How Music Enhances Different Forms of Entertainment
Music has historically been one of the greatest forms of artistic expression, with the art offering us thousands of incredible pieces, across all genres and times. Nowadays though, its influence is so large, and the effect it has on the human mind so strong, that it is consistently used in almost all forms of entertainment, to varying degrees.
While there are plenty of passionate, often polarizing discussions about modern mainstream music, what cannot be denied is that artists across all genres, working in extremely diverse fields of entertainment continue pushing boundaries of what creative vision, paired with proper skills and knowledge can achieve.
Below, we will go over some of the most popular forms of entertainment that rely heavily on well-implemented sounds.
Music in Gaming
Gaming is often described as having some of the most immersive consumer experiences in contrast to any other media. Throughout the industry’s long existence, music has always played a big part in creating this immersion.
Even looking at the unlikely sections of gaming, when it comes to what one would think about in a discussion about musical influence, we come across fields such as casinos, which rely on it quite a bit. To demonstrate, look no further than the most popular game on the market, slot machines.
When it comes to online slots, one of the biggest selling points, alongside massive payouts, is the diversity of themes. This selling point would completely fall apart if, with the visual variety of themes, there was no appropriate music accompanying it. Even if the player does not concentrate on the soundtracks themselves, it does make a big difference in the betterment of the overall slot experience.
While you will never experience complicated and genius pieces of compositional writing in slot themes, the tunes being catchy and pleasant play a big part in getting the player relaxed and keeping them engaged with the machine.
Where you might experience genius-level songwriting, however, is in video games. The tracks have always been a strong point of consideration for gaming companies, with the industry giving us some incredible pieces over the years. Whether it is boss themes, main tracks, or specific ones tied to particular areas/levels, one could go all day listing all the notable soundtracks.
Aside from the bread & butter usages and goals behind musical implementations, which we will be discussing using other mediums soon, video games have the luxury and the design complexity to implement songs in very unique ways.
For example, soundtracks can be tied to player’s performance, and how well they are performing in specific encounters. Devil May Cry 5 comes to mind, as within every non-boss encounter, the character battle theme will slowly start ascending toward its chorus, as you get closer to an S-rank on the style meter.
Since reaching the said rank requires a decent amount of control over your character, proper reactions to enemy attacks, and good execution in continuing combos through unique moves, the chorus, often the highlight and the most memorable section of the track, comes in at the exact moment S rank is achieved, creates a strong emotional response from the player, and serves as a mini-reward of sorts, for good performance in gameplay.
Films and The Primary Goal Behind Music in Media
Speaking of strong emotional reactions generated by music, it is simply a must to mention films and TV shows when discussing this topic. There is a reason as to why award shows have specific sections exclusively for the best scores, as in proper hands, they can greatly enhance not only individual scenes but pieces of media as a whole.
Think about it through individual examples. As iconic as The Lord of the Rings is, for example, most simply cannot imagine the trilogy accompanied by anything else other than the masterpiece of a score written by Howard Shore. While his soundtracks are incredible on their own, they are even more powerful with the context of the story they are based around.
Think of the Shire, for example, for most fans of the franchise the beautiful, serene, green, and peaceful image of the environment comes in tandem with the calming, and quiet flute of ‘Concerning Hobbits’. What this soundtrack aims to achieve is to strengthen the audience’s attachment to the Shire, trying to get them further aligned with the in-universe character’s goals of trying to save Middle Earth, and by extension, the Shire from the darkness trying to swallow it.
In contrast, the intense theme of Mordor is written to push the intimidation factor of the antagonist camp further, trying to highlight it as a threatening force.
Of course, these two opposites are far from the only kinds of emotions the production team is trying to get the audiences to experience with their media. Whether it is hopefulness, doubt, uncertainty, or simply hype and a sense of epic, both visual and musical writing teams put in some serious work in translating these to the bug screens.