Musical persuasion in Donald Trump’s campaign advertising.
Juxtaposition resources in contrast spots with production music
Persuasión musical en spots de Donald Trump. Recursos de yuxtaposición en
anuncios comparativos con música de librería
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nº 39, pp. 61-81
| 61
July-December of 2024
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
How to cite this article:
Herreras Carrera, A. (2024). Musical persuasion in Donald Trump’s campaign advertising. Juxtaposition resources in contrast spots with production
music.
Doxa Comunicación
, 39, pp. 61-81.
https://doi.org/10.31921/doxacom.n39a2093
Aleix Herreras Carrera
. Musicologist (UAB, 2015) specialised in the integration of music in audio-visual narratives, and
musical persuasion in advertising spots and electoral campaigns. He attained a Master’s in Specialised Communication
at the University of Barcelona (UB, 2016), where he was a student of Doctor Joseph Hilferty, former president of the
Spanish Association of Cognitive Linguistics (2004-2008). Together with this linguist, Herreras Carrera has studied the
priming eect of changes in musical harmony on linguistic understanding (a paper published in
Epistemus: Revista
de Estudios en Música, Cognición y Cultura, 11
(1): “Eects of a progression of chords on linguistic understanding: the
relationship between closure or harmonic suspension and the declarative or interrogative meaning of a phrase”). Aleix
has a doctorate in Communication from the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC, 2024), with a thesis on
Musical
persuasion in campaign spots
tutored by music management professional Isabel Villanueva Benito, a PhD specialised in
the digitalisation of music and communication strategies for reaching new audiences.
Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC), Spain
[email protected]
ORCID:
0000-0002-9425-5340
is content is published under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License. International License CC BY-NC 4.0
Received: 30/09/2023 - Accepted: 13/01/2023 - Early access: 08/02/2024 - Published: 01/07/2024
Recibido: 30/09/2023 - Aceptado: 13/01/2023 - En edición: 08/02/2024 - Published: 01/07/2024
Abstract:
is paper studies the soundtrack of some Donald Trump contrast ads
that include resources of musical juxtaposition. Adverts that used pre-
existing production music during the 2016 and 2020 US presidential
campaigns. e preferred technique is to reduce the number of
instruments used to a minimum when talking about the adversary
and bringing in full orchestration when speaking of the advertiser.
Expressive silence is the most powerful musical device for signposting
those words or phrases that, due to the information they transmit,
summarise the advertising and campaign message in the ad. e
Republican candidate opts for alternating and combining harmonious
and textural changes to project himself with a tough prole in the
Resumen:
Este artículo estudia la banda sonora de algunos spots de contras
-
te de Donald Trump que incluyen recursos de yuxtaposición musical.
Anuncios que emplearon composiciones preexistentes de librería en las
campañas presidenciales estadounidenses de 2016 y 2020. La técnica
preferente consiste en reducir al mínimo el número de instrumentos em
-
pleados al hablar del adversario e incorporar la orquestación completa
al hablar del anunciante. El silencio expresivo constituye el recurso más
poderoso que tiene la música para señalar aquellas palabras o frases
que, por la información que ofrecen, resumen el mensaje publicitario y
electoral del spot. El candidato republicano apuesta por alternar y con
-
jugar cambios armónicos y texturales para proyectarse como un perl
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Musical persuasion in Donald Trump’s campaign advertising. Juxtaposition resources in contrast spots with production music
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
1. Introduction
1.1. Rationale
Researchers familiar with publications on persuasion in presidential elections will have noted that most studies pay little
attention to music and other auditory phenomena (Christiansen, 2020: 470). Although the use of commercial music and jingles
may arouse certain interest (e.g., Kasper & Schoening, 2012) –the former due to the connotations and discourses that surround
a piece in society, and the latter thanks to their agility in entertaining and facilitating retention of advertising messages– an
academic study should not tiptoe around the musical syntax of this type of advertisement. In contemporary campaign spots,
this question involves analysing advertisements that use
production music.
ese are pre-existing works which the viewer may
not recognise but that advertisers use temporarily in compliance with the conditions of a sound bank
1
–platforms, websites
and/or digitized documentary les where images, footage, music, and sounds are acquired for audio-visual or radio projects.
