By John Sisson (President)
I’m always impressed with the way in which music moves me, and I assume others, too.
Personally, I feel as if music gives you a connection to time and place that other media can’t. I’m sure there’s a study that supports the idea that music can have a positive effect on memory. (In fact – look here for one.) We remember, if not an exact event, certainly a general time and space when we heard “that tune”.
Maybe just as importantly, we remember how we felt when we heard the music. Or, if we don’t remember how we felt exactly, we still feel something based on the tune and that space and time we heard it before.
That said, I think there’s an even more powerful use for music in marketing. A lot of time and many hair styles have gone by since I heard Pink Floyd sing “Wish You Were Here”. And yet, there’s still a connection.
That actually is my point – music can connect you to your audience today.
Music is interpreted by us, but our interpretation of it changes over time, not because the lyrics change, but because we do. What moved me about Roger Waters lyrics in 1976 is different than today. For those of you who are uninitiated, or for those of you who’ve forgotten, here’s a video of the song – along with the lyrics below:
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
In marketing, as in life, we do what we can to interpret our audience and deliver messaging to move them, to drive emotion. In the case of Roger Waters’ lyrics, I used to think of this as a rallying call for rebellion, an emotion of anger.
In today’s context, I think of it as a cautionary tale to avoid exchanging celebrity for reason, something that seems particularly prescient in today’s society. Love this song regardless, by the way.
We, as marketers, have an opportunity – by thinking of the nuance of music, applying it to the nuance of the audience and moving people emotionally. If I was a non-profit or an organization dedicated to civility or protecting the environment, I’d be on the phone to Roger to see if he’d let me use his song.
For those of you out there who love Pink Floyd and this song, I’d love to hear how you think of it today versus yesterday.
CONSIDER ALSO READING – Humor In Marketing (And How I Lost My Toothbrush)
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