Abstract

Audiovisual media are part of children´s daily life. They build and/or replace a part of the reality that is sometimes preceded. This paper is interested in one of the elements of the audiovisual binomial, the soundtrack, in order to analyse its meaning and sense from the children’s point of view. The objectives are: to determine if the audiovisual media clips to which children are exposed (sound, image and all) are perceived differently; to establish the possible differences in the assessment they make when comparing the sound and image presentation modalities. Fourteen audiovisual media (movies, series, cartoons and documentaries) were identified by 115 children (10-12 years old) as preferred. Audiovisuals were edited in three modalities (sound, image, and all) and grouped into different series of three clips, which were watched in group sessions by 547 Spanish and Argentinian children (mean age: 11 years old). An Assessment Questionnaire of audiovisual clips was designed and implemented. Results showed differences in the meaning of the soundtrack in three of the five categories of the questionnaire. The significant predominance of the sound in series, documentaries and, especially, movies is highlighted. Contextual space-time elements, affective implications, feelings, and empathy as well as assessment of the experience are all perceived by means of the sound (the music).

Abstract

This study treats the partial results of research directed at the analysis of soundtrack of television program Ra Tim Bum, Educational TV, obtained by applying the methodology of analysis proposed by Amparo Porta (1997). The Spanish researcher arrives at the meanings of musical discourse by way of three levels of approach: (1) the provable point of reference, the nuclear level of analysis, referring to qualities of the sound, as well as to certain characteristics of style; (2) the poetic approach, taking as a text of reference the musical structure of the television program, observing how is constructed and it types of conclusion; (3) the topic approach, the topical dimension of the discourse is that which confers more stability, sharpness and coherence from the ideologic point of view, and so far as a topic is a discourse used by a group, sector or tendency. For this reason, the entire and enable of musical text is necessary. The analysis of one of the most profound aspect of the program, which seeks to transmit the meaning of the concept of equilibrium and disequilibrium, lead us to conclude that, the spite the educational intention advertised at the conception of the program, culturally questionable stereotypes have been transmited: the concept of equilibrium was associated with the musical peaces with characteristics of erudite music of the classical period or the beginning of the romantic period: tonal, measured, resolution of dissonances, while the concept of this disequilibrium was associated with the non-resolution of dissonances, the random relationship of sound in an unmeasured bays. There was stabilished and antithesis, in terms of value between the erudite music of the classical-romantic style and that of contemporary style.

Abstract

In this article we present a descriptive study of the soundtrack of children’s television programmes on the Andalusian public television network. This study is part of an international research project based on Latin America which seeks to address the need to understand the sonic context in which children live and study the way in which this shapes their sonic imagination. The use of music on television may be a response to commercial needs and, therefore, it is necessary to understand its influence in an educational context. Through analysis of the permanent sections, advertising and the cartoons included in the TV programme called «The Band» which is broadcast on the Andalusian public television network we can observe the televisual and sonic environment of Andalusian children. We use a descriptive methodology which, through the creation of a listening worksheet, highlights the most significant elements in the sample. After the analysis, we concluded that the predominant musical elements in the programme analyzed were from techno-pop and cinema soundtracks and this produced certain homogeneity in musical terms which in turn led to an impoverishment of listening habits which made it difficult to understand more complex musical elements. Therefore, we stress the need for schools to accept their responsibility in the task of educating children in critical listening skills.

Abstract

The music that children are exposed to in their everyday lives plays an important role in shaping the way they interpret the world around them, and television soundtracks are, together with their direct experience of reality, one of the most significant sources of such input. This work is part of a broader research project that looks at what kind of music children listen to in a sample of Latin American and Spanish TV programmes. More specifically, this study focuses on children’s programmes in Spain, and was addressed using a semiotic theoretical framework with a quantitative and musical approach. The programme «Los Lunnis» was chosen as the subject of a preliminary study, which consisted in applying 90 templates and then analysing them in terms of the musical content. The results show that the programme uses music both as the leading figure and as a background element. The most common texture is the accompanied monody and the use of voice, and there is a predominance of electronic instrumental sounds, binary stress and major modes with modulations. Musical pieces are sometimes truncated and rhythmically the music is quite poor; the style used is predominantly that of foreign popular music, with a few allusions to the classical style and to incidental music. The data reveal the presence of music in cultural and patrimonial aspects, as well as in cognitive construction, which were not taken into account in studies on the influence of TV in Spain. Such aspects do emerge, however, when they are reviewed from the perspective of semiotics, musical representation, formal analysis and restructuring theories.