Why Film Scores Shouldn’t Be Ignored

by Louise Shannon

The soundtracks to films and television series are pieces that have always adorned my Spotify playlists, and, whilst I am a fan of wide variety of musical genres, film scores always struck me as being completely unique.

Recently, I went to see the new film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, having previously been fond of the book. I certainly enjoyed the film, but (even to my surprise) found that my favourite aspect was actually the film score. Upon discussing this with friends, they admitted they hadn’t acknowledged the soundtrack. I find this to be surprisingly common among movie goers, and consider it to be a mistake made when watching films. The music of film is hardly to be ignored.

Any avid musician or even simple film fans will argue that musical performance in movies serves a purpose as key the actors’ performances themselves. Music is used to communicate the atmosphere and emotion of a scene before an actor’s performance indicates it. This could be thought of as ‘gearing up’ a viewer for the mood of a particular scene, as well as preparing their emotional response to it. The majority of films will have a principal ‘theme’, which is used repeatedly throughout. This theme is often specially composed to reflect the general tone and message of the film, and is especially used in the advertisement of a film to hint at its motifs. It explains why we may feel more likely to watch a film if we like the music used in the trailers, as we assume the film will match the music

Likewise, scores provide important aesthetics for how the film time period and location would have sounded if translated into music. This is hardly a surprise when one considers that certain film genres tend be paired with particular musical genres. As a noteworthy example, period dramas almost always employ musical styles reminiscent of the era they are set in, with largely orchestral music and few lyrics.

Additionally, the film score is likely to be the best remembered feature. Typically after watching a film in a cinema we don’t watch them again for some time after. Similarly, we may have seen a film several times and not watch it again for a lengthy period of time. This means that visual memories a certain scene in a movie may take a while to activate when discussing it a later date. however, the music, particularly in iconic franchises, is normally better remembered between long stretches of watching a particular film. To illustrate an example, many people who watch musically famous films such as Titanic or Star Wars may not watch the films for years, but they will still recall the soundtracks.

From all this it becomes clear to see why film scores are employed by filmmakers as techniques to make their movies stand out, but it also reminds us of why it is worth paying attention to the music heard in films. Music helps us to form our own mental impressions of films, and also to connect emotionally to the film.