a family - parents with very young children - whose life full of unexpected events and hardships caused by children turns out to be reckless in quite another way, causing an almost comical effect.
Also in this case a sort of persistence and repetition of the sound can occur if the same track becomes leitmotif for different commercials of the same campaign: this is the historical case of many Nutella commercials of the seventies or of Barilla, which used in the nineties, for a long time, a song by Vangelis which became, thanks to this, very famous.
The decorative sound. In the cases described above the sound plays an important role in the communicative dynamics of the commercial. However, this is not always the case: sometimes the choice is made to put it in the background compared to the rest, using it simply as a "wallpaper" of sounds. A sound of this kind should not impose itself on the listener's perception: on the contrary, it is chosen precisely to go unnoticed while filling and decorating the visual and verbal environment of the commercial.
The decorative sound is present in the advertising text only in order not to make its audible manifestation appear empty, which would be unbearably silent with respect to the context and too impactful, as will be seen later. This type of decorative "sound carpet" is functional when one wants to direct the attention of the users exclusively to the visual-verbal components of the advertising message even if, as will be better specified later,[16] is not entirely ineffective in directing the overall meaning of the message.
Impact sound. The case of impact sound is different: independently of the fact that it was produced specifically for the commercial or derives from a pre-existing sound (for example, a piece of pop music), it participates in the advertising text and has the function of a "narrative" element or commentary (this category, which is very wide, also includes the maxi-jingle already mentioned). In this case, an element that strongly characterizes the impact sound - above all when it is a question of real musical pieces - is the contemporaneity of the composition with respect to the time of the broadcast of the commercial. The main function of a music "from the present" is the link to contemporaneity, the will to define the advertised product as absolutely new and contemporary. By choosing to use very recent music, the result is to enhance the recognizability and memorability of the advert, to indicate that the company or the product are anchored to the present, to highlight - when the product is particularly aimed at a young target and the hit is the right one - the affinities between the offer and the possible consumers. In any case, the contemporaneity factor is not taken for granted: it depends on the listener's encyclopedic competence, on the musical aspects of the song (an electronic rather than an acoustic sound) or even on the listener's previous knowledge of the song. In addition, for some particular target groups that consume large amounts of music, for example teenagers, obsolescence (and the consequent definition of "old") is a more accentuated process than for others, so that a track that was released a few months ago may be perceived as such. This is the case, for example, of the advertisements of mobile phone operators, who, having to continuously renew their offers and addressing groups of generally young consumers, adapt very quickly to the current musical taste (to the singer, to the hit song), in order to exploit the element "contemporaneity-newness-last offer".
No sound. To sonorise an advertisement with silence, or with an extremely limited sound component, is a rhetorical device that fulfils very precise tasks, often better than sound itself. In an environment saturated with auditory stimuli, and in the context of audiovisual media - television in primis - where silence is the exception, the value of silence in advertising can be multiple. In some cases it has the purpose of underlining the authenticity of the situation as, for example, in the first DOVE soap advertisements, which created the effect of everyday realism in a home environment completely devoid of scenographic artifices and with absolutely anonymous female characters. Realism is simulated through the recreation of an "artificial" silence, without even ambient sound, or through the imperceptible sounds that "amplify" the silence in the background: the ticking of an alarm clock, a falling drop. In other cases it has the function of giving absolute emphasis to words or isolated sounds that are particularly significant for the commercial. It can be used to accentuate the contrast with the flow of sound that preceded it and that will follow it, thus instantly capturing the listener's attention, or as a narrative element (the city is deserted, the weather has cleared up), or even as a demonstrative device that plays with references to images or text (as happens in the case of "Silenzio. Parla Agnesi").
4
The functions of sound
Impact. The first of Fabris' functions that we are going to examine, impact, is considered fundamental for the establishment of the communication process: if the ad does not "hook" in the first 3-5 seconds, it is very likely to be ignored altogether. In a sea of competing advertisements and with the high cost of TV space, it becomes essential for the advertiser to attract attention in a decisive way in order to have the opportunity to get in touch with the target. At the level of the visual column, there are various tricks that are adopted: an "equivocal" opening that is disambiguated only in the course of the text; the headlines of a (fake) news item, very often also bearing the words "Extraordinary Edition", and so on. At the level of the soundtrack, the piece of music or the sounds present can create or increase the impact of the spot in different ways: through a different dynamic (higher or lower volume) compared to previous broadcasts; by using music with an aggressive sound; by using the contrast between silence and sound (this is the case of the Volkswagen Polo X spot, in 2004, which opens with a completely silent shot in which men in padded suits test the comfort of the car's interior: the shot is then followed by the disruptive Lucky Lipstick by Surferosa, and the interruption of the sound flow of the programs preceding the commercial creates a sort of wait, a suspension promptly resolved by the entry of the song at full volume and the disambiguation of the incipit).