Such compositions contain those same musical resources that the audience has become familiar with through cinema, series,
video games and advertising.
Our analysis is limited to adverts broadcast in presidential elections in the United States of America because all Western
democracies try to import both American political marketing and their audio-visual techniques and technologies. e US
is the birthplace of the campaign spot. Its long history and the enormous investment that the country allocates to electoral
propaganda means that researchers from other parts of the world are always interested in studies showing the latest trends in
the US. e study of Donald Trump’s musical strategy could help this area achieve greater repercussion, since the television
personality has managed to capture the attention, not only of his supporters and detractors, but also of a wider public that
had seemed to be disinterested in politics (Oroe, 2018: 263). Trump’s communication is the doctrine of much of the rhetorical
1
E.g.,
https://artlist.io/
. e conditions of use of musical pieces –commercial and non-commercial, with attribution of rights, etc.–, as well as the price or gratuity
of their use, may vary depending on the contract that the users have with the platform and the latter with the composers/producers of the desired piece.
second part of the spot, in contrast with the weakness of the Democrat
candidates, as represented in the rst, negative part. e application
of harmonic changes while maintaining the instruments, rhythm and
pace of the music strengthens the narrative cohesion of all the audio-
visual components. e methodology utilised in this study can be
applied to observe music in the audio-visual eld outside the context
of political campaigns, and even outside advertising.
Keywords:
Campaign ad; musical syntax; harmony; presidential campaign;
Donald Trump.
duro en el segundo fragmento del spot, en contraposición a la debili
-
dad de los candidatos demócratas, representada en la primera parte de
ataque. Aplicar cambios armónicos manteniendo los instrumentos, el
ritmo y la velocidad de la música fortalece la cohesión narrativa de to
-
dos los componentes audiovisuales. La metodología empleada en este
estudio se puede aplicar para observar la música en lo audiovisual fuera
del ámbito electoral, e incluso fuera del ámbito de la publicidad.
Palabras clave:
Spot; sintaxis musical; armonía; campaña electoral; Donald Trump.
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style of the
new right
2
.
But this paper is in no way intended as a political study, nor does it intend to establish a relationship
between advertising and electoral results. is study is positioned in the eld of Communication, with the aim of discovering
new artistic uses of music in videopolitics, it discusses both the
musical
meanings
–those that make sense within the music’s
own narrative– and the
extramusical
ones –that allude to non-musical issues.
1.2. eory & musical cognition
1.2.1. What is meant by musical syntax and musical meanings?
To study the music of Donald Trump’s presidential adverts, it is necessary to turn to publications on musical cognition whose
methodologies can be applied to the context of the documents observed: generally, videographic communications in English
whose soundtrack is contained within the
diatonic
scale
. Although it would lack scientic rigour to say that the classic tonality
includes all the possible ways of distributing
tonal space
3
in the Western world, an example of a musical system rooted in said
cultural and geographical area is that known as
Western Tonal Music
–hereinafter,
WTM.
A conception of consonance built
on the proportions of the intervals of a diatonic scale –with notes separated by consecutive second intervals
4
. A music that
ourished from the 17th century on and whose
syntax
has inuenced us ever since (Patel, 2008: 242).
e psychology of music studies how we perceive this art and the eects it has on listeners. Following in the wake of pioneering
minds such as Diana Deutsch (e Psychology of Music, 1982), in recent decades papers have been published that study
the
syntactic
dimension
of music. Musical compositions, like literary stories, have
narrativity.
“e syntactic analysis of
music consists of establishing relationships between a note or chord, and the ‘context’ of the previous chords or preceding
harmonic structure” (Sel & Calvo-Merino, 2013: 294). Musical grammar has been studied from a Chomskian perspective –
see the Generative eory of Tonal Music (GTTM, 1983) by the professor of composition Fred Lerdahl (Madison, Wisconsin,
1943) and linguist Ray Jackendo (Chicago, 1945). If grammar studies the components of a language and how they combine,
generativism, developed by Noam Chomsky (Philadelphia, 1928) in the 1950s, ponders the principles that allow us to correctly
predict such combinations. As in languages, sounds are combined in multiple ways for a conversant listener to interpret music.
