Slow Dancing or Fast Raps?
On the effects of music tempo in advertising
Word count: 3402
Introduction
Sad music accompanying the images of a dying mother, A funky tune accompanied by
the logo of your preferred soda, or a failed attempt at a jingle that is supposed to stay in your
head for weeks. These will be situations familiar to most people, and it is no secret that most
of the advertisements you see every day contain music. Rap, piano ballads, rock, opera or
heavy metal, you can find it all in the commercial breaks of your favourite program. Yet, the
effects of music in advertising on consumers are not clear, which is remarkable, seeing as
Author X (REF) estimate that the percentage of television advertisements that use music lies
between 70 and 90. The complex relationships within music and advertising are likely to be
the cause of this, as there are many different effects that together influence audiences.
One of those effects is tempo, referring to the speed at which the composition is
played, usually measured in beats per minute (BPM). The effects of tempo are interesting to
advertisers, as so many advertisers use music in their work, but do they know how to use it to
its greatest potential? Out of the many components of music, tempo can easily be
manipulated. Thus, for these organisations, knowing the consequences of selecting a slower
piece of music as opposed to a faster piece could influence how and what music to use in
trying to influence an audience.
Furthermore, the knowledge available about the effects of music, specifically in the
field of advertising, is incredibly limited. Structural elements (e.g. pitch, lyrics, instruments,
rhythm, etc) in combination with elements such as familiarity and congruence with
accompanying images together impact how an audience responds to an advertisement
containing music (REF). Consequently, the overall understanding of all these elements is
clouded. The fact that we still, in this day and age do not have a good understanding of how
music influences audiences when it comes to persuasive communication, speaks to the
complex processes underlying this field, and dissecting individual components is an important
step in understanding the effects of music in ads. When individual components are studied
more, it will lead research to the next step, where elements are combined and their
interactions become apparent.
Also differentiating between different dependent variables can provide more
information on the persuasive capabilities of music. Does slow or fast music improve ad
recall: the capability of people to remember the advertisement? Or the attitude people have
towards the brand of the advertisement? Does choosing one piece of music that is
2
significantly faster than the other result in higher or lower purchase intention: a person’s own
likeliness to buy the product advertised? If it influences brand recall, but not purchase
intention, why is that? These are questions that this review will help answer, and slowly but
surely, our understanding of music effects in advertising will grow.
The following research question was constructed: What is the influence of slow tempo
music, compared to fast tempo music on memory recall, brand attitude and behavioural
intention?
Theoretical Framework
The dependent variables of this review are based on output factors utilized in
McGuire’s persuasion matrix (REF) which can be used for describing and organizing the
effect of an input factor on one of twelve output factors. The input factors in this model can
be put into one of four categories: source, content, recipient or channel. The independent
variable for this review, music tempo, falls into the content category.
The output factors utilised in this matrix are a slightly altered from the original, and
multiple variations of this matrix have been produced over time, featuring slightly different
output factors. Memory recall, while not in the original matrix, is often studied in persuasive
communication, and refers to a person’s capability to remember content of the advertisement.
Attitude towards the brand is a subcomponent of the output factor ‘attitude towards message
content’, and refers to a person’s evaluation of a brand. Purchase intention is a more specific
variation of behavioural intention and refers to a person’s own inclination to purchase a
product or service.
The matrix suggests that these output factors follow each other in chronological
manner, to a certain extent. That is to say, influencing someone’s attention for a message, one
of the first output factors, should positively influence the next, which then in turn leads to a
positive influence on the next factor, and so on. For this review, higher recall should mean
that brand attitude is also positively influenced, and purchase intention follows this pattern.
However, this is often not the case as output factors can be influenced independently, and so
we could see very different effects for the different dependent variables.
To understand how music tempo could possibly influence these output factors, an
understanding of the existing literature on the effects of music in advertising is beneficial.
Author X (REF) describe advertising music effects in their model of consumer response to
advertising music, in which they distinguish four variables that together determine the
3
response of an audience to music in commercials: listening situation, musical stimulus,
listener characteristics and the listener’s advertising processing strategy. These variables can
subsequently be divided into more factors; music tempo falling into the category of structural
characteristics, an aspect of the musical stimulus variable. The model describes how these
four variables influence attitude towards the ad music and music appeal, which then influence
attitude towards the ad, attitude towards the brand, purchase intention and brand choice. The
attitude towards the ad music variable has both cognitive components (i.e. depth of
processing, image suggested by music, attention to music) and affective components (i.e.
emotions evoked by music, mood induced by music, emotional arousal response to music). It
is here that the complexity of the influence of structural components such as music tempo
becomes visible. The model itself states that high tempo music induces arousal, which leads
to a higher purchase intention, an argument supported in literature (REF), as well as positively
influencing brand attitude in peripheral processing. However, fast tempo is also suggested to
increase cognitive load, preventing central processing of the message (REF). This would in
turn lead to lower ad recall, due to the necessity of central processing as opposed to peripheral
processing for recall, as explained by Author X (REF).
