Importance of music in a movie

Since the dawn of cinema, music has played an integral part of the movie experience. Before the advent of dialogue cinema, music quickly became a necessary tool to aid narrative. These conventions have become movie making standards, which are still in use today.

Express the emotion of the character

In the days of silent movies, the only methods of expressing how a character felt were dialogue cards, the actor's expressions, and the musical band. All of these worked together to convey the necessary emotion. In silent movies, if a character communicates what appears to be a tense and dramatic speech, tense and dramatic music would surely accompany him. In modern cinema, it can be said that it is the same.

Increase the drama

The soundtrack is the basic and effective way to increase the drama of the movie scene. Regardless of the genre (drama, comedy, romance) a band can be added in almost every scene. In an action, the music will tie the action together in terms of power and intensity. In a comedy scene, you can expect the soundtrack to be soft or silly like the action that is taking place within the scene.

Set a mood

At the beginning of a movie or scene, music is generally used (along with the setting of shots) to help set a tone, before the dramatic action occurs. At the beginning of a horror movie, shots of a desolate, empty street can have a sinister music of ominous omens accompanying it to establish that the action about to occur is very gruesome.

Set a time or frame

In many pieces of the period, the soundtracks or music of the films of that period used to establish and reinforce the specific period of time in which the film was made. Example: A medieval times movie will use a period font or soundtrack that you are trying to recreate, thus engaging the viewer within a certain time and place.

Story preview

Music montage is a popular way of condensing a large amount of information within a short period of time. The use of pop songs or band selections, accompanied by related themed takes (main character is sad, people falling in love, heroes in formation) advance the story without having to spend days, months or years that would take in real life for these events take place.

Fool the viewer

Musical distraction is used very frequently, but it is not limited to suspense and horror films, usually to calm the viewer into a sense of complacency in the face of a great shock. Example: the heroine babysitter walks into the second floor room while quiet music is playing, only to discover that there is a murderer behind the door, shocking music will immediately be triggered. An opposite example, the babysitter goes upstairs to some tense and frightening music on the scene, expecting to find a murderer, when in fact it turns out to be the house cat.