To explain the foundations of tonality from generative grammar, music theorists strive to explain why a succession of notes,
chords, or a rhythmic pattern makes sense to listeners educated in a particular musical system. e methodology proposed by
Fred Lerdahl in Tonal Pitch Space (TPS, 2001) to measure the distance and perceived attraction between pitches and between
2
Aka alternative right
or “
alt-right
” (e.g., Stefanoni, 2021). Terms under discussion that can include all the formations and candidates whose discourse is attributed
exclusively to the conservative political agenda in liberal democracies. e
new right
denounces the inaction or
moderation
of self-proclaimed
right-wing
parties that are too deeply assimilated into the hegemonic progressive mindset. Some of their common features are economic and migratory protectionism, the
revitalization of national sentiments and criticism of international institutions, unbridled public spending, feminist or LGBT pressure groups, and indoctrination
in schools by the Government. Employing politically incorrect discourse, directed towards the working classes, and contrary to progressive media bias, the
candidacies of Giorgia Meloni, in Italy; Jair Bolsonaro, in Brazil; Marine Le Pen, in France; and Donald Trump, in the USA can be included within this category.
3
“Tonal pitch space”. For more information, see Lerdahl (2001).
4
For more information, see Polychoron Productions (September 23, 2020).
e tuning systems of Western music.
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Ofarwzq75A4
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chords constitutes the most comprehensive theory developed to date to help understand the foundations of the Western tonal
system.
Since music is not a language with denotative purposes, it would be somewhat rash to delimit its minimum units of meaning.
Rhythmically organised sound can be considered as transmitting –musical– meanings as long as it is capable of dening an
aesthetically appreciable narrative. When human beings invent an instrument, they also produce and (re)produce a musical
language. Some note scales are
easier
than others, they are well-trodden paths to transit the tonal space. Although there are
several criteria to classify musical languages, one way to distinguish them is based on the
distances
that the notes keep within
their most common scales –the proportions. If syntax refers to the order of the components to generate meanings, in the
case of music it arranges the notes and regulates their duration to weave an aesthetically appreciable narrative –according to
internal references, in the piece, and externally, from a grammar. We refer to interpretable meanings within a musical system
as
musical meanings
.
e aesthetics of music lie in the rhythm, the repetition of forms, the recognition of patterns. Musical syntax generates
expectations, and composers take advantage of that predictability. Melodies and progressions uctuate between tension and
relaxation, forming epicentres of attraction and resolution –which is a denition of musical
cadence.
e tension is related to
the feeling of mobility, of openness, that the music
must
go on. One may also speak of tension when the notes in intervals or
chords
clash
within a tonal context –
dissonance
. Attraction, specically, occurs when said tension leads us to or infuses us with
the desire to reach one or more specic points of resolution –i.e. some tonal centre, though it be only temporary. A cadence
is any musical event that, by means of a short process of stability, tension, and resolution, manages to dene a cycle, or lead
the musical narrative to a new fragment or towards an end. is
cadential
process
may be incomplete in harmony,
suspensive
cadence
–or complete–
conclusive
cadence. Musical cognition expert Elizabeth Margulis describes
cadence closure
as an event
that suppresses expectation (Margulis, 2003, cited in Sears, 2015: 255).
Tonic
function concerns the musical events of rest (tonal centre), and the
dominant
function
concerns those of tension and
attraction towards said tonic. e
subdominant
would be an intermediate point, of moderate tension and a non-resolved
nature. e most stable chords would be those which contain the note that constitutes the fragment’s tonal centre, the
dominant ones being those that contain the notes closest to the notes in said tonic chord - due to attraction towards them. In
harmony, it is common to speak of harmonic degrees to refer to the chords developed from a base note which is that of the
diatonic scale of a key. E.g., harmonic degrees of the diatonic scale of C major
5
:
a)
I
ii
iii
IV
V
vi
viiº
(HARMONIC DEGREES)
b)
C
d
e
F
G
a
bº
(CHORDS)
c)
Do
Re
Mi
Fa
So
La
Ti
(NOTES)
In musical theory,
authentic
cadence is the resolution of the V to I degree, and the
plagal
cadence
IV-I. One usually speaks of
harmonic rhythm
when observing the frequency with which the chords change in a composition. e
relationship
between the
5
To indicate whether a chord or harmonic degree is major or minor, an uppercase (I/C) or lowercase (i/c) letter or Roman numeral is used, respectively.
