Movie Music

In 1927, the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized audio dialogue sequences was released. The film was “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson who performed six songs. Directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. with a Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, it was the first of the “talkies” and heralded the decline of the silent film era. It also brought movie music into American culture.

The Jazz Singer

Movies play a significant role as an arbiter of popular culture: they offer us beautiful people doing important things in wonderful situations. The storytelling is so carefully crafted and utterly controlled to tap into our common consciousness that we (the viewers) can only draw the conclusions that the creative staff intended. The formula is simple: get our attention, draw us into the lives of the characters (get us to care about them), and lead us through their story. They determine what we see, what we hear, and what they want us to experience.

It is storytelling at its finest. Once we care about the lives of the characters, we are sympathetic to their outlook on life. It is as if we know them so well that we consider them friends and family. Movie characters always have a powerful impact on the people around them involving love, drama, war, murder, politics, saving the world, etc. Whatever the case, their lives are a bit more important than ours. If we like the way they deport themselves, we start to dress like them, talk like them, we even begin to imagine what they would do under different circumstances. Their imaginary characters and values are projected into our existence, and we accept them as an extension of our lives. It has an impact on popular culture.

Imaginary lives have soundtracks (of course). The movie soundtracks always support and enhance the storyline with the appropriate emotion: suspense, passion, outrage, climax, uncertainty, tenderness, chaos, and so on. It might be by the use of a single instrument: a guitar, cello, oboe or simple percussion. It may also require a philharmonic orchestra and chorus. I believe the Columbia recording sessions of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” (Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Cleveland Orchestra and chorus) had approximately 600 musicians and vocalists.

Good stories stick with us. It is an emotional attachment that becomes part of our long-term memory of experience. It helps shape our worldview and defines concepts like justice, fairness, conflict, and conflict resolution. The supporting music becomes part of that experience. Like Pavlov’s dog, the soundtrack draws out a predictable emotional response. Certain soundtracks can bring tears to some people’s eyes or cause us to tense right up. The simple theme to “Jaws” can cause many people discomfort and the desire to stay out of the water.

Common movie thematic categories include:

• Action
• Adventure
• Animation
• Comedy
• Drama
• Fantasy
• Foreign
• Horror
• James Bond
• Kids
• Musicals
• Classics
• Historic Reenactments
• Romance
• Science Fiction
• Sports
• Suspense
• War
• Westerns

No matter what your cultural background, it is likely that you can think of soundtracks to films in some or many of the categories above and hum or sing them through. One popular website offers 6,874 movie soundtracks for sale.

In some cases, popular musicians are used to score current films, and in other cases, movie studio teams are hired to create the supporting scores. Either way, the music becomes an integral part of our popular culture and helps shape musical trends.

List of Academy Awards for Songs

The first awards were given in 1927, the same year as the first sound film The Jazz Singer. No musical awards for songs were included until 1934.

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