What makes an ad enjoyable? Analysing advertising appeals as viewed by Portuguese consumers

Nowadays, consumers are faced with a variety of media that convey myriad advertising messages, which struggle amidst a highly competitive environment, with a view to drawing the viewers’ attention, raising awareness, creating interest and inspiring desire and, ultimately, leading to the purchase of the product/service at stake. For this, advertising professionals deliberately intertwine their selling arguments with emotionally-charged creative concepts. It is the aim of this study to analyse the impact of the main creative appeals and to identify groups of consumers based on their attitudes towards them. We have undertaken a quantitative study, by means of a survey administered to a convenience sample with a list of creative appeals, which had to be classified by the respondents according to their attitudes. Globally speaking, the preferred appeals were humour, music and animation. Nonetheless, it was possible to divide the respondents into three groups. ‘Advertising fans’, the ‘rationally-minded’ and the ‘emotionally-minded’. This study presents some limitations, especially as to the sample used. Apart from the reduced number of respondents and lack of more widespread geographic reach, some academic qualifications were underrepresented. The results of this study offer some avenues to be explored by marketing and advertising professionals when it comes to deciding on the best creative approach to select for their advertising campaigns. Besides, this study paves the way to the development of future research on the issue of advertising appeals and its relationship with the psychographic characteristics of consumers.

The Vetlatori Dance: "Little Angels go to Heaven"

This paper discusses the vetlatori dance performed on the occasion of a baptised infant's death in the Valencia region of Spain until about fifty years ago. Analyses of historical sources that emphasise the noble spirituality of the vetlatori dance are shown to be based on romantic views of traditional culture and emotions related to the loss of an infant, rather than on authentic information. Ethnographic and ethnomusicological data are presented to illustrate that the music and dances performed during the vetlatori dance were meant for entertainment rather than for spiritual impact. Recourse is also had to oral sources, particularly interviews carried out in the 1960s and 1980s with former infant wake participants who experienced the vetlatori dance, and who confirmed the popular nature of the music, song, and dances that were performed. Analysis of written sources and of the choreographic and musical characteristics of the dance also shows that the kind of music performed was typical of festive celebration in the Valencia region. Functional outcomes for such wakes are also proposed.

Historiografia del «Ball de Torrent»: de la moixiganga barroca al quadre de balls populars valencians (1692-1929)

El Ball de Torrent és una moixiganga dramàtica popular escenificada a la ciutat de València i altres indrets del País Valencià des de finals del segle XVII fins a principis del segle XX. Estava organitzada per agrupacions gremials, juntes d’hospitals o clavaris de festes i protagonitzada per personatges agrupats en comparses que representaven una paròdia sobre les relacions entre les estructures de poder i les classes populars. Tot i la variabilitat segons el moment històric, es conforma com una mescla de quadres amb danses, música i jocs teatrals. El ball interacciona de diverses formes amb algunes festes valencianes i és, probablement, una de les mostres de teatre de carrer més nostrades i menys estudiades de la València Moderna. En aquest article es realitza una revisió bibliogràfica crítica i una primera anàlisi historiogràfica.

Testing prospect theory in students’ performance

This paper tests the existence of ‘reference dependence’ and ‘loss aversion’ in students’ academic performance. Accordingly, achieving a worse than expected academic performance would have a much stronger effect on students’ (dis)satisfaction than obtaining a better than expected grade. Although loss aversion is a well-established finding, some authors have demonstrated that it can be moderated – diminished, to be precise–. Within this line of research, we also examine whether the students’ emotional response (satisfaction/dissatisfaction) to their performance can be moderated by different musical stimuli. We design an experiment through which we test loss aversion in students’ performance with three conditions: ‘classical music’, ‘heavy music’ and ‘no music’. The empirical application supports the reference-dependence and loss aversion hypotheses (significant at p < 0.05), and the musical stimuli do have an influence on the students’ state of satisfaction with the grades (at p < 0.05). Analyzing students’ perceptions is vital to find the way they process information. Particularly, knowing the elements that can favour not only the academic performance of students but also their attitude towards certain results is fundamental. This study demonstrates that musical stimuli can modify the perceptions of a certain academic result: the effects of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ surprises are higher or lower, not only in function of the size of these surprises, but also according to the musical stimulus received.

Joan Valls: papers de música i de músics —sense pentagrames— inèdits i semiinèdits

La proximitat del centenari del naixement del poeta alcoià Joan Valls Jordà (1917-1989) convida a la presentació d’un avançament dels treballs sobre inèdits i semiinèdits que han de ser part irrenunciable si volem acostar-nos a la figura i l’obra de Valls amb tota la seua magnitud. El nombre de materials de Valls que no han estat publicats mai o, en cas contrari, els escrits dispersos en la premsa i les plataformes locals diverses, als quals s’ha d’afegir les publicacions d’autor o les edicions privades, reduïdes o limitades, és un corpus que cal revisar. Aquest paper presenta un primer inventari comentat de textos esparsos que tenen una relació directa amb la música i els músics, un recull heterogeni que té voluntat de continuïtat en treballs futurs.

