HP TOUCHSMART AD The HP TouchSmart Ad was produced in order to advertise the new (at the time) HP computer.

Since it was a new product they wanted to do something different to advertise it. Various instruments were used in the recording of this commercial. Such instruments used were the drum set, the fiddle, the guitar and the double bass. Two fiddles were actually used to make this advertisement one played with a bow and one played pizzicato. The fiddle that was being plucked was used to play the melody while the one that was being played with a bow was used to play the counter-melody. The double bass was used to play the root notes in the music. The guitar played the chord progression and the drum set was used not only to give the music a fuller sound, but also to help in maintaining the cheerfulness of the music. These instruments all played bluegrass rhythms. A walking bass rhythm was played by the double bass. This is observed as the double bass plays un-syncopated notes accompanying the melody. The drum set was used to play swing rhythms, which are also accompanied with bluegrass music. A rhythm guitar was played. The fast playing of the fiddles also help intensify the bluegrass style. This piece was written in 4/4 time and was performed at a moderate speed moderato (between andante and allegro). The melody and counter-melody were played in quaver and semiquavers to make it sound more like a fun adventure. Although the music in this advertisement has a minor tonality, a happy and adventurous feeling was maintained throughout the whole song. The melody and counter melody were made of leaps and small steps on the scale. They were both played by two separate fiddles. The song started in a monophonic texture when the drum set was playing alone. It then went to a polyphonic texture when the melody and chord progression joined in. A polyphonic texture was maintained when the double bass started to play. The fiddle was then played while being accompanied by the drum set which played polyphonic rhythms. All parts were then played again followed by a next part where the fiddle was played while being accompanied by the drum. All parts were then played again.

The music in this commercial was in ternary form. This was observed as the song went from section A to section B and back to section A ABA. A loud volume was maintained throughout the music in this advertisement. In my opinion this dynamic was used to enhance the feeling of excitement that you have when exploring the features of a new device that you have never seen before. Targeting a most likely younger audience with the few older ones, the producers of this commercial had to choose a style of music that would still appeal to the ear of all the listeners. In doing this, they chose to do a piece of bluegrass music. What would come to be known as bluegrass emerged in 1942 as a genre within the post-war country/western music industry. Up to this day, this genre still lives on in certain parts of the United States of America (where this advertisement was aired).