Convergence of Sight and Sound

I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon; I can watch a movie, a TV show, a youtube clip, or a trailer and really like the music that accompanies it, but when I go look the song up online and listen to it, I find that I don’t like the song as much. Because of this, I became more aware of the effect that the convergence of Sight and Sound can have. There’s a synergy between the two.

For example try watching a movie trailer with the sound turned off. It’s boring isn’t it? Now watch it again with the sound on, much better right? This isn’t exactly earth shattering news to anyone, but it is an interesting occurrence and I thought I would spend a little time mulling it over.

Anyone who has ever listened to music can tell you, it has a way of touching the emotions within you. It’s possible for a song to move you to tears, or make you laugh. Music is a highly emotive medium. On the flip side, our vision is slightly less tied to our emotions, or at least seems to be. Now perhaps that’s because we’ve become visually desensitized, through repeated bombardment of our ocular senses. Or maybe it’s because visual input gets filtered more than auditory, I’m not sure. Whatever the reason, images have less impact. That’s not to say they don’t effect us. If you look at pictures of the devastation in Haiti and you will likely feel pity or sympathy for the people in there.

So why do I like a song when it’s with a video, but not when it’s alone? To answer this let’s look at the example of classical music. Classical music can be highly emotive, and is excellent music, but for the most part I can’t just sit down and listen to it. Why? Maybe it’s because I have a short attention span, or it’s just not interesting enough to me. But set that same piece of music to say, the skating performance of a pairs team in the Olympics and suddenly, the song is very emotive and I am caught up in the whole event. Turn off the sound and the performance in interesting but not captivating. The video gives the music context. It gives a frame of reference in which to interpret the music. It narrows the scope of what the song could mean. Take the same song and set it to something different and it might be just as interesting but it may evoke different emotions. Why? Because the video is giving you a different context under which to interpret the music.

Music provides emotionality to the video and makes it far more impactful then it would be on its own, but the video gives the music context and flavor.
On the flip side, music can provide context to the video. Take a video of a car crash, back it with a sad song and the video is about a tragic accident. Switch the sad song for upbeat carnival music and suddenly you have a slapstick routine.

Alone music and video are limited in their interpretation and effect. But together they synergize to create manifold opportunities and amplified impact. It should be noted though, that a poor choice of video or music can utterly ruin any possible benefit the accompanying piece might have.

This convergence is something that advertising companies have known for a long time and can be seen every day on TV and in movies. Used to manipulate us into feeling what they want us to, so we will buy their products.

Be aware of the affect media can have on you and perhaps you can avoid its manipulation.

And now you know.