Reality by Design: Advertising Image, Music and Sound Design in

375 Pages·2009·1.32 MB·English

Reality by Design: Advertising Image, Music and Sound Design in the Production of Culture
by

Joyce Kurpiers

Department of Music
Duke University

Date:_____________________

Approved:

___________________________
Louise Meintjes, Supervisor

__________________________
Scott Lindroth

__________________________
Negar Mottahedeh

__________________________
Orin Starn

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the Department of Music in the Graduate School of
Duke University
2009
ABSTRACT

Reality by Design: Advertising Image, Music and Sound Design in the Production of Culture
by

Joyce Kurpiers

Department of Music
Duke University

Date:_____________________

Approved:

___________________________
Louise Meintjes, Supervisor

__________________________
Scott Lindroth

__________________________
Negar Mottahedeh

__________________________
Orin Starn

An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the Department of Music in the Graduate School of
Duke University
2009
Copyright by
Joyce Kurpiers
2009
Abstract
This dissertation explores creative music, sound design and image production in
the context of consumer culture (as defined by how its participants socialize in late-
capitalist culture using commodities). Through the stylization of image, music and sound
effects, advertisers communicate an abstract concept of a brand, and instantiate the brand
through an audience member’s heightened experience of the brand via the ad. Facilitated
by socialized and mediatized frameworks for brand communications, branding is an
embodied practice that relies on the audience member’s participation with the brand
through her/his real experience with an (audiovisual) advertisement. The effect of
making the abstract brand tangible relies on successfully executing advertising objectives
to create “impact” through stylized and often hyperreal representations of reality. At the
same time, audience members’ encounters with ads and branding practices represent bona
fide experiences for them within American-capitalist cultural practices, and audience
members take part in these practices as part of social participation and general making-
sense of their everyday lives.
In late-capitalist consumer culture, the idea of the “consumer” operates within the
liminal space of constructions of hyper-reality and the self. Through advertising,
corporate interests mediate how people relate to and through commodities as consumers.
Through ads, producers communicate an idea of a brand, that is, the collection and
stylistic design of specific visual and sonic symbols, and the associated ideas, values or
emotions that project an identity or persona about a company and its products or services.
In attempts to increase the efficacy of their ads, ad producers fashion image, music and

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sound design specifically in ways they believe will generate “impact,” that is, a physical,
physiological or emotional response to audiovisual stimuli that are infused with symbolic
meanings and values.
In their attempts to create effective ads, ad producers circumscribe identities of
people based on demographics, behavior metrics, or a host of other measures intended to
define what the industry calls “target audiences.” With the belief that target audience
members share wants, needs and values, ad producers build constellations of audiovisual
signifiers that they believe will resonate with target audience members. These signifiers
borrow from cultural narratives and myths to tell stories about brands and products, and
communicate how people’s lived experiences might be transformed through consumption
practices.
With meticulous formulation of image, music and sound design, ad producers
create a “hyperreality,” that is exaggerated, heightened or stylized representation of
reality. Through these carefully produced audio and visual artifacts, ad producers
(re)circulate cultural narratives they believe communicate meaning and ideas of value,
and make those abstract beliefs tangible through the audience member’s sensorial
experiences. With hyperreality grounded in an audience members’ body and emotions,
ad producers believe they can shape and direct audience members’ ideas about their
personal identities, and that of others and social groups. Additionally, ad image, music
and sound design contribute to the naturalization of the ways people can socialize around
branded identities and interconnect through commodities.

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Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I thank everyone who participated in my study through
interviews and internships, particularly those at MSA/BIS and the Echo
Boys/Crash+Sues. I appreciate the trust you all placed in me as I peered into your
working lives. I appreciate your tolerance of my constant presence and incessant
inquiries. I appreciate your patience in teaching me the details of your work and your
thinking. Dozens of participants shaped my own thinking throughout the work of this
project, most of whom not mentioned directly in these pages. I find it difficult to express
the depth of my gratitude for your participation and friendship.
Second, I thank my committee: Scott Lindroth, Negar Mottahedeh, Orin Starn,
and Louise Meintjes. Over the course of this project’s three-year process, I experienced
my most intensive and formative intellectual development. Louise, I thank you in
particular for signing on to an aggressive completion plan, and recognizing how to
mentor me effectively and graciously. With my committee I thank several scholars
outside of Duke who supported me through conversation and chapter draft review, among
them Tim Taylor, Tom Porcello, David Samuels, and Diane Pecknold. I’m often
humbled to acknowledge ways I’ve been invited into your intellectual circles.
Next, I thank my support network, friends and loved ones who supported me
through the rigors and dysfunctions of my graduate school experience. So many have
meant so much to me, and I mention only a few here. Thanks, Keith, for opening your
home and giving me a cheap yet very comfortable place to crash when I was in
Minneapolis. Thanks, Linda, for believing in me resolutely and cheerfully. Thanks, Pam,