Another interesting theoretical foundation in the field of advertising music is the Spark
Orientation Effect (REF), which is defined by Author X as “a strategy for focusing the
listener’s attention on the important parts of a message by applying novel sounds. These
sounds are called orienting elements (i.e., music or sound effects)” (REF). These novel
sounds, refer to changes in the music, which draws attention to the advertisement, and thus
improves recall (REF). On tempo, it specifically states that Author X (REF) advise
advertising companies to use music of either high or low tempo, but not in between. As one of
the studies reviewed in this study also utilises a medium tempo, we can see if this is
corroborated.
A theoretical counterargument for the fact that both high and low tempo music would
be effective in positively influencing recall comes from the Limited Capacity Model of
Motivated Media Processing (LCM4P), as developed by Author X (REF). This model refers
to the earlier described phenomenon that states that people have a limited amount of cognitive
resources to utilise while processing a message. High tempo music would require more of
these cognitive resources, leading to automatic process
Based on the literature, it would be expected that high tempo music would lead to
higher purchase intention and possibly brand attitude, yet lower memory recall, than low
4
tempo music. However, results may not be convincingly successful in proving this. Author X
(REF) state that existing literature often contradicts each other, specifically using music
tempo as an example, with different studies finding both low and high tempo leading to
significantly higher purchase intention and recall, and sometimes no significant effect at all.
Method
To answer the research question, scientific articles on the topic of music tempo were
collected. This was done through online platforms JSTOR, Web of Science and Google
Scholar, the articles gathered from the latter being checked to determine if they were peer
reviewed prior to being published. Articles were only eligible for selection if they employed
experimental research, and were chosen based on their relevance to the topic, the comparison
they made (both slow and fast tempo had to be employed in the study) and if the dependent
variables matched with the output factors.
First, the search term ‘effects of music tempo in advertising’ was used while searching
through Web of Science, which resulted in three articles being found (REF). Making use of
Boolean operators, the search term ‘”Music tempo” AND advertising’ in the same search
engine resulted in the selection of a fourth article (REF). The fifth article (REF) was selected
from the references of an article not selected for the research (REF) found through Google
Scholar. A sixth article was found through Google Scholar using the search term ‘”Music
tempo” AND “brand attitude” AND advertising’ (REF). A seventh article was found with
JSTOR, using the same search term, only replacing brand attitude with ‘purchase intention’
(REF). This article used moods as independent variables, but these moods were induced using
music that was only altered in being either fast or slow tempo, and was thus deemed very
relevant and usable, as the comparison was essentially the same. Selection of a final article
proved to be highly difficult, as all other articles on music tempo found were not in the field
of persuasive communication. Because of this, the eight article that was selected differed from
the others in that it focusses on online shopping background music tempo, and was found
through Google Scholar using the same search term that was utilised in finding the first three
articles (REF). While this difference in subject impacts the ability to compare it with the other
articles, it was selected due to it firstly having the right dependent variables and secondly, it
investigating the effect of music tempo in the field of persuasive communication. Thirdly, if
differences were found that could be attributed to the difference in form, this could lead to
interesting suggestions for further research.
5
Results
Memory Recall
In general, the results comparing low to high tempo music regarding memory recall
are conflicting. While one study finds a significant difference between the two, with music of
low tempo resulting in higher recall (REF), while two other studies found no difference
(REF). The study comparing low tempo to medium tempo to high tempo found that music of
medium tempo actually resulted in higher recall (REF). Upon inspection of the methods
section, it became evident that three of the four articles used two independent variables
(REF). Music consists of many elements, that together influence different elements of
consumer response. Combining tempo with more independent, manipulated variables could
result in finding more significant interaction effects.
Another limitation of these studies is that four of them (REF) have a sample consisting
of almost exclusively students. While this is a common limitation amongst scientific research,
a more diverse would be especially useful in this field, as it is very plausible the effects may
differ vastly between children, adolescents or elderly people, as music preference are very
different depending on age groups (REF). Overall, we can conclude that high tempo is
ineffective for increasing memory recall, and low or medium tempo accomplishes this better.
Brand Attitude
Overall, the effect of music tempo seems to not influence brand attitude, with three
studies finding a non-significant result (REF) and only one study finding that high tempo
music resulted in a significantly higher brand attitude than low tempo music (REF).
