On music’s potential to convey meaning in film: A systematic review of empirical evidence

Abstract

With its schema-activating potential to influence an audience’s perception and interpretation of film plot and protagonists, film music goes far beyond the role of an emotionalizing accessory in film contexts. For this review, 24 German and English empirical studies that tested music’s potential to convey meaning were identified to be compared in their research questions, the characteristics of their methods, designs, samples, and stimulus materials, as well as main results. Depending on the degree of realism and the abstraction level of the audio-visual stimulus material, differently connoted music or music of different genres trigger supra-individual associations, which make the recipients’ perceptual patterns and evaluations of film plot and protagonists predictable. The review provides a systematization of music’s effects as well as methodological and content-related indications for future research.

How Soundtracks Shape What We See: Analyzing the Influence of Music on Visual Scenes Through Self-Assessment, Eye Tracking, and Pupillometry

“…These studies represent an attempt to fill in the theoretical and methodological gaps reported by Herget’s (2019) review. Although our results seem very promising, further investigations are needed.…”

“…This results in experiments each analyzing a single psychological construct. (2) Complex psychological constructs such as sympathy and empathy toward media protagonists could and should be investigated through all the available established measuring instruments (Herget, 2019). (3) There are hardly any ecologically valid investigations carried out in natural contexts such as during a visit to the cinema, a television evening with the whole family, or alone in a young person's room (Bullerjahn, 2005); (4) Most research designs are too complicated and extensive.…”

“…All of these studies are overviewed in Herget’s (2019) comprehensive review on music’s potential to convey meaning in film; she concludes her work by underlining some weak points that should be overcome to improve such domain of research:…”

“…Complex psychological constructs such as sympathy and empathy toward media protagonists could and should be investigated through all the available established measuring instruments ( Herget, 2019 ).…”

“People help the people”: Der Einfluss von Musik mit prosozialem Text in sozialen Werbespots

“…Vor über 25 Jahren wurde infolgedessen das Musical-Fit-Konzept entwickelt, um zu konkretisieren, wie Musik in der Werbung effektiv eingesetzt werden kann (Macinnis & Park, 1991). Definiert wird Musical Fit von Macinnis und Park wie folgt: "consumer's subjective perception of the music's relevance or appropriateness to the central ad message" ii (Macinnis & Park, 1991, S. 162 (Allan, 2007;Oakes, 2007 (Bullerjahn, 2001;Cohen, 2010;Evans & Schubert, 2008) und durch das Auslösen spezifischer Assoziationen Bedeutung vermitteln kann (Herget, 2019) (Herget et al, 2018(Herget et al, , 2020.…”