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Music & Memory

Listening to the radio this morning a study of music and memory for stroke recovery was discussed. It has been known for a while that the senses of sound and smell are the most closely linked to memory, something personally backed up for me everytime I smell Gio perfume and listen to The Stone Roses - I Am The Resurrection, arrrh to be 16 again!

Check out the feature by clicking on the link;
http://www.box.net/shared/3me3bpmo0w

Computer Music

All made from Windows 98 & XP sounds, Love it!

Music as a Vehicle

Music and car advertising have had a long and illustrious working career together. Those that have stuck in my memory include the 1988 VW Golf ad with Alan Price crowing about 'Changes', which was followed a few years and an upgrade later with the one hit wonder of the Bluebells proclaiming the Golf to now be 'Young at Heart' following those Changes. Also the Peugeot 406 using Berlin to 'Take My Breath Away' while burning a sugar platation followed by the beautifully dreamy 'Dream a little Dream of Me' by the Mama's and Papa's while dreaming of waking next to the equally dreamy Kim Basinger.

However the only sophistication shown my car manufacturers use of music for years seemed to be Renaults 100 odd remixes of 'Johnny & Mary' by Robert Palmer, where they fit model, target audience, visuals, media choice all to music across many different territories (only the Clio launch in the UK) Clink this link to hear a montage of some;

http://www.box.net/shared/mzg8groo4c

All this brings me to cars and music now, because the relationship seems to have matured. While there are still examples of car ads as music videos flogging us a dream - the new Jaguar ad springs to mind - a few have used music as the vehicle for expressing the brand concept. The obvious recent and rather blunt example of this is the Ford Focus's 'Beautifully Arranged' ad.

I'm sure this is the sort of ad that has a warmer reception from the public than from the industry, but I do agree with the Scamp's commentary that the pun 'Beautifully Arranged' is a claim rather than a truth and that the music is "as dull as dishwater". Music is all about emotion, excitement, dispair whatever its magic, and we all have an extensive memory of beautiful arrangements when this peice fails to compare to those the Truth is lost and the Claim is born.

I was drawn to a car that does succeed to use music as a vehicle, that is the new Audi TT (not personally as I think they are all driven by hairdressers) But the original TT proclaimed to be "Designed under the influence of Jimi Hendrix", something I could believe when I first saw it and before the Nicky Clarke wannabe's got their hands on them. So when it came to the upgraded model the truth was it had been remastered, and seeing as music had been the original influence it was music that was used again by remastering classic tracks by modern artists. The website is down now but there was nice link ups with Xfm's remix show to release the tracks and this Observer music monthly feature all about classic cover versions, all good. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/ttremastered/story/0,,2166706,00.html

Sounds Visual

A crazy, loveable, ex-hippy mentor of mine once got a room full of people to link colours to music, after proving a commonality of thinking proceeded to get them to paint pictures to music. It was non too sophisticated an exercise, but was pretty unique at the time and proved hugely successful at getting 250 ad industry sceptics to assess sound differently, not to mention demonstrating a very memorable approach to presenting sonically. I love how this relationship between music and art has been put to its full potential in this Tate Tracks campaign. The Colour of Sound to the Art of Noise

Language is Music

My attention was recently drawn to an excellent podcast series, Radiolab, by the US public service radio broadcaster WNYC. One episode in particular caught my eye then ear titled Musical Language and the opening feature is fascinating, take a listen by clicking on the link below

http://www.box.net/shared/neopnukjoc

That got me thinking about language's influence on memory and how we use language through our voice to create a form of music often using rhyme. For kids there are endless rhyming and sung phrases to help remember things and in the adult world of presentations and speeches this technique is used extensively (among those in the know). I remember listening to an interview with the late George Carmen QC who talked about being influenced by advertising slogans when summing up in court, to ensure share of voice in the jury's mind long after he'd shut up, some of his brilliant quotes taken from a Guardian article;

On Hamilton: a man 'on the make and on the take'. On David Mellor, someone who 'behaved like an ostrich and put his head in the sand, thereby exposing his thinking parts'. On Ken Dodd's taxmen: 'Some accountants are comedians, but comedians are never accountants.'

I regularly use the Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech as the ultimate example of voices' ability to communicate emotion, but its musical quality is also undeniable. Something that hasn't passed by the supporters of the pretender to the King's crown;