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Aleix Herreras Carrera
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chords and between the tonalities that are derived from each of the 12 notes of the tempered system is usually represented in
the commonly-termed
circle of fths
6
,
where each chord/tonality is followed by whatever plays the dominant role, successively
7
:
Figure 1. Circle of Fifths
C
a
F
G
d
e
Bb
D
g
b
Eb
A
c
f#
Ab
E
f
c#
Db
B
bb
g#
Gb
eb
Los estudios de psicología musical suelen señalar el
tempo
y el
modo
como los
mecanismos que modulan los sentimientos evocados por la música. El tempo
—
o
velocidad
—
,
cuan más rápido haría aumentar el nivel de excitación. Asimismo se
recomienda el uso de intervalos amplios para expresar alegría e intervalos más cercanos
para la tristeza (e. g., Mattheson, 1739/
1999
). El modo definiría lo que en psicología se
conoce como
valencia
—
positiva en tonalidades mayores y negativa en tonalidades
menores. La tonalidad implica tono
—
altura
—
y modo (Zamacois, 1949/2007: 53).
D
icho modo se define por la tercera nota de la escala musical. Es mayor cuando hay dos
tonos entre el I y el III grado, y menor cuando hay un tono y medio desde la nota
fundamental
. Pudiera pensarse que el modo mayor suena más alegre por ser el que tiene
una base natural en las frecuencias que forman los armónicos al tocar una nota
—
es la
tercera mayor la que aparece en estas, y no la menor (e. g., Sansa Llovich, 2013: 72).
Desde esta perspectiva, las tonalidades mayores nos resultarían más familiares y, por
tanto, evocarían un halo de
imperturbabilidad
que nos invita al optimismo y a sentirnos
más despreocupados. Por el contrario, las tonalidades menores contendrían algo
desconocido, pues su nota tercera menor agrega un destello sombrío a la música que nos
incita a preocuparnos. Sin embargo, los investigadores aseguran que la cualidad de estas
variaciones se ve más influida por la tradición que por las cuestiones acústicas, y podría
variar según la cultura humana (e. g., Patel, 2008: 314).
Source: prepared by the author
Musical psychology studies often point to
tempo
and
mode
as the mechanisms that modulate the feelings evoked by music.
e quicker the tempo –or pace–, the greater the level of excitement. Similarly, the use of broad intervals is recommendable
to express joy and shorter intervals to express sadness (e.g., Mattheson, 1739/1999). e mode would dene what is known in
psychology as
valence
–positive in major keys and negative in minor ones. Tonality implies tone –pitch– and mode (Zamacois,
1949/2007: 53). is mode is dened by the third note of the musical scale. It is major when there are two tones between the
I and III degrees, and minor when there are one and a half tones from the base note. It might be thought that the major mode
6
Further information in Jaime Altozano (February 1, 2019).
Un truco increíble para entender acordes y escalas: El circulo de quintas.
YouTube.
https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=BRBTCIK_9_g
7
In the circle of fths, the chord/key that appears below each major chord/key is its relative minor (e.g.,
C
and
a
). Relative keys share the same musical scale but
change modes. e chief dierence is the note with which it begins, and which is the tonal centre of the scale.
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sounds more joyful because it is the one that has a natural base in the frequencies that form the harmonics when playing a
note –it is the major third that appears in these, and not the minor (e.g., Sansa Llovich, 2013: 72). From this perspective, major
keys would seem more familiar to us and, therefore, would evoke an aura of
imperturbability
that invites optimism and a more
carefree feeling. On the contrary, the minor keys would contain the unknown, since their minor third note adds a sombre hue
to the music that agitates the listener. However, researchers arm that the quality of these variations is more inuenced by
tradition than by acoustic issues, and could vary depending on human culture (e.g., Patel, 2008: 314).
e evocations of a timbre in a community can also be rooted following centuries of musical praxis. But with regard exclusively
to the acoustic dimension of music, less intensity in the percussion of the strings and a greater proportion of resonance with
respect to the immediate sound gives rise to “sweeter” sounds (e.g., Quintana Quintana, 2015, p. 162), as when the keys of a
piano are played gently, or the strings of a Spanish guitar are caressed. On the contrary, the great pressure that brass players
exert on their instruments with their mouth and breathing implies a high speed of wave propagation, the distortion of which
causes the sounds to “break” and to be perceived as “strident” (e.g., Esteve Rico, 2018, p.11).
