The Effects of Music in Movies
Music is used in everyday life. Some people use it for relaxing, some for learning and some as a profession. It’s undeniable that music has a special place in your life at some point. The sound of one note, one chord, can take you to a certain time or place in your life like a childhood memory, your wedding day or even a movie. Composers are known for having this ability to pull on the emotions and change the mood of their audience. One of the most underrated aspects for music is how filmmakers use these ablilities when choosing music for their movies. The role of music in a motion picture is in direct relation to the level of ambiguity in a particular scene. The more ambiguous a scene is, the more filmmakers rely on the music to develop a mood that interprets the meaning of the scene for their audience. Therefore, music provides a cue for the listener to tell whether the narrative is suppose to be perceived as scary, romantic, funny, sad, or happy--ultimately, affecting the audience's mood. Horror movies are great examples of that concept.
Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), is a perfect example of how a music can tell its audience what's about to come. The most memorable scene in the film was the brutal shower stabbing scene with Janet Leigh. The use of music in this scene allows the viewer to achieve a fear of the unknown. As Leigh is showering, the camera view point is of Bates walking into her room. Then, the music gets eerie and scary. The audience can feel something is about to happen to Leigh's character because of the taunting music. The music’s tempo increases as Bates gets closer to the shower. When Bates stabs her to death, one of the most famous sounds in horror film history is born. The famous "eeeh, eeeh, eeeh" is played with each stab sounding like shrieking violins. Imagine this scene in the late 1800’s during the