Film music is one of my favourite genres of music. It’s something about the powerful, cinematic chord progressions and melodies played with the perfect blend of orchestral arrangements and modern production techniques that just hits me so hard. Most of us have heard film music, of course when we watch films but a lot of the time we don’t nessasially notice the music in a film, which for certain scenes in a film means that the composer has done a good job. However, even the least musical people can’t help but notice the beautiful, cinematic themes that are so closely associated with certain films. So we appreciate these amazing pieces of music when watching the film, yet the music for film is often forgotten and doesn’t extend out of the screen and into peoples listening playlists.

Why is Film Music So Great?

Breaking down music to it’s core purpose in our everyday lives, we could say that one of music’s most powerful abilities is to create and enhance your emotions. Film music’s literal purpose is to do this; to create and enhance the emotion of the watcher so that they can fall further into the fantasy of the story. Of course the purpose of film music is to follow and reflect the story but that doesn’t mean that the music can’t stand by itself without the visual stimulus and the story. I actually heard the piece ‘Brooks Was Here’ by Thomas Newham, one of the famous themes from the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, before I had seen the film. I didn’t need the context of the story for the music to hit me so hard and to fall in love with the music.

One feature that is quite unique to film music compared to other genres of today is the generous use of the orchestra. It is an extremely powerful entity that brings music to life in a way that nothing else can. It has evolved and been perfected over hundreds of years, dating back to the 17th century and still plays a huge role in the music we listen to today. However, in relation to how old the orchestra is, the idea of professionally recording such a beast is very new. Yet with the budget of modern films and the advancements in recording equipment and the invention and development of software and sampler instruments from companies such as Native Instruments and Spitfire Audio, the sound of the orchestra has grown into something even more powerful, and has defined the sound of modern cinematic music.

The genre of film music is huge. In the same way there are genres of film, there are sub genres of different types of film music, including drama, horror, sci-fi, etc. Although there are standards and suggestions of ways to compose music for these genres, there really aren’t many limitations when composing for film. It’s one genre where key changes, time signature changes, tempo changes, dramatic instrumentation changes can be pretty normal for one piece of music to have.

Where can you listen to this music?

Most music from films and TV shows are released in album form, the same way most music is on streaming services such as Spotify. If you’re interested in discovering and listening to more film music, you can check out a Spotify playlist below that I’ve put together of film and TV music that I’m super into, including music from The Joker (Hildur Guðnadóttir), Wonderwoman (Rupert Gregson-Williams), 1917 (Thomas Newman), and so much more. I would love to listen to the pieces in this playlist for the first time again, so I hope you appreciate and enjoy it.

lewsthoughts Film Music Playlist

You can also check out my own film music HERE