Areas of Study: Film Music and Popular Music 1980-present

Music for films and the charts

Two of the four Areas of Study in this course look at music you already hear every day: the music of films, and popular music from 1980 to the present. Film music, usually played by an orchestra, is written to serve the picture. It sets the mood of a scene, builds tension before a shock, and can even tell you how to feel about a character before they speak. Popular music covers the styles that have filled the charts since 1980, from punk and new wave through Britpop and rock to electronic dance music, each with its own sound and its own way of using instruments and technology. This module looks at both: the techniques a film composer uses to shape your feelings, and the features that mark out popular songs, such as their structure, their strong beat, their repeated patterns and their electronic sounds. You learn to name what you hear and explain its effect.

Film and pop music words

Learn these terms before the techniques are matched up. They name the ideas used in this topic.

Match each technique to what it is

Film music against popular music

These two Areas of Study make music for very different purposes, and it shows in how they are made.

Which film music technique is this?

In a film, the same short tune is played every single time the villain appears on screen. What is this technique called?

• A leitmotif, a theme tied to that character
• An underscore
• A chorus
• A scale

How a pop song is built

Most popular songs since 1980 share a simple, powerful shape, and knowing it helps you follow any track. A song often opens with a short introduction that sets the sound, then moves into a verse that tells part of the story with changing words. The chorus arrives next: the big, repeated section with the catchiest tune and usually the title, designed to lodge in your head. Verses and choruses alternate, and a contrasting bridge often appears late on to freshen things before a final chorus. Underneath it all sits a steady beat, usually with a strong accent that makes you want to move, and often a repeated pattern that becomes the signature of the song. Producers layer guitars, drums, voices and electronic sounds on top. When you write about a pop track, name these sections and say what each one does for the listener.

Pick the features of 1980s pop music

Select every feature that is common in popular music from 1980 to the present.

• Electronic synthesizer sounds
• A strong, steady beat
• A repeated, catchy chorus
• Only a full classical orchestra and nothing else
• A ban on all electric instruments

Order how film music builds tension

Put the steps a film composer might use to build tension into a sensible order.

• Begin quiet and calm
• Add a low, sustained note underneath
• Quicken the tempo as the threat nears
• Bring in loud brass and pounding drums
• Hit a sudden loud chord at the shock

Complete the film and pop music facts

A short piece of music linked to a character or idea, heard whenever they appear on screen, is a _____. Quiet background music played under the action, setting the mood without drawing attention, is an _____. A short, catchy repeated pattern of notes, common in rock and pop, is a _____. An electronic keyboard instrument central to much music since 1980 is a _____.

Tap the two film music techniques

Read these four musical terms. Tap the TWO that are film music techniques.

• a leitmotif
• an underscore
• a reel
• a fugue

The same scene, two feelings

Try a simple experiment in your head. Picture a person walking slowly down an empty corridor, filmed with the sound turned off. It is just someone walking, and you feel almost nothing. Now imagine the same footage with gentle, warm music underneath: suddenly it feels tender, perhaps the end of a happy story. Rewind, and play it again with low, throbbing notes and a rising drumbeat: the very same walk now fills you with dread, and you brace for something terrible round the corner. Nothing on screen has changed at all. Only the music has, and yet your whole feeling about the scene has flipped. That is the quiet power of film music. It is the invisible narrator of feeling, telling you how to react without ever saying a word, which is exactly why composers are given so much care over every scene.

The film and pop music run

Answer each one correctly to keep your lives. Choose the best answer.

Choose the music

Read each situation and choose the best musical answer.

• A composer wants the audience to feel a chase scene is getting more dangerous. What helps most?
• A pop producer wants a section that listeners will sing back at once. What should they write?
• A film needs the audience to recognise the hero the moment they arrive, before they speak. What helps?

Build a point about film and pop music

Choose the word for each gap to complete one point about these two Areas of Study.

Explain film music and popular music

A friend is revising these two Areas of Study. Using what you have learned, explain the main ideas of each.

• Explain what film music is written to do
• Explain what a leitmotif is and how it helps an audience
• Explain how a film composer can build tension in a scene
• Name two features of popular music since 1980
• Explain how a typical pop song is structured