1.2.2. Musical emotion and cadential synchronisation
e music theorist Frank Lehman (2018) studies the resources of harmony in Hollywood lms within what he calls “the art of
amazement” (165). is academic has analysed how harmonic cadences are integrated into cinematographic scenes based
on the knowledge that creative workers have of the dynamics of attraction and tonal resolution. In
Hollywood Cadences:
Music and the Structure of Cinematic Expectation
(2013), Lehman analyses how cadences come together with visual elements
to create expectations and satisfy, break, or redirect their narrative and tonal resolution. e cadences direct the viewer’s
attention at the right moment to the content of the director’s choosing. Lehman (2013) denes this phenomenon as “cadential
synchronisation” (4).
Following this line of research, the author suggests what techniques of expert manipulation of musical harmony manage to
produce pleasurable physical reactions. Causing piloerection in response to a musical stimulus is of great interest to creatives.
Researchers have referred to this bodily reaction as the “shivers” (Sloboda, 1991), “chills” (Hunter et al, 2010), “thrills” (Huron
& Margulis, 2010), or, in ascending order according to the intensity of the bodily reaction, “chills-shivers-thrills-goosebumps”
(Jaimovich et al., 2013). Panksepp (1995) referred to this phenomenon as “skin orgasm” (203). John A. Sloboda, a musical
psychologist, said that
goosebumps
would occur in response to new and unprepared harmonies (Sloboda, 1991). e expert in
musical cognition David Huron (2006) rounds o this idea by pointing out that such harmonic movements must be unexpected
but not threatening in terms of musical syntax. Everything seems to indicate that the emotivity of a harmonic progression
is among those formulas that explore, distort, and
twist
a system without breaking its internal logic. Meyer sees composers
increasing the intensity of a stimulus by postponing the outcome of musical cadences (cited in Storr, 2002, p. 117) –it is from
this premise that Lehman develops his analyses of cadential synchronisation. e hedonic eects of dopamine are more
closely linked to the experience of expectation than to the pleasure of satiety (e.g., Huron & Margulis, 2010). ere is greater
pleasure in the wait when you imagine the resolution –also true in the world of tone. Amazement implies both admiration and
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Aleix Herreras Carrera
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quivering (Lehman, 2013: 13), and has an epistemological character based on the awareness that one has of one’s ignorance
(Lehman, 2018: 169). e more dicult it is to achieve this
gnosis
, the greater the pleasure of emotional discharge can be.
1.2.3. The extramusical and extramusical meanings
By denition the words
extra
and
musical
combine to be everything that lies outside of music. Some schools of thought have it
that music is not related to anything extra-musical (Schlenker, 2017: 5), while others maintain that all music is
programmatic
,
either explicitly or implicitly (e.g., Storr, 2002: 111). e classic division between programmatic and
absolute
music
usually
occurs depending on whether or not the compositions are related to other texts. Programmatic music would intentionally seek
to evoke images and ideas and would oppose the idea of absolute, pure, or abstract music, for which the composer would not
have sought any relationship with non-musical issues. But when we talk about
extra-musical
meanings, we are not referring
solely to the meanings that a piece of music wishes to transmit from its conception, but to all those non-musical issues to
which a piece can take us back regardless of the composer’s intentions –in most cases it is impossible to distinguish between
them since the creative purpose of the work is unknown. Such issues, values, or objects have nothing to do with the music, but
are signalled through devices, formulas and attributes present in the musical forms.
