Musical Skills!! 33ment is to imitate an older style, the creatives will want the music to
emulate that style. (They usually provide an example.) As mentioned pre-
viously,do not plagiarize.
Since Hispanic music varies between countries and regions within
countries, the native musicians perform the music in idiosyncratic styles.
Even if the rhythms in different countries are basically the same, the per-
formers’ interpretations differ. Therefore, hire musicians who will per-
form in an authentic style. (This concept is discussed in the next section.)
If an assignment is to compose one commercial that will be broadcast
in Spanish-speaking countries, how does a composer write generic music
that appeals to all of the countries? This can be problematic. Most often,
different arrangements of the same music are written in a style that
appeals to one nationality. Sometimes only one music track is completed
and broadcast in many countries.
For example, Dr. Murciano was asked to write a generic composition
for Visa International that would be broadcast throughout South America.
The target market was affluent consumers who lived elegant lifestyles. The
film did not depict a certain culture and was generic in its visual look—it
could have been filmed in any South American country. Dr. Murciano ana-
lyzed the film and reached the conclusion that since all their cultures
shared a common European heritage, he would give the music a sym-
phonic treatment by incorporating traditional instruments and composing
and orchestrating music with an aristocratic texture. He mixed traditional
orchestral instruments with instruments such as the guitar, which is used
in many South American countries; the instruments were not played in
an ethnic style, thereby eliminating the possibility of identifying a specific
culture.
R
Author’s Example: While composing and/or arranging
aseriesofcommercialsforDrPepper,Ihadtoadapt
one jingle to various Spanish and English styles. Latin
house music and hip-hop were the chosen genres. The
commercials were various lengths (e.g., 15 or 30 sec-
onds) and performed in Spanish, mostly Spanish,
mostly English, and Spanglish, a mixture of Spanish
and English. Not only were numerous compositional
revisions necessary to accommodate the various ver-
sions, but also creative questions had to be answered
prior to writing.R
Dr. Murciano’s musical approach resulted from a conversation with
the creatives on how to appeal to all cultures in their target market with