Genre, Birth Cohort, and Product Perception: Responses to Background Music in Commercial Advertising

Research shows that music transmits both embodied (universally perceptible) and referential (culturally specific) meanings. The present study sought to explore the persuasive power of music in commercial advertising, and the complex ties that exist between music, life experience and perception. The study looked at how the perception of a product could be altered in accordance with specific embodied and referential meanings. With a focus on the effects of music genre and birth cohort on product perception, embodied meanings were expected to produce similar results across birth cohorts, and referential meanings were expected to produce significantly different results. A total of 100 participants were administered the survey online. Participants watched 30-second original video clips and were asked to complete a survey. There were 16 videos made with the 4 products types and 4 music genres selected for the experiment. The survey measured perception through ratings of agreement to statements; one set of statements aimed to measure embodied meaning and the other to measure referential meaning. Each measure of the survey was individually analyzed; data used here is from the analysis of a product as classic. There was a significant main effect of music genre on product perception for a majority of the measures, F(3,273)=13.075, p F (2,91)=3.941, p=.023. There was no significant interaction between birth cohort and music genre on product perception for any measures, F(6,273)=.801, p =.570. Results show that the older cohort prefers classic rock and jazz, the younger birth cohort prefers electronic and pop. Results for the questions looking at referential meaning primarily produced insignificant results

Memory Vague: A History of City Pop

This thesis gives a definition and chronology of city pop and places it within the context of Japanese history. City pop can be traced from the 1960s folk movement in Japan until its demise in the early 1990s, coinciding with the end of the bubble economy. This thesis also examines the mid-2010s resurgence of interest in city pop among English-speaking internet users, beginning with a nostalgic rediscovery and curation of city pop around the turn of the century by DJs in Japan known as “crate diggers.” City pop was then transmitted to the West through sampling in hip-hop and especially within the internet-based genre of vaporwave. The character of vaporwave is one of dystopia and is highly contrasted with the breezy, optimistic sound of city pop. City pop was eventually discovered in the late-2010s by a wider international audience through YouTube, largely due to the suggestion algorithm and the sudden popularity of Takeuchi Mariya’s “Plastic Love.” This thesis will define nostalgia in relation to music and show in what ways it has been present as a factor throughout the history of city pop

Dimensions of Music: The Effect of Music/Brand Congruity on Advertising and Brand Evaluations.

This research investigates the role of background music in the process of attitude formation. Specifically, this paper examines how the fit between a piece of music and a brand in a product evaluation setting may affect attitudes toward the brand and the advertisement. Based on the theories of Mandler (1982) and Berlyne (1972), this research proposes that a moderate congruity between the music and the brand will lead to more positive evaluations of the brand and advertisement than either high or low congruity. In the first part of the research, a scale is created to measure how people describe their perceptions of music samples. A framework to measure the dimensions of music is developed by determining the number and nature of the underlying dimensions (calming, dark, energizing, jazzy, and sophisticated). In the second part of this research, an experiment is designed to test the effects of music/brand congruity on advertising and brand evaluations under conditions of high and low cognitive capacity. This experiment uses the dimensions of music scale to create conditions of high, moderate, and low music/brand congruity. Music/brand congruity is determined by the degree to which people tended to evaluate the music and the brand similarly on the dimensions (calming, dark, energizing, jazzy, or sophisticated). Implications of the scale development and experiment are discussed, and further research is proposed.Ph.D.Business AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61671/1/rumpus_1.pd

Aging in the Social Space

A publication called Aging in the Social Space is a compilation of studies, which deal with theoretical understanding and empirical solutions, learning about problem spheres, specifying content parallels of social, legal, economic, moral and ethical views on senior issues in society, which are closely related to each other and are interconnected. This publication focus on the case study of Poland. It is supposed to provide a multidimensional view of old age issues and issues related to aging and care for old people in society. We believe that it is natural also to name individual spheres, in which society has some eff ect, either direct or indirect, within issues concerning seniors. Learning about these spheres is the primary prerequisite for successful use of social help to seniors in society

The Representation of American English Dialects in Prime Time Network Television Dramatic Programs