Although the specicity of the semantic concepts stimulated by music is much less and more variable between individual
listeners than those activated by language (Patel, 2008: 334), the ideas and images that certain musical forms give rise to
are a primary phenomenon for interpreting a composition. In his operas, Wagner used musical motifs to invoke recurring
characters or places, just as lms use
leitmotifs
(Patel, 2008: 328). Few composers doubt that, to predict reactions to certain
musical formulas, both authors and listeners must share the same musical culture. e composer achieves an approximation
to the unanimity of listeners’ reactions through progressions that evoke images and feelings (Hindemith, 1961: 42). e tones
are arranged forming scales and progressions, signifying tonal functions –musical meanings– and evoking extra-musical
images. e system of references that a song utilises to call out to the listener is completed by the “discourses” that are built
around it (Pelinski, 2000).
ere is nothing better than habit for leaving indelible reference marks. Our habits, sculpted by repetition, give a musical
resource the power to act as a reference. Certain musical formulas carry extra-musical meanings by the simple fact of being
recurrently paired with texts, ideas, narratives and/or images –just consider the music that adorns dreams, hallucinations, and
ashbacks in cinema (Forceville, 2009: 17). Music acts as an eective retrieval cue for scene recognition and vice versa (Boltz,
2004). References can originate within the work itself or outside of it (Lehman, 2018: 60). Extramusical meanings exist for a
human group in a time and place. For the musical forms that signal them, music is just a signier. Although we can distinguish
between musical and extra-musical meanings, one does not function whilst blind to the other, and the emotional response can
be the result of both the musical and the extra-musical meaning (Sel & Calvo-Merino, 2013: 293).
1.2.4. Leading-tone exchange transformation as a resource of amazement
Lehman completes his analysis of cinematic harmony with neo-Riemannian theory (e.g., Lewin, 1993), which seeks to relate
harmonies directly to each other, without taking a tonic as a reference point. is “agnostic” attitude with respect to tonic
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assignment is liberating in a repertoire such as lm music (Lehman, 2012: 182). e main premise of this approach, taken by
both Frank Lehman and Fred Lerdahl, is that the proximity between triads lies in the number of steps that must be taken to
reach one chord from the previous one. Neo-Riemannian theory speaks of
leading-tone exchange transformation.
LT
or simply
L,
to refer to the harmonic leaps from the minor rst degree to the major sixth degree –
i→ VI–
and from the major rst degree
to the minor third degree –
I→ iii
. Whilst it is true that the movement has many possibilities in both directions, the ascending
route –e.g.,
e→ C–
possesses greater emotional force as it moves from a minor chord to a major one –positive tacit valence being
associated with the major mode, and negative with the minor. e resource meets two of Lehman’s conditions for ecacy in
causing amazement (2018: 172):
a) Frustrate general harmonic expectations.
b) Prolong tonal tension through associative ambiguity.
Listeners, who might think that the fragment is in a minor key, would change their minds when they hear the following chord,
since the harmonic leap can be interpreted as
i→ VI
or
vi→ IV
. Likewise, this progression has another great advantage that
places it as one of the most skilful emotional resources of harmony in WTM: its simplicity. It requires a single semitonal
alteration to achieve major perceptual changes.
1.3. Juxtaposition in comparative advertising
For Benoit, Pier & Blaney (1997) there are three basic functions of political communication: “acclaiming”, “attacking”, or
“defending”. But when a single campaign advert includes both a wish to embellish one candidate’s image and disgure that of
the opponent, one nds oneself faced with a type of hybrid advertisement: the comparative or
contrast
spot (e.g., Gronbeck,
1985). Most scholars agree to distinguish between examples of campaign advertising communication according to three
purposes (e.g., Kaid & Johnston, 2001):
a) Praise or
defend
one side.
b)
Attack
the opponent –“attack ads,” “attack spots,” “attack commercials” (e.g., Trent & Friedenberg, 1983).
c) Compare
the advertising candidate with his/her opponent.
Comparative advertising generally places the competitor immediately before or after the advertiser. In the electoral sphere,
these advertisements present a very interesting “musical juxtaposition” (Ron Rodman, 2012).
Juxtaposing
means “placing
two objects together or describing them together, so that the dierences between them are emphasised” (Collins, 2024).
Juxtaposing means in grammar “to place close together or side by side” (Collins, 2024). Positive sentiment may be greater
when it is preceded by negative sentiment (e.g., Huron & Margulis, 2010: 598-599, cited in Lehman, 2018: 173). Musically
speaking, creators reinforce audio-visual narrative with compositions that leave no doubt in any fragment about the purpose
of the advert. Without music, neither the villainy of the adversary would seem so perverse, nor the words of the advertiser so
right.
