So after reading/commenting on Victoria's blog, I became very interested in how much sound can affect how we perceive certain things, but mainly advertisements. With so many things going on in this world and so many different types of media stations bombarding us with images, I wanted to expand on this concept.
This is a video that I found a couple years ago and still gives me a good laugh, but you have to watch the entire video:
It isn't perfect, but you can see how drastically the sound changed how you viewed the video. And I mean drastically. I want to focus around the U.S Navy recruitment ad because I want to talk about how the media affects our perception of things, here in our homes. The original video is very dark, gritty, and serious, which in my opinion is trying to appeal to a darker, more primitive side of men. All of the people in this advertisement were men and not a single one was a woman, which really just confirms my thoughts that this advertisement was for the tough guys.
Especially after discussing how the media tries to influence how men think and act did I really begin to notice the kind of images and ideals they implant in our minds through advertisements. Among the many ways they try to take hold of us, a few are: telling men they need to be tough, be big, and be strong and muscular. There also seems to be this association of men to the dark, gritty, and "real" scene, opposed to women to bright colors and loud happy music. The sound/music added into the original video gives us a sense of seriousness and intensity, which they are implying men "ought" to be all the time.
But suddenly, when the music changes to the upbeat Japanese version, the recruitment advertisement becomes a completely different thing. Although we continue to see the images of men jumping out of helicopters, trenching through the beach in the night, and holding automatic rifles, the new music makes it very.... comical. It's funny, even hilarious and takes away from the original intent of the video so much.
It's astounding how much of a difference the sound associated to something can make and shows what kind of psychological affect it has on how we perceive the things we see.
It really is interesting how music changes the scene completely! The video really points at how ridiculous both commercials are, for different reasons.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed more than once on mystery or crime shows when the music starts picking up and becoming more intense to mean that something is about to happen. I think that in these particular situations, the music may contribute to the generalized paranoia that we have, which are – I think – also deeply rooted in fairy tales (like don‘t walk alone at night because something evil is lurking in the dark).
I‘d be cool to monitor our brains when we hear music that doesn't match what we‘re seeing, such as a very dramatic song for a happy scene and vice versa. They did a similar thing with infants, where the experimenters would show an image of an angry face and match it with an angry voice and do the same with a happy image and voice. Then they either mismatched them or had another group that was only exposed to mismatched pairs, and compared the brain activity. I don’t remember the experiment that well (and I can’t find it online) but I remember that the children needed longer time to process the incongruent pairs.
I love how you incorporated the music with the different styles of recruitment commercials. I just wanna add that how music not only effects the way we view things on the media but also how we feel everyday. I believe music can be a real mood changer, especially if the lyrics can reach out to you and actually relate to you. Imagine if you were in a haunted house and walking around with the "thong song" blasting into your ears ha-ha. It would definitely take away any scare and create a comical scene just as the Japanese song did for the U.S recruitment. Good topic to chose and quite honestly I don't think I would have ever came up with such a depiction.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that while I always realized how much of an effect music can have on the way we perceive something I never quite realized how much of an effect it can have until this moment. The song that was originally put to the American Navy commercial is meant to get your adrenalin pumping and to appeal to that animalistic part of the male brain which goes perfectly with the scenes depicted in the commercial. And when placed over the Japanese Navy commercial (which was arguably one of the most upbeat and cheerful commercials that I have ever seen) my adrenaline still got pumping despite the complete disconnect between the seriousness of the music and the dance number.
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