29 March 2011

Infant Movie Theme Song Exposure and It's Relation to Later Movie Watching

When my daughter was born, actually even before, I compiled a CD of 14 songs from eight movies and one TV show that my wife and I (well, mostly I) liked.  My hypothesis was that if I played these songs for bedtime, and at other times, that this would make the songs familiar to her and therefore she would welcome the movies or TV shows because they were familiar to her.

The theme songs selected had to be of a softer tone or a classical music type, similar to that of bedtime music.  This was to maintain the goal of the songs being soothing.


Now, three years later we are beginning to see some results.  Now my daughter has not been exposed to all of the movies on the CD for various reasons.  Nonetheless, I will list the movies on the CD and the results that we have seen thus far.

  • Lord of the Rings
    • She has yet to be exposed to this movie.
  • Back to the Future
    • This movie is a background movie.  Meaning that she won't watch it, but will get agitated if I turn the TV off while it is playing.
  • Harry Potter
    • She has yet to be exposed to this movie.
  • Pearl Harbor
    • She has yet to be exposed to this movie. I doubt she ever will.  This is a song I wish I never included.
  • Lord of the Rings
    • She has yet to be exposed to this movie.
  • 24
    • This one is interesting.  I have taken heat for exposing my daughter to this show.  I currently don't.  But when she was younger there was nothing that could put her to sleep like the introduction to 24. She would be with me while I put on the show, the show wouldn't get past the introduction and she would be asleep.
  • Star Wars
    • Star Wars, all six, plus the TV show, have become her staple selections for family movie night.
  • Shrek
    • There are times when she loves this movie, and times when her reaction is similar to that of Back to the Future.
These results are interesting to me, and I look forward to the other outcomes.  However, there are some late editions that were not included on the CD.

Late editions.  These theme songs were originally not included, but however, she was exposed to the songs before the movie, and had interesting results.
  • Twilight
    • She started walking on the day Twilight was released, meaning my wife missed her first steps.  Nonetheless, my daughter doesn't take to this movie, except for the parts where there is the songs she has been exposed to.  Primarily the baseball scene.
  • The Big Bang Theory
    • This is probably my daughters favourite theme song to any show.  So when this song comes on, doesn't matter where she is or what she is doing, she comes running to watch the show.  At least the introduction.
  • Chronicles of Narnia
    • It's a surprise this song was not included, as the first movie was released prior to my daughters birth.  Nonetheless, she was exposed to the theme song, and than the movie.  There was reluctance from my wife because she feared Aslan would be scary. Turns out Aslan is her favourite character.
As a conclusion, so far for my findings.  If you, in a sense, want to convert your child to something, you need to start exposing them at a young age.  I believe this is consistent with developing a tolerance or acceptance for other behaviours, actions, or beliefs.