Television Commons^™

The year 1984 was a watershed in the use of music in U.S. television campaign advertising. Following on the heels of technological developments in sound reproduction in television sets and MTV’s inception three years earlier, the 1984 presidential campaign saw striking changes in the way ads were conceived and constructed. “Prouder, Stronger, Better”—known popularly as “Morning in America”—used music as never before in a political ad. Whereas previously music was merely accompaniment to an ad’s voiceover and images, here, for the first time, music is the argument itself. Sweeping orchestral gestures, frequent chromatic modulations, and suspended chords lead to a …