The Role Music Plays

            Imagine a movie without any music in it, pretty quiet right? Music plays an essential role in how you are supposed to feel during a movie. For instance think of any movie you have ever watched; was there music there to make you feel a certain way? If so then you probably see where I'm coming from when I say music is everything.

            I’m a big listener of music, it’s actually quite sad how much time I spend listening to music. I listen to music during passing time, while doing homework, when I’m taking a shower, in the car, and just about all the time! I think on average I listen to about 5 or more hours of music PER day. But how does this relate to putting music into movies? When going through the movie the director (or honestly whichever job gets the role of music) goes through the movie and adds in music in a certain spot to make you feel a certain emotion. For example, during a horror film the instrumental music is usually used to make you feel more frightened because you end up anticipating something bad is going to happen and then boom, you jump a little. What makes up a great horror film is definitely having music in the correct spots. So next time you’re watching a horror film think of how it would be without the music.

            Music doesn’t just have to be in horror films, it’s in every type of movies like romantic, sci-fi, action, comedies, and of course musicals. But what makes them determine what music to use? Well, first off if they want the movie to sell, usually they’ll end up using music that people like. Obviously not everyone likes the same genres of music, but usually theirs a majority that like a certain type for this day in age I would probably guess it being rap, pop, or dub-step (which I consider to be electronica, but others look at me like I’m crazy when I say that). But if they had music that people found annoy they might end up reinforcing the idea of annoying music and this movie and then end up hating movies like that.

            Another thing is music can get people to actually watch the movie. I like a lot of different types of genres, but if I see a commercial on the telly with a song I love or by an artist I love then I might watch that movie just because of the music it played. This happened with the Great Gatsby to be honest, I love Nero, and I think their music is great, so since I liked that artist I decided to watch the Great Gatsby. I’m not saying that will happen to everyone, I’m just giving an example of when it occurred for me. Also music at the beginning of the movie might influence what you think of the movie. I love the Fast and the Furious movies, and the 6^th movie that came out had the song We Own It at the beginning and I thought it was catchy, which influenced what I thought of the overall movie.

            Music is all around us. I mean you can try to cut music from your life, but it’s in shows, movies, commercials, on the radio, and just everywhere. So whether you like certain genres it is true that music will affect how you react to a movie because it will make anticipate a certain moment, or emphasis that moment.