Brainwashed By Music?

[Zed McJack]

Found an interesting article about how music can influence our subconcious...I already new about some experiments with adds during moive plays and read about some Beatles experiments, so yeah, maybe we shuold all include something like "Ohh Zed's music is so good I have to buy it now"  in our music....lol

 

[TapperMike]

I take that stuff with a grain of salt.

 

Upon starting my new job I am subjected to underground urban hip hop.  I don't want to kill anyone rob anyone or rape anyone. Most of the subject matter has to do with exactly that.  I accept that the music does not speak of or to me. The young man who I work with that listens to the stuff is actually very mild mannered and relaxed and easy going.  He's a recent transplant out of Detroit to suburbia.  If anyone would ask to change the station he'd have no qualms in doing so.  It is a unique environment he's in quite different then the one he came from. 

 

In jails where they are bringing in a violent offender. The often lock the person in a cell with loud heavy metal.  It has a cathartic affect on the person and allows him to vent vicariously rather then engaging in violence with cell mates or guards.

 

Most of our development  (brainwashing) is due to our environment growing up.  Our home environment, how our parents act to us as children, to each other and to others becomes the formation of what we become when we are adults.  Granted we still have our own unique personality in that mix but it all happens from birth till about 12~14.  After that we often go through "acting out / anti-scripts in search of who we are as people beyond our development.  It's one stage of many in our lives. 

 

The music we listen to as the subconscious separates from the conscious affects our musical listening habits for life.  That doesn't always mean it's a reflection of who we are as people.  We take some of it as one would a great movie that moves us though is not a reflection of us.  I listened to a lot of drug related music as a kid.  Not a drug user.  I listened to a lot of songs about promiscuity growing up.  My parents were devoted to each other till the day my mother passed away.  My father remarried in 2 years and has been faithful to my Step mother since the day they married going on 30+ years. I don't go chasing women for sport.  I always look for women with whom I could have a long term relationship. I don't impregnate them and then dump them.  As I've never had financial stability nor personal time in my life I've chosen to remain childless because I would want to provide for my childs complete needs so that they would have an opportunity to become fully self actualized adults.  Which again goes back to the home environment in child development rather then ...what's the latest shock song.

[MikeRobinson]

All of which (should ...) go to show us that:  "popular music is a product ... a work of fiction."

 

Yes, "the shelves of record-stores" and "the shelves of book-stores" and (may they rest in peace ...) "the shelves of video-stores" are really all the same:  they are "the shelves of stores."  And all of them, one way or the other, contain:  "vacarious escapes."

 

But ... these "escapes" are not "escapes from 'our boring every-day Real World.'"  No, they are "escapes directly into Exciting Fantasy."

 

Face it:  you're not "driving your Red Pickup Truckâ„¢ Down By The Riverâ„¢ with A Six-Pack Of Beerâ„¢ ... to 'hang out' (heh heh ...) with a Girlâ„¢ who's Wearing Painted-On Blue Jeansâ„¢," and that is precisely why you do not want to buy a song that sings-about reality!!

 

"Daddy was a C-P-A ... he drove to work and mucked with debits-and-credits ev-er-y day ... and then he died ... so we had a fun-eral, talked about him, then we cried ... while his co-work-ers just went on ... yeah, the com-pa-ny he worked for just went on and on ..."

... sh*t ... that extemporaneous-something-or-other sounds like a way-cool lyric ...!!  "©"!! Waitaminit!! Firsties!! "©"!! "©"!!     ... "but, I digress.â„¢"

 

Marketers, and therefore song-writers, know this.  They know they're not around to sell reality.

 

So do the writers of Romance Fiction, the purveyors of "Bulging (Virgin, of Courseâ„¢) Breasts" and Men who are "shrugging off their (blue jeans, of course ...) Pants" ... for the benefit of an actual audience consisting of ... well, nevermind.

 

Nobody wants to know what the actual audience-profile of a Romance Novel consists of ... even though everybody does.

 

"Play the game," and most importantly of all, "sell to it."

 

[john]

At a base level labels do it all the time. They don't need fancy subliminal messages either.

It seems that they struck upon a simple psychological trick, saturation. That's right, they get a song played so much that you can't forget it. More than that, they simply get it played until you like it! Seriously!

Subliminally do work, but they are at their most effective when it is audio visual, ie you have a video feed too. But it isn't as simple as "like this". Ni where near.

Far simpler to invest your time on making great music!

[john]

Hi David

 

i believe that was the common ways of achieving subliminal advertising, but in essence it is any method that gets the advertising message to our subconscious without being noticed. For example, the skull drawn into ice cubes of whiskey in a glass to hype of the being dangerous and edgy feel that drinkers liked to flirt with having. You could see the skull if you looked for it.

 

Product placement in TV and movie works on this principle of "hiding in plain sight". We see the apple logo on the computers being used in a movie, but it isn't an obvious advertisement. Sure, we are a bit more clued in these days and we can spot obvious product placement, for example getting close ups of an iphone 4 in a movie... if it is done believably it works as a subliminal advertisement, if the viewer spots it because it wasn't believably worked into the plot it is just an advertisement.

 

In audio, you are right, it is pretty well the methods you mention, but arguably background music could be classed as subliminal... depending just how noticeable it is. Too loud, probably too obvious, then it isn't exactly subliminal. Not enough activity and action in the foreground, then that too might make it more noticable.

 

We see brands all the time on TV and film... but only occasionally does our "That's product placement" alarm go off.

[Rudi]

In jails where they are bringing in a violent offender. The often lock the person in a cell with loud heavy metal.

 

 

What about her human rights?