Interest. Arousing the interest of our target audience, making them curious about what we are going to tell them, is a necessary (though not sufficient) condition for our communication to be effective. Even if at a visual, sound and narrative level our commercial has captured the momentary attention of the public, it does not mean that it will be considered interesting. This is why it is necessary to precisely define the target audience and have a precise idea of the interlocutors and their expectations: if we know who we are talking to, it will be easier to choose the topics and the most suitable language keys. And one of the keys to language can be music: the target is intercepted through its musical tastes, and in this sense we can now speak of music as "consumer music". In concrete terms, the choice of music can already orientate the viewer's perception at an unconscious level: if he knows the song he hears or is impressed by it because it meets his tastes and satisfies his expectations, he is more likely to evaluate it favourably and accept its contents and promises.
Information. After the moments of impact and interest, the communicative process of advertising involves the ability of the message to convey the right information, so as to provide a logical anchor for the decision to buy, rational arguments that justify the choice of the product. The benefits of a product can certainly be illustrated through images, but also with the help of music. In this sense, the chant "Beltè, Beltè, there's none better" is a pure and simple transposition into music of the advantages promised to the consumer, with the difference that, if the same phrase had only been pronounced by an actor, the commercial would probably have been much less incisive: on the one hand because the slogan is more easily memorized when associated with music with a very simple rhythmic and tonal scansion, on the other hand because of the light and childish trend of the melody, which gives a pleasant and simple connotation to the message it is intended to convey, creating all the conditions for a positive disposition towards the product.
Identification. But the consumer does not live on information alone: this must be the basis for involving him emotionally, for generating empathy by transferring the discourse from the rational to the emotional level. The process of identification, whereby an individual feels that he or she is personally experiencing the situations represented, develops a favourable attitude towards the product, thus taking a first step towards convincing the consumer to buy. Now, identification processes can be triggered in various ways in the advertising text. The expedient adopted at a sound level to favour the dynamics of identification can exploit the same elements which serve to attract the interest of the target: the recreation of a sound environment which is familiar to it and with which it shares the socio-cultural references. The sound space structured in this way, as well as capturing the attention, envelops the subject-type of the target in a familiar, reassuring dimension: it makes him feel "at home". Triggering an identification process through music is probably easier in cases where the target of the commercial is fairly circumscribed or well-defined (e.g. young people from 18 to 30 years old) since the socio-cultural references will be (at least in principle) homogeneous within it.
Understanding. This is probably an obvious consideration, but after the consumer has received the information he must also immediately understand the meaning and spirit of the advertising. It could be said, therefore, that anything that may be obscure or difficult to understand should be avoided absolutely at all levels of signification, even music. But this is not really the case. The condition of syncretism, which the television advertising message enjoys, can make more "comprehensible" a sound flow that would not be so if extrapolated from that context. The most convincing cinematographic example is perhaps the one that applies to all: that Shining where the Music for strings, percussions and celesta (1950) by Béla Bartók is not at all difficult to understand, when it seems to be so - at least for many contemporary listeners - in a concert hall or, even worse, when listening to a recording. The sense of suspension that the music undoubtedly communicates is not in keeping with the fruitive habits of today's listeners of pure music, but it accompanies well and enhances the dimension of suspense on which the narrative plot builds its strength. In this light, it is clear that the dimension of comprehensibility, on a musical level, is made up of continuous cross-references with the visual and textual one, and that it is precisely in that communicative power of the specific sound - to which we have already referred and to which we will return later - that the sound finds the strength to contribute to the global comprehension of the advertising message.
Credibility. How can the soundtrack support the credibility of the advertising message? There are probably two dimensions in which this can happen. The first concerns, more than the message itself, the situation that the commercial proposes: if it is a party, then the music will be appropriate to the circumstance, depending on whether it is a youth party, a children's party or held in an eighteenth-century court. This is the case, therefore, of any diegetic soundtrack, which occurs when the sound source is present or implicit in the situation shown by the images (orchestra, singer, Hi-Fi system in operation, but also footsteps on the pavement, the sound of slamming doors). The second, more indirect but this time directly linked to the advertising message, relies on the effect that listening to particular sounds can have on the listener: tranquility, security (soft sounds, medium-low register) or excitement, joy (shorter sounds, greater sound density, higher register). This is the case of extra-diegetic soundtracks, which can also be indifferent to the tone of voice proposed by the images, but often they are not, and are intended to orient, with their contribution of sense, the perception and the disposition of the user.
