Music: A Vessel for Truth
In this post, I’d like to talk about how music and advertising go hand in hand. It’s likely to get a little long-winded, so I appreciate anyone who reads this all the way through!
Now, I didn’t understand music much in the beginning. Rock music was loud and obnoxious, classical music was boring. I did get the occasional ear worm stuck in my head, but that was the extent of its purpose. Just turn on the radio and have a good time! There’s nothing else to it, is there?
When I was a kid, I often sat in front of the television, as a kid does. And like any kid, I was inundated with commercial after commercial. None really caught my attention, except for that of a certain toy line. It didn’t give away too much, but presented a mystery to be solved. And it awakened in me an urge to solve it, to leave no stone unturned until I saw the end of it.
This particular event affected me deeply. I don’t lie when I say it shaped my personality going forward. Even today, I am fascinated by the esoteric, by the hidden meanings of words and worlds. If you present me with something to be explored, I have to uncover every inch of land, every detail until my curiosity is satisfied. And it’s all thanks to one commercial.
Any advertiser will tell you the key to success is subtlety. You can’t just yell at your audience to buy your product - you have to draw them in, poise the question, present the circumstance. Deep down, every human is searching for something, and advertisers tap into that need. A successful advertisement invites the audience on a journey to find the answer, to finally lay to rest the question plaguing their souls, if I may pontificate for a moment. And from a young age, I was awakened to this eternal quest, thanks to advertising.
In my opinion, advertising is an art, one that I feel is worth mastering, especially for Christians. If we look to the niche of Japanese anime, I believe we’ll find an example of advertising worth learning from.
Drawing from the tradition of Kabuki theater, anime episodes are often accompanied with highly stylized intros, presenting the story’s characters in situations that would be fleshed out in the future - a preview of coming attractions. It intrigues the viewer and draws them in. You want to know how that happened? Well, keep watching and find out!
These anime intros are also accompanied by music - popular songs of the time that would be contextualized to more or less describe the story of the anime. If the song is an ear worm (which it most always is), then by association, the story will never leave your head either! It’s a great strategy to advertise both your story and your music - the song is associated with the story, and the story needs to be told. In this case, the music becomes a vessel with which the mystery is presented to the audience.
Speaking to my fellow Christians, I feel that music is a craft and enterprise worth investing in. If we see music through the lens of advertising, and think of music the same way anime creators do, then music becomes a capable tool to be conscious of, and more so something to cultivate and champion. We don’t often think of our music too deeply - it’s just something we do every Sunday. But if we want to have our people engage in what we’re doing, we have to know what we’re inviting them into - a journey to find the truth of their souls. We hold the answer to the greatest mystery in the universe, and if I may be so bold to say, our music is the vessel we use to present the answer.
