2011-12 academic year

Music and Advertising (20506)

Degree/study: Bachelor's Degree in Advertising and Public Relations
Year: Third and fourth
Term: First
Number of ECTS credits: 4 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 100 hours
Teaching language or languages: Catalan
Teaching Staff: Manuel Palencia Lefler

1. Presentation of the subject

When asked "what would advertising be without music?", academicians and practicals agree to answer "not much", although none of them gives it due credit in their scientific studies or in their production budgets. The importance of music throughout history is unquestionable. We need only look at the first radio or TV jingles, in whom the "visualization" in the people's minds took place through musical melodies and not images, as it happened with "Cola Cao", "La Española" olives, "El Almendro" turrones or "Famosa" dolls, to mention just some examples. And the same happened beyond Catalan or Spanish advertising. It is obvious that times have changed and the musical forms have diversified beyond the jingle. However, the trend hasn't changed.

The interdependency between advertising images and music is so narrow that experts haven't been able to set boundaries. And maybe it is not necessary. What is sure is that music and advertising must work together to understand the professional advertising practice. On one side, advertising without music loses a great part of its persuasive effects, therefore the advertising evolution cannot be understood without the music evolution. On the other side, the current music industry is not going through a good moment, it needs new promotional spaces to reach consumers with the artists' music and encourage them to buy it. Advertising offers one of the best windows. For this reason, there is no doubt that the future of both professional disciplines is complementary. If the synergies are useful for consumers and society in general, and not only for the music industry and the advertisers' brands, is something else.

This course aims at studying the phenomenon of music applied to the advertising image, analyzing examples of radio and TV ads soundtracks with the purpose of highlighting their characteristics and functions. The basis of studies lies in academic positions, but also in practical, real and day-to-day cases of actual advertising, raising awareness of the persuasive intentions that creators and other agents in the process have. It also has the intention of enabling students to get a close look at the creative process, from the client briefing, the composition or adaptation work and the production and postproduction, to the media. The suitable conceptual tools to approach this subject of study will be provided to students.

2. Competences to be attained

2.1. General skills

• Capacity for putting the knowledge into practice.

• Team working capacity. Capacity for clearly presenting one's ideas and for establishing synergies with the rest of the members of the team.

• Critical and self-critical capacity.

• Communication skills.

• Basic vocabulary and applications knowledge.

• Punctuality and respect towards the others' work (professor and students).

• Paying attention to the presentations and interventions made by other students.

2.2. Specific skills

Minimum Degree Skills

1. Capacity for setting, planning and assessing advertising communication actions and speeches for the development of communication campaigns and their effective implementation through different technologies.

2. Training in communicative strategies design and creation and communication policies development, with the purpose of identifying, managing and meeting the companies' needs, from the perspective of the advertiser's communication office and the communication company.

3. Analysis and observation capacity, applied to the different music aesthetic criteria and their implementation to the advertising phenomenon.

4. Critical and analytical capacity for interpreting data offered by a creative briefing.

5. Training in one's expressive capacities and particularities of every media, support and advertising format for the messages and communication campaigns development. Ability to analyze and select the media according to communication strategies, in conventional media as well as in non conventional media.

6. Training in the knowledge and use of communication technologies in the different multimedia and hypermedia environments, for their application in advertising and public relations and the development of new supports.

7. Identifying the different creative typologies of radio and TV advertising music.

8. Capacity for creating advertising messages through music.

9. Capacity for encouraging creativity individually and in the work team.

Excellence Degree Skills

10 Creative and lively use of the course concepts and theories for the analysis of the advertising creative process through musical language.

3. Contents

4. Assessment

1.1. General assessment criteria

The objective of the Music and Advertising course is that students reach competences 1-9 with a satisfactory degree. That will enable them to approach the theory and techniques supporting the professional practice of advertising musical language. The 10th competence distinguishes a satisfactory degree from an excellence degree in the achievement of the learning global objectives.

The assessment of the course includes a written test at the end of the term, besides a project to be done in group and a presentation in public during the last sessions of the term. As well, the assessment will include several debates in a triple format:

- previous preparations outside the classroom, on the basis of a recommended reading.

- online debate among students through the Aula Global-Moodle forum, during the preceding week.

- face-to-face debates in small groups with an active participation, moderated by the professor.

Although they don't have a specific weight in the global assessment of the course, formal elements such as the projects appearance , presentation and oral and written argument capacities and the active participations of students in master classes and debate sessions will be taken into account for the final grade. In other words, even though they are not specific competences of the course, it is taken for granted that students have acquired a minimum mastering of these last competences.

4.2. Weight of every assessment method on the final grade

Online forum / Face-to-face debate (30%)

Four debates in small groups of students will take place throughout the term. Different study materials will be provided in order to generate the debates. The assessment will be based on the active participation in the debates and the previous online participation in the course forum.

· Research work and public presentation (30%)

Students must work in groups with the purpose of finding the greatest possible information on

the music used by a brand/ product or a brand/ service, or the music created for institutions. They will hand it over to the professor in CD-DVD format, at the same time they make a public presentation of the results in class.

· Exam (40%)

Audiovisual written test at the end of the term.