Consistency. By coherence we mean the congruence that must exist between the communicative style and the product to which it wants to apply. And coherence is required of the message as a whole, as a set of signs that contribute to giving rise to a communication endowed with a unitary sense. It is not so simple to identify what the role of the soundtrack may be in the construction of this coherence. It may be the contribution to the constitution of a tone of voice integrated, coherent with the contents conveyed, or the contribution that the audio can provide in terms of narrative economy - as will be seen later - for the constitution of a set of signs that "resonate" with each other. But more generally it will be the contribution of the soundtrack to the creation and respect of an a priori coherence, designed by the communicator and not necessarily made up of signs that are integrated or "resonant" with each other, but also dissonant or with a different tone of voice: an extended flow of strings and the images of a conflict, the cheerful sea of summer and the dark sound of a funeral march (perhaps to express the message "Tourism kills the environment").
Conviction. It is the result, not always so obvious, of achieving one or more of the objectives already listed. If the message has an impact, is interesting, informative, coherent and credible, then it can convince. This does not mean that people will buy, but perhaps word of mouth will spread and someone else will buy instead of us. What can the soundtrack do for this purpose? Perhaps we have already said it above, but we could certainly add what the ancients would suggest: a faith never lost - even if today it is perhaps lived more unconsciously - in that magical and enchanting power of music, already known from the song of the Sirens and so important in the sound of Orpheus' lyre: if his strings succeeded in convincing Charon to ferry him to the kingdom of the dead to take back the sweet Eurydice, will they perhaps fail in making us buy a bar of soap?
5
The contributions of sound sense
As noted in the examination of the eight variables identified by Fabris, the ones most susceptible to influence by the soundtrack are the first four, the "i "s. Of the second four variables, it was easier to say what it was better to avoid in order not to risk making the commercial ineffective than to identify techniques to enhance them. Of the second four variables, it was easier to say what it was better to avoid in order to avoid the risk of making the commercial ineffective, than to identify techniques which could strengthen them. This is because these variables relate more to the characteristics of the campaign and its validity than to the responses of the recipient of the communication, on which the sound has a greater capacity to influence.
Accepting here, therefore, Karbusicky's proposal considered above, and assigning to the indical function the preponderant role that would be due to it, what we have to ask now is: through which elements the music gives us exhibition what he's talking about? And in what way does what the music shows us manage to influence the responses of the receiver of the communication? We won't have any difficulty in answering if we briefly reconsider those dimensions and the relative traits of sound that we have already defined. Returning to our starting objective - to define such as e what the sound adds or modifies within the audiovisual message, in our case advertising - let us consider, for example, within the dimension of sound, the texture. The incidence of texture on the audiovisual message is mainly linked to the concept, this time in a wide meaning, of "height". The frequency of sounds is also determined by the dimensions of the bodies that produce them, and common experience teaches us that we usually find the smallest things at the top: birds, leaves, raindrops, air (even invisible and elusive). If we look closely, the whole world around us is organised vertically and upwards by decreasing size: smaller things usually rest on larger things, and each mountain gradually shrinks as it climbs. High-pitched sounds would therefore be associated with high things, and even light, even more immaterial and elusive than air, is often expressed musically with extreme high-pitched textures. Perhaps this is why the sound of thunder, which comes from above but is low, loud, and "heavy," and contrasts so strongly with the more widespread experience about "sounds coming from above," instills so much awe.
This sense of lightness can be "added", in an audiovisual context, to a more strictly informative message about which such lightness, shown through sound, represents a positive quality (positive, certainly, if the purpose of the message is to encourage the purchase of the product, not to discourage it). Needless to say, the communicator will be able to play with contrasts, adding lightness of sound to visual or textual heaviness or hardness: it will be necessary to have a clear purpose for the message, to know the type of listener you are addressing and trust that he or she understands and accepts the semantic game, that he or she is willing to put up with the greatest possible difficulty, and that he or she is willing to accept the greatest possible risk. activation deriving from a message that overall will present more elements of novelty and therefore a greater perceptive, cognitive and interpretative work.