This research project develops a working hypothesis about the role of the mass media in influencing dialect distributions in large, complex societies. It is proposed that dramatic programs are a crucial component in this process by imbuing particular dialects with particular values in association with particular kinds of fictional characters. As audiences consume mass media drama they may assimilate attitudes toward speech varieties that are congruent with the portrayals of fictional characters who speak them, with the potential that these attitudes may in some way influence their own behavior. A method is developed to analyze the television drama message regarding dialects of American English and an analysis of over 1100 characters from a sample of over 60 hours of prime\u27time network television dramatic programming is undertaken to specify relationships between dialects used by characters and other character traits. It is found that Northern R-ful varieties of American English are not only grossly overrepresented by are also clearly marked as relatively prestigious. To estimate the extent to which this representational bias has entered into attitudes toward dialects in different dialect regions of the United States a small scale survey was devised in the form of a self-administered evaluational response test using six speakers (three male-female pairs providing North Midland, South Midland, and Black accented speech) on tape as stimuli. The test was mailed to teachers at five regional universities and was given to a total of 127 students. Asked to rate the speakers on several semantic differential scales in terms of what kind of character would be most appropriate for each speaker, some evidence for general agreement favoring the North Midland accent in prestige valuing was gathered. It is concluded that the television message bestows prestige value on Northern R-ful varieties of American English and is reflected in attitudes shared in different dialect regions. The significance of the pan-regional influence of the mass media for sociolinguistic inquiry into issues of language change and cultural hegemony is indicated

Texas Exceptionalism and Texas Style Fiddling: Fiddle Contests, Patriarchs, and Musical Markers

The phrase “Texas Fiddle Player” indicates a unique musical identity within the Greater North American Fiddling community. Beyond fiddle tunes, fiddling culture involves technical diversity, interpersonal relationships, various performance contexts, teaching and learning, and the stories making up a community’s collective memory. The Texas Fiddle Player identity is the result of a process of connecting these aspects of fiddling culture to symbols and narratives that evoke a specific kind of “Texan-ness.” This process is a form of musical Texas Exceptionalism, in that it asserts a belief that Texas Fiddle Players are somehow different from their American fiddling peers. This manifests in three distinct ways. First, the fiddle contest stage provides a platform for Texas Fiddle Players to perform and affirm their musical identities. Second, each generation of Texas Fiddle Players from the last 100 years has treated American fiddle music like an untamed frontier. Finally, many notable Texas Fiddle Players play with specific technical and musical markers which aid in forming a regional dialect. These manifestations work together to create the “Texas Fiddle Player” identity

From the Utopia of Quietness to the Fear of Stillness: A Taxonomic Research Study to Understanding 'Silence' through the medium of radio and its Implications for Media, Education and Psychology.

Questioning ‘what is silence?’ and wondering about silence and its very existence is not something that one would frequently witness. The definition of this noun by the Oxford dictionary states it as “a complete absence of sound” (‘Silence’, 2018), and it is even compared to language – “the fact or state of abstaining from speech”. Although these definitions must carry some kind of validity, experiencing silence could also be considered daunting. Having examined literature from ancient philosophers such as Socrates, as far back as 469 BC, to our present culture of immersion in the mass-media, this thesis aims to offer a systematic taxonomy of silence. A wider and more informed understanding of silence is established, that is hoped to benefit knowledge in fields such as health, psychology, media, education and personal development. This taxonomical approach has been created by means of qualitative interpretative phenomenological research, comprising a blend of different methods and styles: the study of a specific case employing a grounded theory lens (preliminary exercise) and eleven semi-structured interviews. The choice of a radio programme as a pilot was considered the best tool to use as a starting point, to enable examination of current thinking in the field, and because of the ‘blindness’ of the medium, so there is an advantage to expounding and exploring its cognitive resources without being limited or jeopardising the use of the vision. Content has been discussed, compared and contrasted after the transcriptions of both methods, supported by literature, in order to reinforce veracity and reliability. The findings of the empirical research have confirmed the different meanings of silence encountered in the review of literatures. It also adds another layer of critical and detailed understanding of silence. The meanings of silence drawn from literature – investigated through the case study and distilled by media professionals will provide a better understanding of silence within society, so that they could use silence to their own advantage. The contribution to knowledge offers and informs views and experiences about the role of silence, cultivating cognitive and critical skills, exposing four scopes: psychology; socio-psychology; physiology; and neuroscience. Although the results are not conclusive, this research project suggests informing professionals in health, media and education to take time to consider how silence could be beneficial, not just for them, but for their patients, clients and pupils