49.Soundtrack Subversion

On BBC Radio 4 this morning, a brief piece about the impact of AI.

            Specifically it cursorily examined a piece of AI produced ‘music’ – sequenced instrumental sounds, I suppose, to be exact – used as a background to a documentary about sharks. It compared this to a piece of music created by a musician used in the same context.

            Curiously, what it didn’t comment on was the issue of music being used to reinforce, more or less subliminally – non-verbal sounds play directly on the emotions – the messages intended by the documentary producers.

            Soundtracks do this in feature films and adverts as well. It could be argued that it reveals a lack of faith in what we are being told, and, in the case of TV and movie, what we are being shown. It could be that what we are being told or shown is so questionable that it needs the largely unrecognised underwriting of the message if we are to be convinced into agreement, compliance, or action.

            Just a thought.

            The music, by the way, was judged to have won over the ‘music’.