How Music Effects Mood and Perception in Motion Pictures Essay

The same applies to a dramatic scene where the music may be deep and frantic to convey to the audience the feeling of anticipation. A scene i would like to focus on is the scene in which Garry and his father have a final ‘showdown’, if you will, at the front of the house. The scene consists of the father imposing himself on Garry and proceeding to continually beat him down time after time only for Garry to rise up and face his father on each occasion. This scene evoked a feeling of pride and admiration from the audience as to Garry’s courage and determination to convey the message to his father that he is ready to stand on his own two feet and defy him. This is a very powerful scene within the movie which initiated powerful emotions within the audience. All of this was accomplished with the notable absence of music of any form. The omission of music in this scene created an atmosphere in which the dramatic affect was amplified due to the silence.

For instance in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" there is a fine example of music/ sound affecting the mood when comparing the two towns (Christmas and Halloween). Both of the towns music represents the characters and the ideals that each town is set on. In Halloween town the music is dark, mysterious and contains snake charmer melodies showing that it is based on being scary and mysterious just like Halloween. The opposite of this is in Christmas town where the neighborhoods are filled with cheerful, upbeat, repetitive music which convey the happiness of Christmas and the townspeople in general. Music/Sound also has a major influence in "Edward Scissorhands". For instance in the segment of the movie where Edward has a flashback and the invention room is being showed you can hear the rhythmic thump to the machinery making cookies, this sound conveys to the audience a mysteriousness of the factory and the robots and questions what this has to do with Edward. In addition to this there is also a scene when Kim goes outside to see what Edward is doing and encounters him making snow from ice sculpture. She has never seen snow so when this interaction happens there is a melodic, angel music being placed with this scene. However when she ventures to close to Edward he accidentally slice her face

‘Sound doesn’t have to be in-your-face, traditional, big sound effects. You can especially say a lot about the film with ambiences – the sounds for things you don’t see.’ (Bordwell, 2008) The music throughout this film adds to the ambience of the story, and follows the conventions of a family fantasy

Along with background music, sound effects play more of a role on the way we feel than many moviegoers think, and "although the function of sound effects is primarily atmospheric, they can also be precise sources of meaning in film" (Giannetti, 225). When the

For example, in the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton uses non-diegetic music to point out emotions of the children when they are loose in the eatable room. By using music, Burton shows the children’s thoughts and emotion. Burton lets the viewer absorb a deeper understanding of each character. This also lets the viewer experience the candy room through each of the children perspective which creates a connection between the character and the viewers. Tim Burton also uses music and sound in the film Edward Scissorhands. When Peg makes her way into the garden of the mansion, Peg sees green and well design bushes of objects in the garden. This scene is companied by sounds of bells and strong presence of strings incorporated. These elements gives the viewer a childlike and romantic feeling. The music and sound playing the background can make the viewer feel warm in the inside and see Peg isn’t in danger. It can also make the reader why the garden is so nice and bright and the mansion looks dark and

Another example is when Arbogaust gets killed and when Norman is taking his mother downstairs, we watch over this scene from the top corner, as the birds do in Norman's office this implies that Norman is haunted by something watching over him. These examples foreshadow the ending of the film and the real situation between Norman and Mother. The music builds a lot of tension and suspense in psycho, it tells us that something is going to happen very soon and we get prepared for it, the lack of music can make a scene seem calm and normal, which then contrasts with the loud scary music that starts quickly as the scary part happens. The audience are unprepared and scared.

Some people think that music can positively influence the listener while others disagree and argue that it has a negative impact. Mark Edmundson, the author of “Can Music Save Your Life?,” asserts through his own experience and the research of others that music solely “preserves” the listener’s life as a “balm—cortisone spread” (paragraph 25). His use of a well-known medical supplement makes it more relatable and believable to the reader. The authors of “Feeling the Beat” support Edmundson by stating that they observed an increased sense of confidence in oneself and one’s beliefs in the people they interviewed(Iwamoto, Creswell, & Caldwell 346). Their main support is the quote from one of their interviewee’s who said, “We can identify what they are talking about” (Iwamoto, Creswell, & Caldwell 343). This not only explains why students listen to certain types of music, but also why it can have such an impact on them. Derek Iwamoto, John Creswell, and Leon Caldwell declare their statement that positive influence of music by stating that the majority of the students they observed used their music as a way to

The importance of music in movies is highly regarded for manipulating the viewer’s emotions and helping them immerse into the story. Music is one of the prime elements in cinema. Without it a movie would feel dull and unexciting. There are three elements in a movie: one is acting, the second is picture, and the third one is music. It is a holy trinity; if incomplete, there would be a lack of sensation and excitement. Both acting and picture can stand independently from one another, but music is the one that makes the movie memorable.

Thesis: Music is a unique form of sound powerful enough to manipulate mood, feelings, and cognition.

The impact of music on positive psychology and emotion is a well known fact. Music has an extraordinary ability to change people’s emotions. In humans, music has the ability to invoke emotions of sadness, happiness and even fear (Goycoolea, Levy & Ramirez, 2013). The ability of music to alter human mood makes it one of the greatest subjects of positive psychology. Seligman (2011) argued that even though a lot of effort has been spent on psychotherapy and pharmacology, such interventions are not

As the combination of different sounds travel through out ears, we tend to connect music with certain emotions or memories. For example, to feel that adrenaline rush we select a more upbeat tone in music. If you want a relaxed mood, you listen to something nice and calm with a relaxing melody. According to an article by Mental Health Center, students at Penn State did a study on music and emotions; they showed that people’s emotions have a more positive attitude after they listened to music. Music has a great

Music is one of the greatest human creations (DeNora, 2000). It plays an integral role in human society worldwide irrelevant of race, gender, age, wealth or well-being (Kemper & Danhauer, 2005). Indeed according to Batt-Rawden (2010), playing different music in diverse situations can introduce listeners to the desired and relevant atmosphere. In most circumstances, music is played to entertain people, but it can also form part of an accompaniment in sad situations. Music is often the fulcrum that influences the listener by creating a unique ambience and atmosphere (Bernatzky, Presh, Anderson, & Panksepp, 2011). Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, (2007) adds that music can be a medium to enhance communication,

(Mulvey, Nov. 2, 2017) Our society today is engrossed in the visualization of gore, horror, and violence. In the infamous scene where the murderer is unveiled, an orchestra plays a staccato melody that rises in tempo. “Incorporating music into your own films can not only make your final cut more interesting, but it also allows the audience the ability to connect emotionally to your characters and their situation, and you, the filmmaker, to reinforce your story and/or message.” (Bell, Nov. 2, 2017). Nevertheless, this would explain why a viewer's interest would peak at the moment of each murder. The music being played pre murder builds suspense and creates the feeling that the viewer knows what is going to happen before it even happens. For example, a creepy tune plays every time the mysterious murders carriage drives around the town. The viewer is left to assume that a murder is about to occur, but is left at the edge of their seat wondering if their assumption is a correct inclination of where the plot is going. Music not only builds suspense by allowing the viewer to have freedom of their own foreshadowed outcomes, but it keeps their interest as well.

What drives a scene in a movie, television show, or video game is the music in the background. Movies and television shows often share the same element when using an orchestra score as background music. “Music adds to the emotional quality of the film. There is some empirical evidence to support this: fast and loud music arouses, slow and soft music calms. Motion and emotion are often entwined”. (Schaefer, 1998). The audience feel more emotional as you hear the sad melody of a violin during a dramatic scene. For some films that have

Music elicits an emotional and cognitive response in all who listen to it. It is powerful at the individual level because “it can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral” (Francis, 2008,