Sunday, January 8, 2017

The Purpose of Media and Music

The band Mo Lowda and the Humble playing at Hard Rock Cafe, Philadelphia


Have you ever watched a television show, movie, or stage production without music? Imagine not hearing clarion trumpets sing during the famous cart chase scene in Indiana Jones? What if West World did not have a player piano playing amid the background? Or, would you be confused if The Lord of the Rings theme did not play every time something epic happened throughout the trilogy?

Would you keep watching?

In media*, music queues its viewers to feel a particular emotion. Whether the music is singing, an orchestra, a piano, or a track from the Billboard top 100 and whether the feeling is jaunty, ambiguity or egregiousness media and music seamlessly connects its viewers with convoluted emotions, harmoniously. Music and media are not mutually exclusive. Emotion is provoked by music. Place the right music at the right time, and the audience will feel the actor's soul.

Remember that scene from the movie Jaws when that boy swims out into the ocean with a boogie board? The scene was calm until your pulse jolts as the sound DUNUHDUNUHDUN indicated impending doom. That music is the scene's intensity, not the attack by Jaws. Now imagine not being cued by the sounds of a high pitch tuba as doom neared - it would just be a flock of kids and worried parents screaming and water sloshing around.

But, media does not require music to make an effect on its viewers. The effect of music is nuanced by the listener's attitude. For some, music is not heard-- one could passively hear music while intently focused on the visual aesthetics or the body language conversation. The puppet show in Allegory of the Cave demonstrates that a program can be impactful in the absence of accompanying music. The lack of sound leaves the viewers to make up their own mind about what the prisoners thought of Plato's lesson.

Anyway, silent movies are not completely silent. A live piano plays while the film screens. The piano player will either have sheet music provided by the filmmaker or will improvisate. Live music was recognized as critical to the ambiance and audience emotional cues. When the viewer wants to be entertained their brain waves sit at rest while expecting the entertainer to dictate what they ought to feel. Pianos were the sitcom laugh track of silent movies.

The necessity and effect of a program's music are contingents of the audience's expectation, attitude and the medium of which the media is performed.



-Tyler


*Media is referred to like movies, televisions, stage performances, camp fires, anything that would constitute entertainment for an audience. 

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