There could be many explanations for the findings of these studies. While it could be
concluded that there is no effect of music tempo on brand attitude, a case could be made for
that there actually is an effect. This is due to the limitations of the studies not finding a
significant results, of which some important ones are addressed in the study that does. One
study uses advertisements without spoken text, which draws a lot of attention to the music
(REF). Another study uses only one structural element, tempo (REF). This seems to be an
important limiting factor, as the results of many studies in this review seem to suggest that
while a main effect may not exist, including other structural elements in the review such as
rhythm, lyrics, key, etc. may reveal a plethora of interesting results. This limitation is not
present in another study, because it employs many different structural components as
6
independent variables, and holds them constant while testing for main effects, while also
testing interaction effects (REF). It should therefore be of extra importance that a main effect
was found in this study, as important other variables are controlled.
Purchase Intention
The results for the purchase intention output factor are very conflicting. One study
finds no significant effect (REF), two find significant main effects with high tempo music
resulting in higher purchase intention than low tempo music (REF) and one study finding a
marginally significant main effect, stating that low tempo actually results in higher purchase
intention (REF). One study also finds some interesting interaction effects, as the effect of
music tempo on purchase intention is mediated by arousal, pleasure and trust (REF). This
study also finds that the effect is moderated by product type, with high tempo music resulting
in significantly higher purchase intentions for hedonic products, but not for utilitarian
products.
Of course, these results may be because of the different medium used in this study,
with background music being employed during online shopping, which could indicate that
effects of music tempo are stronger when utilized in this way than in traditional advertising
methods. The other study finding a significant effect has the limitation earlier described as
that the music is used in the foreground instead of the background, which is more common for
these studies. Thus, these two studies employ music in a more prevalent way, which could
mean that when music plays a more prominent role in the persuasive attempt, faster tempo
music results in significantly higher purchase intention than low tempo music. This does then
naturally not have to be the case for all advertisements. In general, studies seem to show, that
fast tempo music can be utilized to increase purchase intention in some cases, and the role of
the music in the advertisement and the arousal induced by the music may be important factors
in this relationship.
Conclusion & Discussion
Overall, there seems to be no significant main effect of music tempo on memory
recall, brand attitude and purchase intention. This is not due to the studies reviewed in this
study did not find significant results, but rather that they contradict each other. Purchase
7
intention was found to be higher for low tempo music, but also for high tempo music in
another study, and similarly conflicting results were found for the other variables.
Memory recall studies showed quite difference results between the studies, with no
effect found, as well as medium and low tempo resulting in higher memory recall. The fact
that none of the studies found that high tempo positively influenced memory recall is
significant, as this is in accordance with the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated
Message Processing (REF), as well as the findings of Author X (REF), both of which state
that high tempo increased the cognitive load for audiences, leading to lower recall. The fact
that medium tempo was also found to be more effective than high or low tempo also directly
contradicts Author X (REF). It can be concluded that low or medium tempo are more
effective than high tempo for increasing memory recall.
Regarding, attitude towards brand, Author X (REF) was the only to find a significant
result, with high tempo positively influencing brand attitude. Her findings are in line with the
model of Author X (REF) who state that high tempo induces arousal and thus brand attitude.
The study however, does not look at this relationship.
For purchase intention, similarly conflicting results were encountered as with memory
recall. However, they seem to suggest that high tempo does lead to higher purchase intention,
which is line with the findings described in the model of Author X (REF), which states that
high tempo music positively influences arousal, which influences purchase intention. One
study (REF) also finds that arousal functions as a mediator in this relationship.
This literature review is not without its limitations. Firstly, suitable articles were not
many, due to the specific requirements for articles to be selected. Music in advertising is often
studied with many different dependent variables, but articles needed to contain one of three
chosen for this literature review. This meant selecting articles that had some significant
limitations, such as the articles not all utilizing music in the same way, making it difficult to
generalize between the results. Secondly, there is a lack of uniformity in the way ‘high’ and
‘low’ tempo are defined. All the articles made the comparison between these two, but did not
always use the same amount of beats per minute for their studies. For example, the article by
Author X (REF) utilized an average of 80-100 beats per minute for the low tempo category,
while 100 beats per minute would classify as medium tempo in the study of Author X (REF).
This means that the while the distinction is made in all the studies, they do not mean the same
and results are therefore not generalizable to full extent.
8
Nevertheless, this study reveals that there are many more questions about how and
under what conditions music tempo influences an audience and future research is necessary to
understand the complex interacting mechanisms in the field of advertising music. For the
effects on memory recall, it is advised to research the conditions under which higher tempo
leads to lower recall and vice versa. Holding the tempo high consistently while changing the
congruency between the music and the advertised product, or using a consistently low tempo
while advertising different type of products will increase understanding of how these
variables interact with each other.
