The use of music in cinema

The use of music can be traced back to the early days of cinema, when silent films had no dialogue, only music scores. For example Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Kid’ 1921, would have used only a live music score, Chaplin’s films were able to carry a narrative structure. The use of only a score creates a dramatic effect, without dialogue. This shows that the music of a film can be more important than a script. Today’s film industry coincides with this theory, as music is still heavily used within cinema, as the potential that music scores have in creating dramatic effect has been realised.

Through my choice of creating a documentary, I may choose to use an accompanying music track. The use of music in film is widely recognised, and it is a rare occurrence that you will find any film, be it documentary or blockbuster movie, that has no soundtrack. Music can be used for various purposes, and depending on the genre of the film, can even prove more important than dialogue itself. More often than not, music is used to create emotion, and gain emotional focus from the audience. The addition of music also aids the audience in defining what the movie is about. Music can help to classify such things as: the time period of the film, ethnicity and film genre.

For example in a horror film music can be used to create tension and fear in the audience. Within the horror genre music is often used in a frightening climax. The dissonant music would slowly build until the climax happens. As an audience we know that when scary music begins it is likely that something frightening is going to happen. The audience have a schema that means they associate scary music with something bad happening because this is a convention of horror films. If a horror film is viewed without an audio track, the programme will not be as effective in this reaction from the audience.

Background music can also aid the viewer in linking and understanding scenes. For example if a score is used in a film then repeated, the audience would link this scene with the last scene where the music was used. It can also be repeated to enforce ideas in the film. As well as film scores, music tracks are often used in modern day cinema to create a similar effect. A film such as ‘Twilight’, relates it’s soundtrack to it’s genre. It’s genre being gothic vampire it includes bands such as Paramore and Muse.

Another point to look at when studying music in film is that although if it were a real life situation, this non-diegetic music would not be present, the films still carry the aspect of realism. This is largely due to us only sub-consciously recognising that there is music there. To achieve this, a fitting soundtrack must be used.