🪦 The Jingle Is Dead
(And I don't care who knows it)
If I asked you to sing a jingle out of the blue, chances are you'd have absolutely no problem getting the job done. Sing it, yo. After all, you grew up with an onslaught of jingles zooming into your ear-balls from TV, radio, and movies.
"588-2300-EMPIRE."
"I'm stuck on Band-aid, cause Band-aid's stuck on me."
"Wanna Fanta? Don’t you wanna, wanna Fanta?"
Alright, we get it. You want to hypnotize us until we buy, buy, buy your materialistic crap! I'm just kidding, corporations weren't trying to hypnotize us... Or were they?
Dying Classics
For me, jingles are embedded into the nostalgia part of my brain, and likely set me up for wild success as a composer in music licensing. For others, jingles can feel like "it's a small world" playing over and over again in their heads. Whatever the jingle mean to you, know this: The age of the jingle is no more.
The jingle as we know it no longer stands firm in our cultural zeitgeist. In a world of increasing threats to humanity, well-being, health, psyche, peace, and prosperity, the last thing the general public needs is one jingle to deliver them all. Gone are the days of consumers putting their trust in a product during war time as a way to express their patriotism. Gone are the days of consumers trusting that ALL cosmetic care products are 100% safe for all skin types and won't burn your flesh off (OK, dramatic).
Consumers have gotten smart to old world marketing tactics, allowing new world marketing to reign supreme. In this new culture, consumers are focused outward instead of in. People buying laundry detergent care more about its environmental impact than how long its scent will last. Everybody has so much going on in their lives and with their families, there is no room for jingles to ear-worm their way into the minds of the masses.
Impotent Information
Jingles of the past relied on memorization and mnemonic devices in order to do their job successfully. If everyone had the recall of a goldfish, jingles would never have existed in the first place. It being the information age, we're so flooded with data, biases, facts, stories, and opinions that speak to deeper parts of our consciousness - Jingles would float through one ear and out the other.
Can you name a modern jingle, just one, as iconic as the ones I listed above? Dude, I straight up can't even think of one modern jingle, period. This is precisely my point. We have access to information at the tap of our phones, so why would we need to memorize anything anymore? Hell, I still "maps" my way to the grocery store even though I know exactly where it is (Sounds crazy, but it's really freed up my mind to lay down valuable voice memos on an otherwise mundane errand run).
The power of information is in the public's hands now. Corporations and brands can no longer tell the public what's good for them, so they've had to make the shift. They've had to move their cheese in order to stay relevant in a world of 3-second attention spans. The consumer decides now, based on cultural impact, environmental consciousness, holistic wellness, and social trends – Even if we're talking about Nerf guns and office supplies.
Feeling Is The Secret
The one constant in all of this? Consumers make decisions based on their feelings. You can take away the information, but you can't take away feelings. You could take away the products, but you can't take away feelings. Feelings are a part of who we are as humans. If human needs aren't met with one product, they'll be met with another. If connections aren't made through one person, they'll be made through another. This is the single, lasting remnant of the old world that remains true to modern consumer behavior.
So, brands and marketers have gone ALL-IN on feelings by being 100% authentic, all the time. Authenticity is part of being unique, special, and individualistic. Big brands today know this well, and seek to bolster the remarkable, worthy human in all of us. Pharmaceutical ads show arthritis patients hammer nails and playing catch with ease – Ease is a feeling. Tool ads now show fathers connecting with their children – Connection is a feeling. Social media ads now show outcasts finding their tribe at the tap of a button – Being included is a feeling.
Ease... Connection... Being included. These are today's cash cows among many more themes and concepts. These "feelings" speak to humans on a deep, emotional level. They say, "you're understood" and "we get you". A multi-billion dollar industry understands ME? It's clear how powerful this concept can be at all levels of marketing:
Visual aesthetic
Production quality
Actors in advertisements
The brand message
The environment and setting
The music
All of which must be laser-focused on authenticity, and specific to one individual. Especially the music. This is great news for us composers, producers, and artists. Along with jingles, we can say goodbye to cheesy stock music. We can now be authentic to our own artistry and express our individuality while getting paid for it. By following a handful of principles and guidelines, every song you write can now be considered valuable, irresistible even, to big brands hoping to make somebody feel something today.
The Future Is Authentic
What kinds of tracks do brands want to throw their money at? Authentic music. Music that tells a story and conveys a feeling. Music that speaks to an individual as if they're the most important person on earth. Music that shines a spotlight on on somebody with a desire to belong or a story to tell. Brands and advertisers are all moving toward authenticity as they seek to elevate their message and reach the masses.
Which means the more you favor authenticity in your music, the more likely you are to stand out in music searches. Music supervisors need that one one engaging song that speaks directly to their brief. Video editors need that one dynamic song to edit their cut to. Creatives alike are dying for authentic, not jingles. Today? Jingles are manufactured. Jingles are fake news. Jingles are... seedy.
Fitting authentic songwriting and production into the simple principles found in my new book is what skyrocketed my success in music licensing. Doubling down on telling irresistible musical stories, rejecting perfection, and leveraging collaboration. I saw the shift. I noticed the details about big brands ads airing on TV and I took action. I was sick of writing track after track without a strategy, so I made my own strategy. And based it on exactly what I was experiencing as a consumer, saw results, and I never looked back.
Anything short of authentic is overlooked. Anything short of "real" is passed on. Your ticket to hooking those with the money? Give them what they want.
Graham Barton
Music Producer · Mentor · Imperfectionist
@syncbeast.co