Music is a great story telling tool in movies and TV-series. As opening credits it hooks you in, as closing credits it keeps the movie with you long after it's done.
In TV-series the opening credits or theme songs usually tell us the tone of the show. As soon as the opening score starts playing we immediately know what kind of show we are watching be it CSI, True Detective or House. I picked these shows because they are all in a sense crime/mystery shows and they use pre-exsisting songs as their theme song. CSI uses "Who are you" by The Who, True Detective uses "Far from any road" by The Handsome Family and House M.D. uses "Teardrop" by Massive Attack. Now, even though all these shows are in one way or another a who's done it story, they are very different in tones and so are the songs. And the creators of these shows did not pick these songs as the theme song for their show because they are awesome songs. They picked them because they fit the idea of what they want the show to be. And they did it really well and I'm pretty sure most people, by hearing the songs and reading the shows' plots, would be able to match the song to the show.
Examples of movies where the opening credit sets the tone of the movie are the Mission: Impossible franchise, Reservoir Dogs, Kingsman: The Secret Service and of course the James Bond movies. As soon as the music starts playing in these movies you know you are in for a treat. The music can also give the perfect ending to a movie. While the opening music score is there to draw you into the story, the closing credit score is there to make the feeling you had watching the movie stay. By associating that feeling with a fitting song that movie will come back into memory every time that song is played. Two great examples of this, for me at least is, again, Reservoir Dogs and the other is Edge of Tomorrow. Reservoir Dogs ends with a shoot-out, the screen goes dark and then "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson starts to play. This is memorable because the song is such a juxtaposition to the scene we've just witnessed that you can't help but go "what the f*** just happen". In Edge of Tomorrow the movie ends with a close-up of Tom Cruise's face with his winning smile and then John Newman's "Love me again" starts playing. Here because of the storyline in the movie and the song's lyrics the combination of the two is so perfect that one almost thinks they're made for each other.
We all know that music is also used to enhance certain scenes, a well-known example is of course the torture scene in the for mentioned Tarantino directed Reservoir Dogs accompanied by Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the middle with you". Another good example is from the CSI episode "Grave danger" not coincidentally also directed by Quentin Tarantino, where a guy who is buried alive is forced to listen to "Outside chance" by The Turtles. It is a great song but I can not listen to it without seeing Nick Stokes (George Eads) panicking face.
In some cases though the absence of music is equally powerful. As is shown is the episode "The Body" from season five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode deals with the death of one of the characters and the director Joss Whedon shot the whole episode without using any music. The reason for this was that he felt music would be comforting, and he wanted the viewers to feel dreary in order to better connect with the other characters on the show.
Music plays a big part in movies and TV-series, so if you're not doing it already, the next time you are watching something, pay attention to the music and feel the experience expand.
In TV-series the opening credits or theme songs usually tell us the tone of the show. As soon as the opening score starts playing we immediately know what kind of show we are watching be it CSI, True Detective or House. I picked these shows because they are all in a sense crime/mystery shows and they use pre-exsisting songs as their theme song. CSI uses "Who are you" by The Who, True Detective uses "Far from any road" by The Handsome Family and House M.D. uses "Teardrop" by Massive Attack. Now, even though all these shows are in one way or another a who's done it story, they are very different in tones and so are the songs. And the creators of these shows did not pick these songs as the theme song for their show because they are awesome songs. They picked them because they fit the idea of what they want the show to be. And they did it really well and I'm pretty sure most people, by hearing the songs and reading the shows' plots, would be able to match the song to the show.
Examples of movies where the opening credit sets the tone of the movie are the Mission: Impossible franchise, Reservoir Dogs, Kingsman: The Secret Service and of course the James Bond movies. As soon as the music starts playing in these movies you know you are in for a treat. The music can also give the perfect ending to a movie. While the opening music score is there to draw you into the story, the closing credit score is there to make the feeling you had watching the movie stay. By associating that feeling with a fitting song that movie will come back into memory every time that song is played. Two great examples of this, for me at least is, again, Reservoir Dogs and the other is Edge of Tomorrow. Reservoir Dogs ends with a shoot-out, the screen goes dark and then "Coconut" by Harry Nilsson starts to play. This is memorable because the song is such a juxtaposition to the scene we've just witnessed that you can't help but go "what the f*** just happen". In Edge of Tomorrow the movie ends with a close-up of Tom Cruise's face with his winning smile and then John Newman's "Love me again" starts playing. Here because of the storyline in the movie and the song's lyrics the combination of the two is so perfect that one almost thinks they're made for each other.
We all know that music is also used to enhance certain scenes, a well-known example is of course the torture scene in the for mentioned Tarantino directed Reservoir Dogs accompanied by Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the middle with you". Another good example is from the CSI episode "Grave danger" not coincidentally also directed by Quentin Tarantino, where a guy who is buried alive is forced to listen to "Outside chance" by The Turtles. It is a great song but I can not listen to it without seeing Nick Stokes (George Eads) panicking face.
In some cases though the absence of music is equally powerful. As is shown is the episode "The Body" from season five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode deals with the death of one of the characters and the director Joss Whedon shot the whole episode without using any music. The reason for this was that he felt music would be comforting, and he wanted the viewers to feel dreary in order to better connect with the other characters on the show.
Music plays a big part in movies and TV-series, so if you're not doing it already, the next time you are watching something, pay attention to the music and feel the experience expand.
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