Music in Visual Media: More than Meets the Ear

By Kayla Noriega, Social Media Assistant and Editorial Assistant

There are few things in my life that come close to matching the love I have for music. Film is one of those things that come close, and I think the two go hand in hand. 

The thing that I love most about music is its ability to have a real emotional impact on people; there are songs that take me right back to certain memories and remind of people, places and events. Since music can have such a lasting effect, the songs that make up a movie soundtrack, in my opinion, are just as important as the movie itself. 

 
Music supervisors can really influence viewers and prompt certain reactions by having the right music play during the right scene. A great soundtrack definitely doesn’t go unnoticed by viewers and can sometimes generate more popularity for a film. Soundtracks have now evolved even more with different artists and groups creating original songs for movies. Some examples are movies like “The Hunger Games” and “Twilight” which garnered their own popularity and stayed at the top of the charts on iTunes before the movies were even released.

Whether it’s a musical score or a compilation of different songs, some film music becomes iconic and is recognizable around the world and across generations. 

 
Here are some examples of well-received soundtracks and well-known composers.

• The “Garden State” soundtrack, which was compiled by Zach Braff who also starred in the film. The soundtrack won a Grammy award.
• The “Almost Famous” soundtrack: It won a Grammy award.
• The “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack: It won a Grammy award.
• Eddie Vedder’s song “Guaranteed” for the movie “Into the Wild” won a Golden Globe and a Grammy award.
• A.R. Rahman’s song “Jai Ho” for the movie “Slumdog Millionaire” won an Academy Award.
• “Titanic”: It won multiple Academy Awards, Golden Globes and Grammy Awards for the score by composer James Horner and for the song “My Heart Will Go On,” performed by Celine Dion, who also won an award.
• John Williams: Composer for films like the “Star Wars” series, “Jaws,” the Indiana Jones series, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Superman,” “Jurassic Park,” and three of the Harry Potter films, to name just a few.My dream job is to one day become a music supervisor; I want to have a career that I love and I think working with music is the key to that. I want to contribute to a soundtrack and help create meaningful moments for viewers that I have experienced as a viewer myself.