For brand attitude, it could be feasible to conduct more studies similar to that of
Author X (REF), as this study was the only one to find a significant result, contradicting the
other studies in this field. However, as interaction effects are suggested in literature, these
kind of studies should prove useful in gaining a more cohesive image.
Finally, purchase intention is advised to be studied in the context of arousal. The
present study showed that high tempo leads to higher purchase intention, a relationship
positively mediated by arousal. Future studies should focus on the relationship between tempo
and arousal, and subsequently the relationship between arousal and purchase intention, to
answer the question when a high tempo leads to high purchase intention. This can be looked
at by again combining tempo with other structural elements, but also in the forms of newer
ways of advertising, such as background music for online shopping.
For advertising agencies, it is advised to use caution when using music in their
advertisements, and to think about the different facets work together. Pre-screening materials
focusing specifically in the context of the music that is considered to be used is advised.
When both low and high tempo are considered, pre-screening materials and applying simple
tests for recall, attitude and purchase intention will help in making decisions on what tempo of
music to use in the advertisement.
9
References
XXXXXXXXXX
10
Appendix I: McGuire matrix
Input factor: Music tempo (Fast vs slow)
Output
REF 1
REF 2
REF 3
REF 4
REF 5
REF 6
REF 7
REF 8
-
No significant
-
-
-
Total effect
factors
Memory
recall
No significant main
Significant
Significant
main or
effect found.
main effect
main effect
tempo seems ineffective
interaction effect
Significant
found.
found. Higher
for recall. A possible
found.
Interaction effect
Medium
levels of
relation between tempo
between tempo and
tempo resulted
recall were
and recall might be
music genre.
in higher
found for low
influenced by the genre
Slow tempo: No
recall than low
tempo than
of music.
difference in
or high tempo.
for high
memory recall
No interaction
tempo.
between reggae,
between
classical and rock
tempo and
music.
familiarity
Medium tempo: No
found.
difference in
memory recall
between reggae,
classical and rock
music.
High tempo: Higher
memory recall for
classical music in
Conflicting results. High
comparison to
reggae music
Attitude
-
towards brand
No significant
-
No significant main
-
-
No significant
Significant main
No apparent direct effect
main or
or interaction effect
main effect
effect found. High
of tempo on brand
interaction effect
found
found.
tempo music resulted
attitude. However, an
However,
in higher attitude
indirect effect may be
affective
towards the brand
present, with tempo
response
than low tempo
positively influencing
positively and
music.
affective response,
found
significantly
which positively
mediates the
influences brand
relation
attitude.
between
tempo and
brand attitude
Purchase
Marginally
No significant
Significant
Significant main
-
-
-
-
Conflicting results, with
intention
significant main
main or
main effect
effect found. High
one study finding no
effect was
interaction effect
found. High
tempo resulted in
effect, two studies
found. Low
found
tempo resulted
higher purchase
finding significant
tempo music
in higher
intention than
effects indicating that
resulted in
purchase
medium tempo.
high tempo resulted in
higher purchase
intention than
higher purchase
intention than
low tempo.
intention than low
high tempo
music.
tempo, but another study
This
finding the exact
relationship is
opposite.
positively
mediated by
arousal,
12
pleasure and
trust.
Another
significant
interaction
effect was
found between
music tempo
and product
type.
Shortcomings
Research looks
Only looks at one
Article looks at
Advertisements did
Participants
Ad content
Three studies
Music is specified as
into purchase
structural
online
not have spoken
were shown
may be too
were
being in the
intention for
element, limiting
shopping
messages in them,
the same ad
specific,
conducted in
foreground. This
greeting cards,
possible
instead of
possibly drawing
multiple times,
making the
this article.
makes it harder to
which could be
interaction
traditional
more focus to the
which could
study of
However,
compare to the other
too specific for
effects. Also a
advertisements.
music in the ad than
result in tempo
tempo more
there is an
articles, but also
music tempo to
small sample,
intended and
having less of
difficult as
inconsistency
harder to generalize
influence, as the
with only 20
preferred.
an effect over
possible
within the
to a wider
product may
participants in
time, and more
results could
stimulus
population, as most
necessitate too
each group.
cognitive
be explained
materials used
ads have music as a
low of a
resources go
by the fact
in the
background element.
cognitive
into the
that it was a
different
response.
recognition of
cosmetic
studies,
the music and
surgery ad.
making
the ad
comparisons
made between
the two less
valid.
13
Appendix II: Reference abstracts