15M. La expresión del conflicto en las canciones protestas

El objetivo de esta comunicación es analizar de manera exploratoria en qué forma las letras de las canciones protesta, escritas en el entorno de las movilizaciones del 15M, contienen una visión del mundo social, económico y político. Las canciones protesta se caracterizan por la denuncia social de situaciones de explotación, discriminación o esclavitud. El rasgo común a todas ellas es la existencia de un conflicto, al que responden tomando posición por una de las partes o apelando a la paz y al consenso. En ocasiones ofrecen soluciones a dichos conflictos, si bien no es la situación más extendida. En relación a las canciones del 15M, emplearemos como referencia las disponibles en la página de la Fundación Robo. En dicha página se alojan canciones cuyo nexo de unión es la protesta por la situación que vive la sociedad española. Tomando las canciones como datos de análisis, se estudiarán los estilos más empleados para protestar, el empleo del “bricoleur” (Levi-Strauss) de músicas y letras para recomponer un nuevo mensaje y finalmente se considerará la presencia de dualizaciones como las de “nosotros” y “ellos”. Se exploran las razones que se exponen en las letras para llegar al conflicto actual y las soluciones que se proponen. Tras definir qué actores y colectivos definen cada uno de los grupos, se consideran las relaciones que se proponen entre ellos. Destacan los planteamientos que presentan la relación como de lucha o conflicto, mientras que la oferta de relaciones constructivas, ya sea de diálogo, consenso o negociación, es prácticamente inexistente. Raramente ofrecen una solución pacífica a los conflictos.

A flauta transversal no contexto da música moderna: repertório relevante para a aprendizagem no ensino secundário

Relatório de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Artes Aplicadas do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino de Música – Instrumento e Música de Conjunto.

Letter from Samuel Willard, Deerfield, Massachusetts, to Cephas Willard, Petersham, Massachusetts, October 21, 1808

Willard mentions that his collection of hymns, the Deerfield Collection of Sacred Music, is ready for sale in Northampton, and discusses prices, an upcoming trip to Brattleboro, Vermont related to purchasing music, and describes his preparations of a sermon to be delivered in Northampton at the opening of the bridge over the Connecticut River.

Richard Wagner: leitmotiv e música dramática

The present essay presents the content of the landmarks that punctuate the long dialogue between verbal language and musical language during the 19th century, by means of examples taken from the critical and theoretical writings of Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner. In the search for the dramatic essence of music, such dialogue took different forms: the possibility of verbal language being translated by musical language, the pre-existence of a musical-poetic idea in any musical composition, eventually contributing to the appearance of program music, and finally, the principles presiding over Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk. Special emphasis is given to Richard Wagner’s Parisian article De l’Ouverture (1841), as well as to the impact on Søren Kierkegaard.

Copyright in the EU Digital Single Market. Report of the CEPS Digital Forum. June 2013

The scope and enforcement of copyright in the digital environment have been among the most complex and controversial subjects tackled by lawmakers all over the world for the last decade. Due to the ubiquitous use of digital technology, modern regulation of copyright inherently touches on numerous areas of law and social and economic policy, including communications privacy and Internet governance. Modernising the EU’s copyright framework is considered a key step towards achieving the goal of an EU Digital Single Market in the context of the ‘Digital Agenda for Europe’, an initiative launched by the European Commission in May 2010. How can the EU make copyright fit for purpose in the Internet age? What are the most suitable and realistic policy options to achieve the objective of a Digital Single Market in the creative content sectors? To give comprehensive answers to these questions, the CEPS Digital Forum formed a Task Force on Copyright in the EU Digital Single Market to foster a multi-stakeholder dialogue on the major challenges for copyright law in the online content sector today. Drawing on the discussions and input gathered by the Task Force, this report contains the conclusions and policy recommendations organised around three main themes: licensing rules and practices in the online music and film sectors, the definition and implementation of copyright exceptions in the digital environment and the present and future of online copyright enforcement in Europe.

Artisans, génies et vedettes : le statut des compositeurs dans la presse musicale française

Ce mémoire propose d’explorer quel(s) statut(s) sont accordés aux compositeurs contemporains dans le contexte musical parisien des premières années du XXe siècle à travers une analyse de la presse musicale spécialisée de l’époque. Le corpus de notre recherche est constitué de trois revues, chacune ancrée dans des sphères de sociabilités bien distinctes : La Revue musicale (histoire et critique), une « revue savante » proche du milieu de la Schola cantorum ; Le Mercure musical, une « petite revue » d’avant-garde militant en faveur de la musique de Maurice Ravel ; et Musica, une « grande revue » destinée à un lectorat issu de la petite bourgeoisie en plein essor, essentiellement féminin et pratiquant la musique en amateur. Cette étude révèle que la traditionnelle opposition entre la conception du compositeur-artisan et celle du compositeur-génie issue de la fin du XVIIIe siècle et du XIXe siècle voit apparaître un troisième joueur à l’aube du XXe siècle : le compositeur-vedette, un statut qui était jusqu’alors généralement réservé aux interprètes. Ces trois statuts coexistent dans le panorama de la presse musicale du tournant du XXe siècle, et leur promotion par certains organes de presse spécifiques répond à une logique tantôt esthétique, tantôt économique. Il se dégage de cette étude que la presse musicale constitue non seulement un indice des variations qu’a subies la figure du compositeur dans le spectre de la grandeur en culture, mais qu’elle a également joué un rôle actif dans ces transformations.

Die Staats-Musik der Zukunft.

Preface by Albert Hahn.