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In:Persuasion in Public Discourse: Cognitive and functional perspectives
Edited by Jana Pelclová and Wei-lun Lu
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 79] 2018
► pp. 303–328

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Chapter 13
Persuasion in musical multimedia

A conceptual blending theory approach

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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 8 August 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.79.14ant
I use the Conceptual Blending Theory to discuss the application of familiar music themes in unexpected contexts, where the music assists the image and text in swaying viewers’ opinion. A new interpretation emerges in such examples after two-tier conceptual blending. The musical themes initially integrate with the original (visual) context in listeners’ long-term memory, creating stable blends with predictable connotations. In the changed context, these blends become inputs in a new integration process, where the creators consciously play with listeners’ expectations: either by enhancing them, creating what blending theorists call the vital relation of analogy, or by disappointing them, creating the relation of disanalogy. I therefore integrate insights from cognitive linguistics and musicology in discussing the persuasive potentials of music.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The semantics of music
  • 3.Conceptual blending theory
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1“The Anvil of Crom” – from barbarians to modern electoral campaigns
    • 4.2The imperial march – Uniting the galactic empire, Hitler, and NATO
    • 4.3“El Condor Pasa” – from the Andes to modern-day air raids
  • 5.Conclusions
  • References
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