What Makes a Great Jingle?
What makes a great jingle work?
In a word: melody (singable please), wordplay (rhyme, alliteration, etc.), and supporting cast (arrangement, instrumentation, recording quality). Wait that’s more than a word, isn’t it?
Oh well, so be it.
We should start our discussion with why a jingle is so powerful and becomes so ingrained in our head in the first place.
Blame it on MUSIC!
The emotional bond it creates, way down deep in our primitive brain is positively, well…primitive. I’ve known it since I was 3, the first time MUSIC really grabbed me and planted roots.
Lately I’ve been reading “This is Your Brain on Music” and “The World in Six Songs” by neuroscientist Daniel Levitin. Fascinating reading if you want to know how something as simple as a song can make you laugh, cry, celebrate, or remember the exact location you first heard it, like maybe your 8th grade dance!
MUSIC creates networks that reach the far corners of the brain. It’s been around since man first struck bone to rock or hummed, chanted and shrieked at one another. Throughout the development of our faculties (your brain folks) music has been there to steer things along and form neural networks. These books are definitely worth a read.
Meanwhile, back to our subject:
OK, long story short: Put text to music and you’ve got something that will literally dig in and make it unforgettable. How the heck do we remember the alphabet when we’re two years old? By singing it!
For those of you not musically inclined, we have 12 notes to work with. It took only 6 to teach you the alphabet. Seven will get you an “Oscar Meyer Weiner” that you’ll never forget. Intel (computer processors) just needs 3 (and no words) to tout their product.
Yes, the stupid ones can be some of the best. You wish you could forget them but can’t because of that primitive grip.
Music can make the simple powerful. It conquers your emotions. Your brain remembers it and then with no power of your own, keeps on singing it in your head.
What is the most annoying jingle you wish you could forget? What is your favorite jingle? (is there such a thing?) How were they crafted to provoke those emotions in you that won’t let you forget them, or their message? Let’s hear from you.
In future posts we’ll examine the mechanisms that are at play when text meets music, great jingles are forged, and how they tap into your primitive brain.