5. Bibliography and teaching resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

· Fernández Gómez, J.D. (2005): "Aproximación tipológica a la música en publicidad: de la identidad sonora corporativa a la comercialización de la canción publicitaria". En Questiones Publicitarias, vol. I, n.10, pp.53-76.

· Gómez Rodríguez, J.A. (2005) "Lo que no venda, cántelo. Algunas reflexiones sobre el papel de la música en la publicidad". En La Música en los medios audiovisuales. Salamanca: Plaza Universitaria Ediciones, pp. 225-266.

· Guijarro, Unit & Muela, C. (2003): "La música, la voz, los efectos y el silencio en publicidad". Madrid: Dossat 2000.

· Palencia-Lefler, M (2009): "La música en la comunicación publicitaria" En Revista Comunicaciónn y Sociedad, Vol. XXII, n.2, pp.89-108.

· Palencia-Lefler, M. (2010): "Banda sonora de la publicidad televisiva española: formas, géneros y estilos musicales". En Revista Comunicación y Sociedad, Vol. XXIII, n.1, pp.299-318.

· Santacreu, O. (2002): "La música en la publicidad". Tesis Doctoral. Universidad de Alicante.

5.2. Complementary bibliography

· Bassat, L. (1993): "El libro rojo de la publicidad". Barcelona: Folio.

· Beltrán Moner, R. (1991): "Ambientación musical: selección, montaje y sonorización". Madrid: Instituto Oficial de Radio y Televisión (IORTV). Colección Manuales Profesionales. 1984/1991.

· Blankopf, K. (1988): "Sociología de la música". Madrid: Real Musical.

· Chion, M. (2004): "La música en el cine". Barcelona: Paidós Comunicación.

· Cebrian, M. (1978): "Introducción al lenguaje de la televisión". Madrid: Pirámide.

· Cook, N. (2004): "Analisyng Musical Multimedia". Oxford: Oxford University Press.

· De Marcos, I. (2001): "Estrategias musicales". En Anuncios, n.941, pp.48-50. Publicaciones Profesionales S.A.U.

· García Uceda, M. (2000): "Las claves de la publicidad". Madrid: ESIC.

· Gertudrix, M. (2003): "Música y narración en los medios audiovisuales". Madrid: Laberinto Comunicación.

· Hung, K.(2000): "Narrative music in congruent and incongruent TV advertising". En The Journal of Advertising, vol. XXIX, n.1, pp.25-34. American Academy of Advertising.

· Hurón, D. (1989): "Music in Advertising: An Analytic Paradigm". En Musical Quarterly, vol. 73, n.4, pp. 557-574. Oxford University Press.

· León, J.L. (1996): "Los efectos de la publicidad". Barcelona: Ariel.

· Lorente, J. (1986): "Casi todo lo que sé de publicidad". Barcelona: Folio.

· Montañés, Nebrija y Barsa (2006) "Historia iconográfica de la música en la publicidad". Madrid: Iberautor Promociones Culturales, S.L.

· Nieto, José (1996): "Música para la imagen. La influencia secreta". Madrid: S.G.A.E.

· Pedrero, L. M. (2000): "La radio musical en España. Historia y análisis" Madrid: Instituto Oficial de Radio y Televisión (IORTV).

· Radigales, J. (2002): "Sobre la música. Reflexions a l'entorn de la música i l'audiovisual", Barcelona: Trípodos. Papeles de estudio.

· Rodríguez, A. (1998): "La dimensión sonora del lenguaje audiovisual". Barcelona: Paidós.

· Sedeño, A.M. (2006): "La función de la música en los comerciales publicitarios". En UNIrevista, vol. 1, n.3, pp.1-7. Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Brazil.

6. Metodology

The course includes master lessons, online and offline debate sessions and participatory classes where students will present in public the results of their work and researches.

7. Planning of activities

Mon.10 General introduction.

Thu.12 Unit 1 Music and persuasion.

Mon.17 Unit 1 Music and persuasion.

Thu.19 Unit 2 Music and advertising.

Mon.24 Unit 3 Music applied to advertising typology.

Thu.26 Online tutoring session.

Mon.1 Holiday. No classes.

Thu.3 Tutoring sessions for projects (in groups).

Mon.8 Unit 3 Typology - Original music.

Thu.10 DEBATE 1 GROUP A 18h / GROUP B 19h.

Mon.15 Unit 4 Typology - Pre-existent music.

Thu.17 DEBATE 2 GRUPO B 18h / GROUP A 19h.

Mon.22 Master-class: Sound and creativity.

Thu.24 DEBATE 3 GROUP A 18h / GROUP B 19h.

Mon.29 Master-class: Creative process: the music composer's point of view.

Thu.31 DEBATE 4 GROUP B 18h / GROUP A 19h.

Mon.5 Unit 5 Music in advertising in Spain.

Thu.7 Public presentation of results (Groups 1 to 4)

Mon.12 Public presentation of results (Groups 5 to 8)

Thu.14 Public presentation of results (Groups 9 to 12)

Mon.19 Public presentation of results (Groups 13 to 15). Course conclusions.