What music will work best for your campaign? Spotify explains

Music is integral to any ad campaign. In an interview with Forbes, Sir John Hegarty co founder of BBH once said “music is incredibly powerful when it’s part of a message which in turn is helping to build a brand. He added that through music, brands can learn to transform a message.“It doesn’t transform the narrative structure – but it can change the meaning of that structure,” he said.Today, Spotify released a similar study to help marketers understand the emotional response audiences have towards music. Working alongside Jacob Jolij, Professor in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Groningen, Spotify’s research revealed the songs that trigger the clearest emotional responses – be it nostalgia, anger or happiness.“Music can have powerful effects on our emotions: from making us happy, to enabling the ability to overcome fear, certain music can trigger emotions and hormones that directly affect our moods. The list of tracks compiled with Spotify highlight some of the most effective songs to take us from sad to happy or angry to optimistic,” Jolij said.Here are some examples of recent tracks which might help you:Happiness – If you are going for a happy soundtrack to your ad campaign, make sure your songs are up-tempo, have strong rhythm, positive lyrics, and are typically in a major key. Research suggests that the major key unconsciously reminds audiences of a falling pitch – a feature which in both human and animal vocalisations asserts dominance and confidence.  An example of this is Katy Perry’s Birthday will encourage active movement, which is good for your mood.Sadness – Sad songs need to have a slower tone and be in a minor key. Lyrics have to be in line with the tone and be more negative. One example of this is OneRepublic, I Need. The minor key present in OneRepublic’s I Need unconsciously reminds the human mind of a rising pitch, which is associated with defeat and uncertainty.Optimism – Optimism is what psychologists call a complex emotion because it is not ‘built in’ our system by nature. Optimism is an emotion we learn to experience over time. If you are hoping to induce optimistic feelings through your campaign, you need to have   many features with happy songs such as major key, upbeat. However for optimism to work, lyrics are also vital. One such example is American Authors’ Best Day of My Life. Lyrics are more important here as they provide the additional context to build optimism rather than purely improving mood.Anger – Anger is a basic emotion. It is negative, and as such it is associated with songs in a minor key. However, as opposed to sadness, anger is what can also be called as an "approach-emotion". It involves movement and this is a dimension that anger shares with happiness. Combine these two and you’ve got a recipe for songs that may help in channeling our angry feelings. Up-tempo songs with a strong rhythm, in a minor key, such as David Guetta’s Bad is one example.Overcoming fear – Fear is a negative emotion, characterised by a stress response that prepares you for a ‘fight-or-flight’ reaction. In the modern age, people often experience the same stress responses in situations where the ‘fight or flight’ response isn’t beneficial – such as an interview or presentation. Music that can help audiences to overcome fear therefore needs to be slow, relaxing, but have major chords to evoke positive feelings, and lyrics that deal with your negative thoughts. One classic example is Coldplay’s Magic.Excitement –The hormones present in the body when people are described as being ‘excited’ are adrenalin and endorphins. This means that excited people crave music that is positive, usually in a major key, yet more up-tempo and with a stronger beat than your typical ‘happy’ song. When you’re dancing with excitement to Avicii’s Wake Me Up, the lyrics in excited songs aren’t as important as they are to other moods such as anger or nostalgia.Nostalgia – For many the sentimental lyrics will remind them of somebody special, improving the probability of linking the song to other senses – such as sights or smells. One example is  John Legend’s All of Me is an example of a song destined to be a nostalgic hit.