A study claims that the works of the famous musician, Johann Sebastian Bach, are used extensively by advertisers to provide a “voice of reassurance” in television advertisements.
Musicologist Peter Kupfer of Southern Methodist University in Texas studied the context in which Bach’s work was used in 19 advertisements that aired in the United States from 2009 to 2019.
As with other classic pieces, Bach’s compositions are also used as a sign of status or class – or employed for humorous effect.
However, the most common sentiment that is used to enhance it is “affirmation that one’s product choices will lead to a happier, healthier, and safer life”.
Despite this, Professor Kupfer says there is actually nothing reassuring about Bach’s work.
Instead, he concludes, their typical abstract nature and general associations with prestige allow them to embody different messages and connotations as needed.
In his study, Professor Kupfer reviewed the context in which Bach’s work was used in television advertising, and developed a typology to describe it.
For this analysis, the expert consulted a database of classical music appearances in American commercials that he has been collecting since 2009.
This included a total of 19 advertisements using Bach’s musical score.
Kupfer concluded that Bach’s musicals—specifically those of introductory solo style—are commonly presented alongside messages of reassurance. (The foreword is a short piece of music that usually contains repetitive rhythmic and melodic forms.)
However, like other classical pieces, Bach’s works have also been used to invoke associations with prestige (as in the 2016 Cadillac advertisement).
According to Professor Kupfer, the use of Bach’s music in commercial advertising is linked to a general trend that has seen advertising move away from traditional “informational” advertising, which emphasizes realistic product benefits, to so-called “transformational” advertising.
These efforts seek to “transform” the experience of using a particular brand’s product by associating it with (often random) feelings, thoughts or meanings – such as the idea that jeep drivers live an “adventurous life”.
Kupfer says Bach’s single-intro style works well with transformative advertising, because its abstract quality is “particularly suited to giving different meanings, making it a particularly powerful tool”.
He added, “This phenomenon is a result of the style’s ability to embody different messages and their general connotations with a prestige rather than by any kind of systematic or conscious process. This stands in contrast to other examples of classical music used in commercials, which typically come from ninth-century dramatic or programmatic pieces. ten”.
As a result, Professor Kupfer explained, these links are often “embedded” outside of the music that advertisers can exploit.
The full results of the study are published in BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute.
Source: Daily Mail