The Importance Of Music In Film

Essay

Name: Shay Huntley

Date: 10/01/2024
 The Importance of music in film

From this study I am hoping to learn how to correctly tell a story and express my characters
only using song and music in future productions. The main way I can do this is by finding a
group of songs or music tracks in the same style and genre as my final production, taking
around an half an hour to an hour to listen to their lyrics and understand what they mean,
and then finally choosing a few that I believe my target audience would enjoy listening to as
they watch my next short film. The research I gather from studying other films that use
music to tell a story will also greatly help me when researching for my final production. In
this essay I will explore many different genres of movies and link them together by there use
of music and how each films soundtrack and music is unique and important to there
respected story.

Exploration in this topic, the importance of music in film, will definitely help with my next
production. In a recently released film, Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage, the producer used
the song Skylar Grey - Last One Standing ft. Polo G, Mozzy, and Eminem. However, I believe
that they need to also think about how there chosen soundtrack and music list could help
tell the story and fit in with the movies genre, which has been proven to increase a films
popularity, story, and create a larger group of audience members and film enthusiasts. I
believe that the first film that they produced, venom, had a better soundtrack which helped
us understand this new iteration of the character which has been seen throughout movie
history. In this film they used songs such as venom by Eminem which I believed really fitted
in with there genre and added to the story allot with lyrics such as “Knock knock, let the
devil in Malevolent as I've ever been, head is spinnin' This medicine's screamin', "L-L-L-Let us
in!" L-L-L-Like a salad bowl, Edgar Allan Poe Bedridden, shoulda been dead a long time ago”.
This implies to the audience that “venom” acts like a devil is also not good for Eddie Brocks
health or anyone’s health who’s is attached to the symbiote. This song helps the audience
interpret how these characters lead their lives and who they are as people without using
dialogue or text.

An example of a movie that I genuinely believe has an amazing soundtrack and really relates
to the main character is Spider-man: Into the spider-verse. In this film we can tell that the
main character, Miles Morales, is struggling to get along with his new peers at school and
doesn’t get along with his father very well. This is helped presented by the music choice and
soundtrack that the director decided to use. A song from the movie that is very much
connected to mile’s story is Sunflower by Post Malone. This song is shown to help miles
comfort and focus on what he loves most which is art and graffiti. We can see this at the
beginning of the film when his mum is trying to talk to him but he cant hear her as he is
focused on the song as he sings along to it whilst sketching a sticker which we later see him
sticking across the city. At the end of the movie we also see him put a sticker on a
monument which shows him leaving his mark as spider-man and it tells the audience how
much he grown as a character throughout the entirety of the movie.
Music in film is and always has been very important as not only does it make any scene in a
movie ten times more interesting, it also creates a story for the viewers. A key example of
this is in the movie “The driver” Where Ryan Gosling’s character is portrayed as lonely and
to himself which can be seen by his lack of emotions and also a lack of speech. This movie is
set in dark colours and sad atmospheres such as streets set at night in the rain however
there is a portion of this movie where the driver lets his guard down and takes Irene and her
child on a detour. The main way we can tell that the driver has had a change in emotions is
by the drastic change in music. Towards the start of the movie the music matched the
atmosphere as talked about before but in this scene, the use of the song “A Real Hero”, tells
us as the audience that the driver is changing and has some sort of feeling and connection
with these characters. The lyrics in this song are also very important in understanding this
character especially when he has such a lack of dialogue from this character. Although the
fourth verse of this song is very repetitive, it still sums up the main character very well even
though this song was not made for this character. “A real human being and a real hero. Real
human being and a real hero. Real human being and a real hero. Real human being and a real
hero. Real human being-“. These lyrics tell the audience the “The Driver” isn’t just a driver, he is
a really human being and has emotions like everyone else, he just needs to find the right people
to bring out that side of him. This is perfectly shown in this scene where lets his defences down
and seemingly has fun with his passengers, Irene and her son.

Another example of a film that uses music to tell a story is “Apocalypse Now”. This movie
tells the story of the Vietnam war in 1970 and follows an officer who has reportedly gone
completely mad. The director opens the movie with a huge explosion that fills up the
audiences screens. This scene is played along with the song “The End” by The Doors. In this
scene the director has succeeded in convincing the audience that they were observing hell
on earth. This song immediately tells the audience that the world could seemingly be
coming to an end and that everything that is standing may very well fall. This can be heard
in the first four opening lines of the song, “This is the end, beautiful friend. This is the end,
my only friend. The end of our elaborate plans. The end of everything that stands”. Normally
songs in films, when telling a story, are quite vague with their lyrics However, “The End”
starts off by telling us that “this is the end” and “the end of our elaborate plans” which
automatically connects to this films story and tells us as the audience exactly what is
happening and exactly what is going to happen.

One final example of music telling a story in film is in the movie Marvel’s Guardians of the
galaxy. This film uses a more straight forward approach to its soundtrack as it is represented
through the main characters Walkman (Mp3 player) and is only played when either star
lord, also known as Peter Quill, or another character is listening to it. An example of a song
played in the film that links to this is at the beginning of the movie when Peter is listening to
come and get your love by Red bone (1974). The main plot of this film is about a younger
version of Peter Quill, roughly set around the 1980s, being abducted by an alien called
Yondu. This tells us that Peter has not interacted or connected with his home planet since
the 1980s which means he hasn’t grown up with any other kind of music. At the beginning
of this movie, right before Peter’s mother dies she gives him the Walkman which instantly
tells us as audience members how important all of the music that we hear throughout the
film is and why he listens to such upbeat song despite how much trauma star lord has been
through.
In summary, I believe that music is a crucial and important part of any film, no matter how
much or how little of dialogue or a story it has. Every film that I have researched for this
study has relied on its music soundtrack to either tell the story of the character/film or to
add to a characters story or to add to the film altogether. I believe that all of the films that I
have used as examples in this essay are very different in terms of genre and pacing
However, each film is very clear when it comes to using music as a crutch to help it succeed.
An example of this is the contrast between the ‘Guardians of the galaxy” and “The Driver”.
Guardians of the galaxy is based around the sci-fi genre where as The Driver is based around
the genres of mystery and crime thriller. Both films have a different story and different
genres but still manage to use music soundtracks to explore and expand there main
characters personality and who they are when they’re alone. This is the same for every
other movie with a compelling music soundtrack. These movies include Kingsman, 2001 A
space odyssey, Trainspotting, The breakfast club, The graduate, and much more. In
conclusion I believe music is a crucial and an extremely important part in a movies and/or tv
shows success and is pivotal when expressing a characters story and the movie as a whole.

Drive: Want To See Something? (Carey Mulligan, Ryan Gosling 4K HD CLIP):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvrcb9sMeRI&ab_channel=SceneCity

Apocalypse Now - Opening Sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5L617dEXlE&ab_channel=AlexBeere

Star-Lord Dance - Opening Credits Scene - Come and Get Your Love - Guardians of the Galaxy (2014):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbAfhBNQ2qU&ab_channel=TopMovieClips

Top 10 Scenes With The Perfect Music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYqreUM1Urs&ab_channel=WatchMojo.com