Music is an art of sound that is used to express emotions and ideas in a significant form using elements such as color, harmony, melody, and rhythm. Notably, music was first founded in 1945 by Lawrence Berk when he was teaching jazz music, which was very popular during that time. Currently, music is found in every culture both in the present as well as in the past although it varies widely between places and times. There was a time in the past when movies did not have any audio, and they were considered as silent films. Charlie Chaplin, who was a jazz singer, changed the silent film industry by acting the first movie where the actions of the actors matched with the audio. In the current generation, it is tough to find people watching a silent movie without any audio accompanying the scenes. The relevancy of music has been established from inception to motion images. Music has been recognized for its significant role in evoking emotions and setting the moods for specific scenes in a film. Bestowing to the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), music in films is categorized into three forms namely; underscores, songs that already exist, and finally, songs explicitly written for a particular film. Underscores are music that plays in the background of a movie, and they play a significant role in capturing the emotions of the audience as well as inspiring feelings (Hoffman n.p.). Music can make an individual feel elated, anxious, scared, hopeful, or sad. Music provides the audience with cues on how they are supposed to react to different incidents in movies.
Whenever individuals come together for whichever purpose such as prayer ceremonies, men marching off to war, graduation from universities, funerals, weddings, and other occasions, there must be music. Music is the fabric of everyday activity, and it makes the fundamental as well as the hallmark aspect of the human culture. Music is used in all aspects of life. However, in films, music is used to create a perfect atmosphere for a particular movie scene by setting the right mood and tone for the plotting of the scene. Music can also be used in creating a judgment or an impression about a particular incident. Also, music can be used to create different emotions such as sadness and happiness (Barksdale 2). Moreover, music can be used to refer to a tradition or legacy of a group of people such as the cultural heritage. For example, performing a certain scene with music associated with a specific geographical location may help the audience identify where the particular scene is taking place, hence ensuring the audience are not confused about anything. Music can also be used to refer to a certain period where certain events took place. Playing a certain song in a film may help to indicate when the film took place. Finally, music aids in creating a transition between different scenes (Barksdale 3). A good example is when a scene is changing from a hard to a soft scene; perfect music can smoothen the transition hence making the audiences comfortable with the differences between the involved scenes.
Within every frame, both videographers and filmmakers try to convey a certain emotion either through lighting, choosing a strategic location, or in the energy delivery of the actor. The choices have to be carefully selected and executed to put the mindset of the audience in accordance with the creator’s intentions. Of all the tools used by a filmmaker, it is argued that music is the most powerful tool that can be used to capture the mind of the audiences. An actor can quickly change the tone of a scene by use of music (Neumeyer and Buhler 13). Regardless of whether a soundtrack is handpicked from a popular song or it is custom made, music fleshes out an emotional landscape of a movie production by placing the viewer within a temporary reality. Understanding the power that is within music can have a significant effect on the psychology of the audience hence making the film more effective and dynamic (Gilead 113). Notably, learning the different emotional correlations between music and sounds, as well as the paraphernalia they have on the human brain are vital elements every filmmaker ought to take time to study. The knowledge on the effect of music to the brain will not only aid a filmmaker to identify the type of music that will best suit a movie but will also enable him, or she produce a desirable psychological effect.
The significance of sound in films has greatly been undermined since most of the priorities have been placed on the other senses such as sight rather than hearing. As a result, since the brain finds it difficult in concentrating in more than one factor at a time, the effects of music and sound tend to be clouded and muddled by the lights and colors on the screen (Gilead 113). However, without the sound, films would have little emotion. In essence, the magnitude of a film is brought about by the sound of the picture as well as the sound play off of each other to form an invigorating as well as emotional experience for the audiences (Stewart n.p.). The fact is that just as the picture completes the effect of a sound, sound completes the impact of a picture. Notably, music in films has a significant effect on the cinematic world where different scenes use sound to bring about certain emotions. For example, horror movies use scary songs to bring about a frightening emotion to their audience (Silverstein et al. 11). Ostensibly, film music whether it is an initially composed cue, an improvised accompaniment, or a pop song, it can do a variety of things such as contributing to the creation of images and emotions both for the audience to feel and characters to emote. Music establishes a setting of a particular place and time; creates moods as well as forming a conducive atmosphere. Besides, the music calls for attention on elements both off-screen and on-screen, thus expounding on matters of narrative and plot development. Moreover, music in films foreshadows the development of narrative, which contributes to the way audiences respond to them. Finally, music elucidates the motivation of characters’ as well as help them to think critically about how they are going to make their presentations to the audiences (LaMotte n.p.).
Film music aids in unifying a series of imageries, which seem to have a disconnected rhythm during their unfolding. At the same time, film music emboldens the absorption of the audiences into the film through forming distractions from its technological basis, which constitutes a series of two‐dimensional and sometimes silent imageries. Although film music does not perform all of these tasks at the same time, the music is beneficial to film since it can do different actions simultaneously (Hoffmann n.p.). Film music aids in the creation of moods, which is an essential component of how the audience responds to a specific scene. A scene with torture would superficially create a considerable tension to an audience (Bell n.p.). Additionally, film music also resonates and creates emotions between the audience and the screen whereby, there is recognition of emotions which are attributed to events or characters. Music in films also shapes the perception of the audiences where the visual representation is unspecific or vague. In essence, music has significant and expressive powers that cross many different borders, which have been used to shape the perception of films as well as to reverberate emotions between the screen and the audiences (Antezana n.p.).
Music videos have gained popularity more than ever before because they have become part of the visual language of human beings. A significant portion of the human culture consumes music as both an entertainment and art. Discovering music videos has been made easier with the presence of YouTube, which is the biggest search engine that allows individuals to stream music worldwide. Music from the internet is listened and forgotten almost daily, and thus, an individual must create a strong visual to gain a substantial competitive advantage over their fellow peers (Shah n.p.). Music videos form a considerable part of the creative vision and output of the artist. To some point, music has become more critical than artwork as shown with how human beings consume music. Notably, videos control the emotions of human beings by connecting not only a listener and the artist but also a listener with the audience (Pulse n.p).
Films such as The Beach Boys, Elvis Costello, Frank Sinatra and, Opera would not have been the same without music in them. One would not imagine how a film such as The Shark in the Jaws would have been without the dum-dum-dum-dum theme. Music, which is sharply and savage rhythmic is all about what is happening in the mind of the singer, and it spreads to the audience the acute anxiety. Music is described as visceral, and it hits human beings in a unique way like no other language can, impacting on humans repeatedly leaving them yearning for more of what it provides (Strobin et al. 252). Human beings need music together with its dissonance, its consonance, its harmonies, and its beauty to bring resolution and meaning into their actions (Woodcock n.p).
In a nutshell, music is an art of sound that is used to express emotions and ideas in a significant form using elements such as color, harmony, melody, and rhythm. Music has been recognized for its vital role in evoking emotions and setting the moods for specific scenes in a film. Music can make an individual feel elated, anxious, scared, hopeful, or sad. Music provides the audience with cues on how they are supposed to react to different incidents in movies. In films, music is used to create a perfect atmosphere for a particular movie scene by setting the right mood and tone for the plotting of the scene. Music is also used in creating an impression about a specific incident. Also, music can also be used to refer to a particular period where particular events took place. Playing a certain song in a film may help to indicate when the film took place. Finally, music aids in creating a transition between different scenes. A good example is when a scene is changing from a hard to a soft scene; perfect music can smooth the transition hence making the audiences comfortable with the differences between the involved scenes.
Works cited
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