Joel Beckerman has probably gotten inside your head. His projects like AT&T’s distinctive six-note chime and the dynamic score for the Super Bowl are like collective consumer earworms—something that makes an impression even if listeners don’t know it.
“Sound is a powerful, hidden force—whether or not we realize it. It guides our choices and makes or breaks our connections,” Beckerman says. The founder of New York-based Man Made Music, a strategic music company specializing in sonic branding, has created original scores for more than 60 television programs and has developed signature sounds for brands such as Disney and Southwest Airlines.
Beckerman, who began his career working in recording studios, develops “brand navigation sounds” that serve a function and elicit an emotion for his clients. They help guide the viewer, consumer, or guest through the brand’s story, elevating the experience and making it more immersive. “Sound is the most efficient sense; [it] becomes the organizer. It can heighten an experience and simplify it,” he says.
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The significance of sound can be heard loud and clear at sporting events, especially at 80,000-plus-capacity complexes filled with hardcore fans. Last year, Beckerman and his team were tasked with making the rowdy crowd at AT&T’s namesake stadium—home of the Dallas Cowboys—actually listen and obey. This past N.F.L. season, the stadium introduced an upgraded app, which provides event and venue information, along with some other bells and whistles for visitors. For example, the “Unite This House” feature allows fans to band together to build up an explosive roar meant to intimidate the opposing team—the more people who participate through the app, the bigger the boom and the quicker it happens. “It’s a living, breathing stadium,” Beckerman adds.
Beckerman has proven he can rally fans at a live game—and those watching at home. Through its partnership with NBC, Man Made Music is tasked with scoring football’s big game when it airs on the network. (The Super Bowl telecast currently rotates between CBS, Fox, and NBC.) And it’s not just the musical accompaniment to the action that Beckerman needs to worry about, but also: “How is NBC going to own this as compared to other networks? How is it going to be distinctly NBC?” he says. Beckerman used Academy Award-winning composer John Williams’s instrumental theme music, which was produced for the network’s Sunday Night Football program, to create countless arrangements for broadcast moments and interludes like commercial breaks and replays. He is able to narrate the ebb and flow of the game, pulling in viewers, even those who don’t know anything about football. “It’s about understanding the story and how [NBC] wants to tell it … and simultaneously thinking about the audience.”
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