Student Projects


1			Each day in America, we are bombarded with messages from the corporate world via television and radio advertising. If Music is indeed a physical and emotional stimulus, capable of changing our blood pressure, heart rate, moods and attitudes, how do your favorite five commercials try to do just that? Be specific. What do the designers of these ads want you to feel and how do they achieve their goals with the music they program? Think speed, volume, rhythmic consistency or inconsistency, pleasant consonance or harsh dissonance etc.




2			We link music with pictures automatically and immediately. “Darth Vader’s theme” from the Star Wars movies brings with it not just a vision of his character but all of what that character represents as well. What pictures immediately come to your mind when you hear music identified as African or Native American or even old time twangy Country? Are your pictures accurate culturally or are they stereotype created by years of Hollywood and television bombardment? Where do your cultural “pictures” come from?




3			You are a pediatrician, a manager of an auto assembly plant, a pre game football coach, and the owner of an expensive and sophisticated restaurant. Choose music for each of these duties keeping the role of music as physical and emotional stimulus in mind. Give detailed reasons why you programmed what you did for each and list your objectives.