Exploiting the Frontier

In writing about music and advertising, Nicholas Cook (1994) has observed that music, when applied to a commercial, “transfers its own attributes to the story line and to the product … making connections that are not there in the words or pictures; it even engenders meanings of its own.” Thus, while the music gives meaning to the commercial, the visuals can also give meaning to the music. Western music, whether from popular song, films, or television shows, carries with it additional significance in the realm of advertising. In these instances, the combination of visuals with Western music adds to the overall subtext of both, hypertextualizing both the music and the ad. This chapter provides an overview of how the Western’s music has been applied to advertising, examining how the dynamics have changed as the filmic genre developed from simple “shoot-em-ups” to psychological dramas, and how audiences have responded.