Returning to our dimension of sonority, we can broaden our examination by adding some considerations related to intensity: the lightness of a high tessitura will have a different sense if associated with a low or high intensity. Intensity is from a physical point of view a greater or lesser energy possessed and transmitted (not just to our auditory organ but to our entire body) through the air around us. And energy means strength, weight, and strength can sustain but also break down and crush. Thus, a high-pitched and loud texture can be violent and annoying, or extremely exciting, perhaps again because small objects, which produce high-pitched sounds and "stand on high", usually, again for physical reasons, produce sounds of low intensity (piano manufacturers know this well. For high-pitched sounds, they have arranged as many as three strings that vibrate simultaneously for each note instead of the single string used for low-pitched sounds).[17] On the contrary, a low intensity associated with a high tessitura can exalt the sense of lightness (which, however, risks becoming "mystery" if it is too weak), in a very characteristic way if associated, moreover, with a fine roughness with a low "atomic" relief: the lightness will become that of air - this time with the possibility of also touching an iconic dimension in the imitation of the sound of the wind - all the more so if the sound flow is mainly continuous (and we have thus passed from the dimension of sonority to that of articulations).
As far as identities are concerned - melodic, rhythmic, to temporarily limit ourselves to those we have already described - their contribution will above all be to offer the perception of sound fragments endowed with a beginning and an end, and in this sense give rise to "complete" formal movements. The listener will be able to follow the movements of these formal nuclei: rapid ascents or descents, or a slow build-up and extinction; sounds that tend to overlap in various fading and shading, or clear sound events that speak of clarity and limpidity, perhaps even of separation in some cases, if the internal discontinuity of the figure is high; minimal or ample figures that mark or transport. But above all, their presence will call into question cognitive capacities, will demand and show organization, whereas their absence will obtain a more exquisitely sensorial and perceptive attitude on the part of the listener, suggesting that there is no beginning and no end, that in every instant everything is there. Or, changing register: that what you needed to know you've already known, and if it makes you feel good - and you want it to last longer than 30 seconds - you just have to buy it.
It is easy to understand the sense of which the two models of opening (punctuation) that we have exposed above can carry. The first model, the one in the form of a break (with opening signals), can be used when there is a desire to call attention to the initial phase and then show a mechanism, which does not really have a beginning and an end and is thus accompanied, in the following, by music that renounces a development; the second, the progressive one by layers, when there is a plot and a revelation, an unveiling, a final solution, in order to increase the expectation and reinforce the sense of final completeness (in these cases, the presence of melodic and rhythmic identities is more marked precisely in the concluding part of the fabula).
Again, with regard to syntax, let us try to define what contributions of sense repetition can provide. As we have already said, the recognition of repeated fragments is facilitated by the interplay of identities, and if the identities are such their recurrence will provide that moment of rest that well compensates for the effort of the first "putting into form" (cognitive reconstruction of the form). The game of novelty and repetition is linked to the pleasure of listening, and a repeated identity will have the effect of lightening the effort needed to receive the sound flow, leaving space for the informative content - visual or textual - of the message. The first appearance of the identity will therefore function as a factor of impact and interest (to return to Fabris' indicators) and its repetition will "let through" more easily the information related to the product. Moreover, repetition, and especially the repetition of very short melodic identities, is a very explicit feature of some musical genres, for example the New Age. Therefore, the repetition factor, it could be said, will also have the effect of creating identification between a certain audience - potentially a user of that musical genre - and the product.
Regarding this possible identification, we would like to conclude by pointing out that this identification can be understood in two different ways. We can suppose that the listener will recognise the traits of a certain musical genre, similar to him, and finding it linked to a specific product will identify with the product itself. This type of identification presupposes the recognition of the genre, therefore a series of pre-knowledge on the part of the subject. From another perspective, we can assume that the listener does not know the musical genre but, at least in the communicator's picture of him, is predisposed to welcome it. This type of listener will hear the repetition, will be led into a multimedia communicative process like the one described above (activation on the sound and then lightening) and will also establish a positive relationship towards the communication as a whole. What we are arguing here is that it is the repetition factor that leads the (predisposed) listener to identify with the meaning expressed by a musical communication in the genre of the New Age - even if not explicitly known - and that it is therefore not essential to recognize the genre for this identification to occur. In fact, we believe that it is precisely the characters of the sound that give meaning to musical communication, and not the often uncertain attribution of a piece to one genre or another. It's like saying that a track makes sense in a New Age way because it has certain sonic characteristics, and not that it makes sense in a New Age way because it's New Age. There's a difference, precisely, because the second hypothesis would imply that a sense to music is given only in the presence of pre-knowledge (in this case, the knowledge of the genre). This is precisely what testifies to that faith - mentioned in the Foreword - in the communicative power that sounds (sound forms) have in themselves, a power that would derive - as we have just tried to exemplify - from their link with the real world in which man lives, its forms and its manifestations.
