Have you ever felt emotional, thrilled or excited while watching a movie? Sure the scenes are emotional, often when somebody dies and it is normal to shed a tear or cry if you see something sad happening. But there is always something more, something that makes the difference. Let’s take the example of the horror movie. Someone is walking along a dark corridor, and sure walking down a dark corridor can be scary enough but there is something that helps to build up more and more tension. It is the music that gets faster, so slightly that you nearly don’t realize it, it’s getting louder and leads to more and more tension. Until the tension rips and something scary happens. All of this is done with the wonders of music in movies. There is also an other way to use music in movies. It is the way of musicals. In this text I want to show you both kinds of music in movies and some of their greatest examples.
Music as soundtrack in movies:
The music in movies is especially made for those movies or purposely picked to deliver emotions. Lets take for example “He’s a pirate” from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. This soundtrack should be known by the majority of people. With the violin and the southern style of the music you really are getting the feeling of being in a world of pirates and epic sea battles.
Or the “Hedwig’s theme” of the Harry Potter Franchise. Following the owl “Hedwig” through the gates of Hogwarts, exploring the magical world of Harry Potter accompanied by this soundtrack makes it even more magical.
If you listen to “The Battle” from the Narnia movies you still can feel the battle that lies ahead for our young heroes even though you aren’t watching the movie in the moment. The trumpets that sound like battle cries and the epic music but also the evil dark music that is played as the army of the villains is revealed. All of this takes you right into the scene where the heroes fight for the fate of a country of magic and wonders.
Let’s talk about musicals.
One of my most favorite movies is a musical. It is called “Lalaland”. It is about love, jazz and life decisions. By singing about their emotion, about their feelings and situations they can carry the message so much better.
Let’s take “Never be enough” from the greatest showman. In this song a woman sings about her emotions of never being enough for anyone or the world. The use of a single piano and her strong voice are perfect to carry her emotions to the viewer.
One of the greatest musical movies is “Mama Mia”. In this love story about finding yourself there are truly many emotions to carry. With the song “The winner takes it all” a woman perfectly describes how she has given up and lost everything and how other persons always take the better.
In Lalaland, the movie mentioned earlier, the song “A lovely night” shows perfectly how to people fall in love without knowing it and how they try to neglect it by telling the complete opposite.
A big part of musicals is also the dancing. It helps to create even more impressive pictures, emotions and acting. I can fully understand if someone says he doesn’t like musicals because the singing and the dancing is just too much, but I would really give it a real try, because there is nothing that shows and creates emotions better than music.
Music in movies is mandatory and you wont find any movie that is completely with out music. Music does so much to bring the action from the screen to the viewer. It is never a bad idea just to listen to the movie music again, even if you aren’t watching the movie at the moment, because it still brings back some of the emotion and the memories.