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nº 39, pp. 61-81
July-December of 2024
Aleix Herreras Carrera
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 69
2. Method
2.1. Delimitation of the sample and documentary source
ere are ve basic criteria to dene which Donald Trump adverts have been viewed or discarded:
a) Comparative advertising with techniques of musical juxtaposition.
As political advertising always tends to make comparisons
–contrasting the society desired by the advertiser with current society or the one proposed by the adversary– this study only
qualies as
contrasts
those spots that mention or show the name of the advertiser and the opponent or in which their image
or voice appears while expressing –verbally, orally or in writing– a clear desire to compare. We align ourselves, then, with
the classic description of the contrast campaign spot –communications that include explicit comparisons between the
attributes of the candidates (e.g., García Beaudoux & D’Adamo, 2006, p. 88) –regardless of whether these are integrated in
a spot mostly of defence or attack, or if they separate each purpose by fragments. Likewise, we focus on those ads with a
soundtrack that does not change compositions during the video. We infer that if the author takes greater care to attend to
the musical syntax to dene said juxtaposition –beyond downloading music from an audio bank that
sounds
sad, macabre,
motivational, or epic and integrating each composition into the corresponding fragment–, the adaptation of the musical
content to the rest of the audio-visual components will also be of greater artistic interest.
b)
Financing
. Spots explicitly approved and paid for by the candidate –
political candidate advertising
(e.g. Tedesco, 2008:
7). Ads produced by the party or aliates, interest groups or PACs
8
are excluded. Choosing to include spots due to their
nancing helps to organise these documents so as to identify styles, since they are communications produced by teams
that work in a campaign and for a candidate, under a single strategic command.
c)
Epoch
.
In the absence of a legal denition in the US, we deem the presidential campaign to begin the day after the close
of the convention in which each party announces its candidate –including that day– and that it ends the day before the
election –also including that day. Presidential spots have been studied –that is, spots by a presidential candidate. e spots
that Trump broadcasted during the Republican primaries are therefore excluded. e videos analysed appeared between
the following dates:
a) 22/07/2016 – 11/07/2016
b) 28/08/2020 – 11/02/2020
d) Broadcast medium.
We focused on video spots. Of these, only those that include the tagline
I am
[candidate name]
and
I approve this message
have been considered. is legally-required oral message tells us that the video was created to be
broadcast on television, without meaning that it may not also be broadcast on the Internet or other media.
e) Anonymous music.
To address the adaptation of musical syntax without being distracted by other issues related to the
discourses that surround a composition in society, those spots that employ well-known songs –commercial music, hymns,
8
Political Action Committees
or
PACs
are
private
organisations
formed with the objective of intervening in elections.
70 |
nº 39, pp. 61-81
|
July-December of 2024
Musical persuasion in Donald Trump’s campaign advertising. Juxtaposition resources in contrast spots with production music
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
doxa.comunicación
anthems, etc. –have been avoided. We have considered those musical productions that are not recognisable by the viewer,
and in the current advertising eld this leads us directly to pre-existing royalty-free library works, chosen from digital banks.
is paper analyses a total of 13 Donald Trump spots
9
:
a.
Deals
10
(2016)
b.
Change
11
(2016)
c.
Choice
12
(2016)
d.
Great American Comeback
13
(2020)
e.
Joe Biden has done absolutely NOTHING for America in 47 years!
14
(2020)
f.
For You
15
(2020)
g.
e best is yet to come!
16
(2020)
h.
e last thing American small businesses need is Joe Biden
17
(2020)
i.
Seven Hundred Percent
18
(2020)
j.
Jen
19
(2020)
k.
Joe Biden is a Trojan Horse for the Radical Left!
20
(2020)
l.
Joe Biden threatens to undo President Trump’s Great American Comeback
21
(2020)
m.
President Trump puts American workers rst!
22
(2020)
9
Videos available for viewing and downloading:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LnwOrJ8S8WmxqeeMhtvL0v0s-5rQGlHp
10
Donad J. Trump for President, Inc. (2016). Retrieved from Election Watch Ads (October 14, 2016).