6
Conclusions
The path of observation and reflection followed up to now, through the dimensions, the types, the functions, the contributions of sense of the sound, leaves no doubts about the fact that the relationships between sound and image/word in the advertisement are of primary importance, capable of changing the nature of the audiovisual message and must therefore be governed in a conscious and targeted way. The experiences made in the educational field, from which this work draws many ideas, confirm that sound is recognised as having the power to "direct" the global meaning of the advertising message. The students, called to soundtrack commercials without authentic audio, suggest different interpretations of the same visual track and bring to the surface alternative potentialities of meaning, through audio/video syncretisms which are sometimes more convincing, for a specific target, than the originals. The message, without sound, seems to be poorer, deprived of those expressive indexes of which the product can instead take advantage, appropriating some of the qualities expressed, showing in advance the final effects of inner well-being, joy, power and other, promised and reified in the product itself.
[1] This article is published, with some additions and modifications, in Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze della Comunicazione, Università degli Studi di Salerno, 2006-2007.
[2] Even from the point of view of acoustics, all things considered, things are not much better. Undoubtedly, within certain limits, the physical distinction between periodic sound waves (what we commonly call sound) and aperiodic sound waves (what we commonly call noise) has its validity, but there are limits, and Giuseppe Di Giugno - a pioneer of musical informatics in Italy and France - made the idea very clear: "If this distinction were absolute, then Beethoven's Fifth Symphony would be noise, because it is certainly an aperiodic sound phenomenon".
[3] G. Fabris, Advertising. Theories and practice, Angeli, 1992.
[4] Michel Imberty, Sounds Emotions Meanings. For a psychological semantics of musicCLUEB, Bologna, 1986.
[5] This paragraph derives from the work carried out during some cycles of laboratories on Semiotics applied to audiovisual language, in collaboration with Prof. Anna Cicalese during the academic years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, within the degree course in Communication Sciences at the University of Salerno. The approach to the analysis of the dimensions of sound dealt with is therefore deliberately limited to the main aspects of the three sound dimensions, for obvious didactic reasons, but it is well suited - precisely because of this limitation - to the purposes of this paper.
[6] Voice and accompaniment, but also symphony orchestra, or forest sound environment, etc.
[7] In reality, even in the case of a single sound that presents conspicuous variations in the traits of materiality, we could speak of articulation, but this is a borderline case that does not weaken the distinction of the two dimensions thus conceived (a distinction that has epistemic value, where the two dimensions are almost always found to overlap in real cases).
[8] One thinks, as an extreme example, of the experiences of integral seriality starting from the middle of the twentieth century.
[9] At this point, it is impossible to avoid pointing out how, in the context of these reflections, the importance of the functions that the presence of the theme had in the development of Western music up to the beginning of the 20th century, precisely in relation to the possibility of tracing formal links in works of increasing duration.
[10] Note again a difference with the classical notion of development, which is not understood here only in the augmentative direction (increase in complexity, density, etc.) but also in the opposite direction of a decrease in values. One could perhaps object that at this point the concept we are talking about is not so much that of development as that of transformation, however transformation is not necessarily directional (one thing can be transformed into another thing, then into another, according to the formula A®B®C) while development always is (A®A1®A2®A3).
[11] This is a very important phenomenon: think of what happened to Western music at the beginning of the 20th century, and especially the work of Debussy.
[12] It must be said, however, that Peirce speaks of "icon", whereas the expression "iconic sign" is already the result of a re-elaboration of his thought.
[13] Vladimir Karbusicky, The indical sign in music, in Luca Marconi and Gino Stefani (eds.), Sense in Music. Anthology of Musical SemioticsCLUEB, Bologna, 1987, pp. 83-92.
[14] Ibid, pp. 84-5.
[15] C. S. Peirce, Draft of 'Grand Logic', 1893. My translation.
[16] See the considerations made above on the indicality of the sound sign.
[17] In addition, the perceived low intensity of high-pitched sounds is also due to the pattern of the hearing curve.
