Music and Movies

We spoke briefly in class about how much music we listen to in a single day. Some numbers were thrown around, x amount of hours on any given day. Do we realize how often we listen to music and what kind of impact it has on our moods and feelings. Take a few moments and watch the clips below, pay attention to the differences in music and how it sets the tone.

Toy Story
Mary Poppins
Sleepless in Seattle
The Shining
The Ring

Movies are such an integral part of our pop culture and movies are so influenced by music. Producers and filmmakers put much effort into finding the right composer who will make the right score. Music changes the movie.

Certainly the cutting of the scenes has a large effect, but the choice of music in each re-cut trailer has dramatically altered the mood. In Mary Poppins re-cut no dialogue is included and relies solely on the new choice in music to turn it into a horror film.
I first noticed this when I was told by my high school band teacher to watch a horror movie without sound. So much of the suspense and scares are lost without the music. I'd encourage you to try that for part of a scary movie, it can become almost comical.

When we control the music, whether at home or in the car, we are more acutely aware of this. We don't always have control over this. Restaurants, stores and other businesses select a specific type of music to instill certain feeling and ideas into the consumer. Depending on the type of music we may be happier or put at ease and more likely to do that which the business wants from us.

Do we realize this when we're watching the movies? What about in other instances of our everyday life? How much does music and its message influence us?