Trump presidential campaign ‘Deals’: First broadcast October
14, 2016.
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDKb3JGzJLQ
11
Donad J. Trump for President, Inc. (October 18, 2016). Retrieved from Election Watch Ads (October 24, 2016).
Trump presidential campaign ‘Change’: First
broadcast October 18, 2016.
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT8yjMGMqGE
12
Donad J. Trump for President, Inc. (November 1, 2016).
Choice.
Living Room Candidate.
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2016/choice
13
Donad J Trump (September 5, 2020).
Great American Comeback.
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de10uQej6sA
14
Donald J Trump (September 15, 2020).
Joe Biden has done absolutely NOTHING for America in 47 years!
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-
cOlmSu3Mw
15
Donald J Trump (September 16, 2020).
For You.
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPoO2xdfHVc
16
Donad J Trump (September 17, 2020).
e Best Is Yet To Come!
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnwwUnKK82s
17
Donald J Trump (September 17, 2020).
e last thing American small businesses need is Joe Biden.
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkZu9HGZSBk
18
Donald J Trump (September 18, 2020).
Seven Hundred Percent.
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TQvqk8EqIE
19
Donald J Trump (October 1, 2020).
Jen.
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIvctsTdhLk
20
Donald J Trump (October 8, 2020).
Joe Biden is a Trojan Horse for the Radical Left!
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez0TBpf2r4s
21
Donald J Trump (October 12, 2020).
Joe Biden threatens to undo President Trump’s Great American Comeback.
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=a29Hy0f5npk
22
Donald J Trump (October 29, 2020).
President Trump puts American workers rst!
YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya1qpIWF_10
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doxa.comunicación |
nº 39, pp. 61-81
July-December of 2024
Aleix Herreras Carrera
ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978
| 71
In contemporary elections, the most reliable digital archive for downloading and preserving the spots of each campaign is the
candidates’ YouTube channel
23
, as it allows the real time observation of their launch. It is an authentic repository with videos
arranged chronologically which allows the following of the candidates’ actions and the study of the artistic development of
their spots. In the case at hand, the videos viewed were released simultaneously on the Internet and on television.
2.2. Description of musical meanings
We apply Meyer’s principle (1957) according to which musical meaning appears at the moment when the listener notices a
contradiction between what they expected to hear and what they actually hear (cited in Storr, 1992: 115-116). A change in
harmonic progression, cadential processes, silences, prolongation in time of the attraction towards the tonal centre, emotional
harmonic cadences, distances between chords much greater than the average of the fragment, etc. We must explain the musical
meanings that these progressions carry and their possible extra-musical meanings, the instruments used and the pace of the
song –if it changes during the piece. And, in all cases, observe what relationship these musical attributes have with the rest of
the visual and verbal components of the audio-visual narrative.
It is assumed that the music analysed is within the WTM and that most spots integrate music with triad chords. In this sense,
one can start by:
a) Interpreting chords in the form of harmonic degrees.
b) Observing the progressions to explain the musical structure of the composition.
c) Identifying the harmonic resources of amazement (Lehman, 2018).
d) Locating possible changes in tonality.
e) Observing the end of the narrative –conclusive or suspensive.
Regarding the use of musical silences to indicate verbal content, this study interchangeably uses the synonymous concepts
of
expressive silence
(e.g., Sánchez-Porras, 2013, p. 351) or
signicant silence
(e.g., Torras Segura, 2010; Lehman, 2015). When
referring to “silence” in the audio-visual framework, we refer to the “sensation of silence” caused by the variation of some
psycho-acoustic parameters, since “absolute silence” does not exist (Torras Segura, 2012, p. 490). is referential resource
also occurs when the music specically decreases its volume or reduces its number of instruments at a crucial moment,
considering the verbal and/or visual content of the moment. If this temporary circumvention of several musical instruments
–fully orchestrated in the rest of the piece– occurs throughout an entire fragment, we can speak of an
orchestral hollowing
out
[
sui generis
term]. When the harmonic rhythm is reserved for the second musical passage and in the rst fragment the
harmony remains static, with a single chord or without triads, we appreciate an intended harmonic
containment
or
retention
[sui generis
term].
23
https://www.youtube.com/Donaldtrump
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