La Land: The Importance Of Music In Film

The Importance of Music in Film La La Land, the 2016 American musical romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle, won an Academy Award for Best Original Score this past March. Audiences worldwide were captivated by the catchy and heartfelt jazz tunes produced by composer Justin Hurwitz. The romantic boy-meets-girl tale is surrounded by “big numbers and intimate reveries”. The ultra-powerful impact this musical and its soundtrack had on its audience is evident in this award and its numerous others. While oftentimes we as movie viewers do not take note of this, the immense success of this film can be attributed in part to the setting and emotion that its score creates. The importance of music in film is tremendous, and

Before film there was theater, which utilized the musical gusto of entire orchestras to serve many purposes, including that of background and atmosphere. When film first became popularized in the 19th century, silent films were the predominant genre. These films presented a moving picture without sound. Pianos and organs were used to both mask the noise of the loud projectors used to display the film as well as to give emphasis to the story. The first “talkie” movie, or the first example of sound film, was the original Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson, released in 1927. This film changed the way music interacted with film in the early 20th century. Composers began to use song to open and close motion pictures. These songs reinforced the mood and themes of the film. In the early use of music to accompany visual stimuli in movies a phenomenon called “Mickey Mousing” often occurred. “Mickey Mousing” can be defined as “the tendency for the music to follow the action too closely like a cartoon”. Cartoons like Tom and Jerry often portray this phenomenon where movement and music are matched. For a while, film composers were not highly regarded and were looked down upon by serious composers. With all-time classic Gone with the Wind, composer Max Steiner established success for songwriters attracted many more trained musicians to the craft. With his success also came one of the first ever successful theme songs, which is now widely known by millions. Extremely unusual for its time, Disney’s Fantasia is an example of a film where the music comes first and the visuals are created to fit the music. Bernard Hermann, a composer who supported Alfred Hitchcock in many of his films was a key in the new genre created for horror films, a genre whose purpose is to assist in the building of tension and the shock factor. Quickly came the realization that film could be used to launch hit songs