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for seeing more in me than I could sometimes see in myself (and for helping me learn
that vision). Thanks to Cecilia and UW-Madison colleagues who taught me what
academic collegiality and friendship can be. Thanks, Ben, for help with Finale and
general technical expertise, not to mention the always thoughtful counter-point. Thanks,
Jason, for coffee, beer and mutual encouragement at key moments. Thanks, Tim, for
muddling through hard times in the best ways we knew how—I love you much.
I offer this work in honor of women who’ve walked through what some of us
called the fire pit of f-ing hell, who were willing to look behind the curtain. I’m here
because of you.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... IV
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................................................... VI
OPENING THOUGHTS ON “REALITY BY DESIGN” ............................................................. 1
CHAPTER 1: AN INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING IDEOLOGIES, AD PRODUCTION AND
CONSUMER CULTURAL PRACTICES IN LATE CAPITALISM ............................................. 14
DEFINING AUDIENCES ..................................................................................................... 30
MUSIC, “INVOLVEMENT,” MUSICAL GENRE AND LISTENING PRACTICES .................... 39
PRODUCERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO: MEDIATIZATION AND THE POWER OF THE PRODUCER
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CULTURE .............................................................................. 49
PLAYING THE SENSES: THE REAL/HYPER-REALITY, IMPACT, AND THE BRAND
EXPERIENCE ..................................................................................................................... 57
AD PRODUCERS AND THEIR DISCONTENTS ..................................................................... 73
CHAPTER 2: REPRESENTING REALITY, DELIVERING “THE REAL” THROUGH IMAGE-
SOUND MEDIA .................................................................................................................. 84
PRODUCERS AND POLITICS ............................................................................................. 89
EMBODYING AN AD: A CLOSE READING OF “BRISKET BLOW’D UP” ........................... 91
DEFINING “TARGET AUDIENCE,” FORGING REAL IDENTITY ...................................... 102
FASHIONING THE REAL THROUGH SET, LIGHT AND SHOT COMPOSITION ................ 112
BUILDING A HERO: THE BREAD CRISIS AND THE FOOD STYLISTS .............................. 119
“MORE MEAT”: LABORIOUSLY PERFORMING THE REAL ........................................... 125
VOICEOVER (VO): TALENT, DELIVERY, AND TIME ..................................................... 130
MUSIC: FASHIONING CHARACTER WITHOUT WORDS.................................................. 139
THE MAKINGS OF A MAN: SEEKING APPROVAL .......................................................... 146
CHAPTER 3: MUSICAL GENRE, POETICS, AND LISTENER EXPERIENCE IN THE
PRODUCTION OF MEANING ............................................................................................ 152
INITIAL CLIENT FEEDBACK: VOICEMANAGER, SPORTS BAR, NOT- I.T. GUY .......... 157

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SPORTS BAR, DEMO 1, TAKE 1: “WE’RE GONNA DE-COUNTRIFY WHAT YOU DID…”
........................................................................................................................................ 161
SPORTS BAR, DEMO 1, TAKE 2: IMAGE AND MUSIC .................................................... 170
SPORTS BAR, DEMO 2: “MELLOW OUT THE AC/DC…”............................................. 173
NOT I.T. GUY: BUILDING “SOPHISTICATION” THROUGH SOUND ............................... 177
VOICEMANAGER ........................................................................................................... 182
VOICEMANAGER, DEMO 1, VERSION 1: “SOPHISTICATED JAZZ, ON THE BLUESY SIDE
OF FUNK” ........................................................................................................................ 184
VOICEMANAGER, VERSION 2—“CONVENTIONAL JAZZY…IS THAT TOO SMOOTH
JAZZY?” .......................................................................................................................... 191
VOICEMANAGER, VERSION 3—“THE COLDPLAY VERSION” ..................................... 200
CHAPTER 4: SOUND DESIGN, “IMPACT” AND REIFICATION OF VALUES...................... 207
THE ECHO BOYS AND COX BUSINESS SERVICES: RELATING THROUGH THE REAL 215
VERISIMILITUDE AND ORDER: BROKERAGE ...................................................... 215
“ALL HELL’S BREAKIN’ LOOSE”: PERRY ............................................................ 227
THE BRAND AND THE SOCIAL: SPORTS BAR ...................................................... 236
SONIC DRAMA (WITH A WINK): DRIP ................................................................. 239
THE ECHO BOYS AND HARLEY-DAVIDSON ................................................................. 244
BLENDING MYTH AND THE REAL ....................................................................... 244
BLAZING MUSIC AND SOUND: FORMING FANTASTIC—HOW NOT TO RELATE TO AN
AD… ............................................................................................................................... 258
LOWE’S FOODS .................................................................................................. 258
XYIENCE ............................................................................................................ 262
COMMODIFICATION OF EXPERIENCE THROUGH SOUND ............................................. 267
CHAPTER 5: THE REAL, THE CONSUMER, AND THE SELF: ADS IN PUBLIC DISCOURSE
......................................................................................................................................... 269
CLOSE READING, EVOLUTION ...................................................................................... 287
CLOSE READING, ONSLAUGHT ..................................................................................... 291
MAKING SENSE OF THE REAL: COMMENTS ON IMAGE, MUSIC, SOUND DESIGN ........ 296
SPOTTING THE ORIGINAL: DEMONSTRATING CULTURAL PROWESS AND VALUES
THROUGH MUSICAL KNOWLEDGE ................................................................................ 310
SILENT SOUND DESIGN .................................................................................................. 315
THE REAL, SOCIAL BEHAVIOR, CORPORATE ETHICS .................................................. 317
PUBLIC EXPRESSION, PERSONAL PAIN .......................................................................... 325
THE SECRETS OF BEAUTY ADVERTISING REVEALED… ............................................... 329
HUMAN NATURE VS. CAPITALIST CONDITIONING ........................................................ 334

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CLOSING REMARKS FOR “REALITY BY DESIGN” .......................................................... 341
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 349
BIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 365

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