Setting the Mood

As my group members and I were scrolling through the video of our multimedia presentation, we were happy with the way it looked, but we felt something was missing. It was silent.

We had not added the music yet and we could tell the difference.  The images were compelling without the music but they didn't the same heart-gripping and mind-engaging effect.

After adding the music and watching the other groups use of music in their projects I decided to devote this blog to the effectiveness of music in creating a tone for the message a rhetor is trying to send through this type of multimedia medium.

The best way I can think of to analyze the changes in moods and tones different types of music can make is to reflect back on the changes of music themes our group went through.  The tone of our project went from ironic, to intense, and finally we settled on contemplative.

Originally, our group wanted to use the theme music from "Always Sunny" to set a light mood against a heavy controversy and create a sense of irony in the audience.  We loved the music, but we were afraid our infringing on the show's copyrights on the songs, and we felt that a different tone would be more effective in conveying the growing seriousness of the controversy of Adderall use in a college setting.

So next we decided to use alternative rock music to create a more intense mood.  We scanned the creative commons far and wide searching for the perfect "I hate the world" song to enhance the intensity of our controversy, but we couldn't seem to find one that fit. We realized that we couldn't find a song that fit because the theme didn't fit the message of our topic.

As we were scanning the creative commons, we stumbled on the piece that would be the main song and the theme behind our music.  Everyone in the group knew if fit upon hearing the song.  The song was contemplative and plotting and moved forward with  repetitive percussion that reminded me of at ticking of a clock.  This gave our project the contemplative feel it needed and the message we were trying to send to our audience.  We wanted to present the controversy as something still unclear to many people, and with alot of uncertainty surrounding the ethics of its use.  This song was most effective because it instilled that same thoughtful mood into our audience.

We knew we had found the right song when the mood it created matched the message we were trying to send, and that is a good guideline to follow when searching for compelling music to set your audiences' mood.