Intel jingle

Music is a great mnemonic tool to establish mind share. Technology companies have been using it successfully: the Nokia ring tones, the Microsoft Windows startup and shutdown tunes and the Intel Inside jingle have become almost universally recognizable.

It is a creative challenge to devise a short (~5 secs) musical sequence that has a strong enough individuality to be remembered and associated with a brand. As an amateur musician and professional software developer, I am interested to find the logic/art behind these jingles, so I looked for a transcription of existing ones. Here's what we found:

The funny thing is that these notes are printed on a chip from AMD, Intel's competitor. But what makes this particular jingle interesting is the opening chord: D-G-A. Taking D as the root, that creates a Dsus4 with its characteristic sense of tension. Apart from the tones themselves, the envelope plays a major role in defining the character of the jingle.

You can read more on the making of the Intel jingle here.