Spend quite some time in front of television each day. Tens or even hundreds of commercials come and go within those hours. But it is quite strange that I did not find any significant commercial jingle in those commercial breaks.

I still remember a time when people have their favourite jingles memorized and even a great number of people who really remember a tune from one or two commercial breaks which aired on TV.

But it seems like there are less and less people who can sing out their favourite jingle tune. Some even face trouble to name one. Is it the people who get too busy switching channels or is it just the jingle?

Composing commercial jingle is not an easy task to do. Catchy tunes are needed to make the music stand out in the crowds. Composer has to restraint him/herself from composing too complicated, too long music. Yet, the music has to suit the product it promotes. Composing jingle is indeed an intelligent work.

For me, jingle music is currently in its decline. It is not as significant as it used to be years back. No more catchy tunes we used to hear a decade ago. No more easy-to-remember lyrics which come with the tunes.

Nowadays, commercials are stressing more in tag-lines rather than in melodic lines. Music has become more and more subsided and more spoken tag-lines has taken the center stage.

Many good tag lines are used in quality commercials. But we are not in the position to disagree that more catchy or even strange tag-lines are used in commercials.

So, it is not a composition problem or whether the composer is capable enough to compose good jingle music. But it is the industry’s demand.

Perhaps the industry is now allured to tag-lines both good and bad ones. They deemed music as less effective in reaching people causing a drop in the usage of great tunes in commercial jingle. Jingle is now just a background music, an ambiance.

It is undeniable that music is a symbolic language, as is day-to-day language. Interpretation may vary more in musical terms, but it is actually the beauty of music. It can make those nuances that cannot be conveyed by spoken words. An advantage, if both the composer and the commercial director can bring music up to its full potential.

Now it is up to composer and the audience to put music back to highlights and convince the industry that commercial music is called a jingle because it is a catchy tune that rings people minds to specific products, not just an easy-to-forget background music.

We are still waiting for more significant, quality commercial music a.k.a. jingle

~ maybe I should try composing jingle…. hmmm….:D

Picture:

• http://shelvingscommercial.info/images/commercial/commercial_250×251.jpg
• cartoonstock.com