Music in Context: A Marriage of Sound and Movement
On the first listen of “Back on ‘74” by London electronic duo Jungle, it isn’t very striking. It’s a catchy tune, but something was off; it seemed to lack the depth that defines a GOOD song. This can be explained by analyzing technicalities in the arrangement, such as the lack of layering sounds–a cowbell beat that feels rigid–or even the vague and seemingly meaningless lyrics. With all of these factors combined, “Back on ‘74” felt like another shoddy attempt to recreate the timeless soul sound of the 70s for commercial gain– a bastardization of music’s art for the sake of selling records.
Boy was I wrong.
My mistake was not watching the accompanying music video. Contrasting some of its contemporaries, the video is stripped down, well-shot, and consists of pure dance. The moves are jerky yet smooth: they flow with the rhythm of the song so well, hitting every beat and pause and giving it the soul it needs to stick with the listener. In an interview with the LA Times, choreographer Shay Latukolan explains how he “just let the music guide” him. The song had this energy, this potential, an underlying soul that just needed to be expressed through a physical medium. Even the lyrics feel full of life and meaning when given the context of the video.
This pairing of music and action is not exclusive to dance, but can also be applied to film. Music is, more often than not, one of the main tools filmmakers use to create mood and invoke emotion. This is so widespread that there is no classic example, but let's use the scene in "Sandlot” when the two opposing groups face each other with “Green Onions” by Booker T. and the M.G.’s playing in the background. This creates a humorous tension between the kids and their rival Little League team. The way the dialogue fits within pauses in the song also exemplifies the flow/soul of this new artistic entity created by the pairing of music and film. Another movie that utilizes this pairing is “American Psycho”. The iconic scene where Patrick Bateman bludgeons Paul Allen to death with the contrasting “Hip to Be Square” by Huey Lewis and the News blaring in the back is a prime example of soundtrack dissonance– a device filmmakers use to create mood through this juxtaposition of scene and song. Once again music and art meld together to create something bigger than either.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, listening to music can enhance memory, sleep quality, mood, and mental clarity all while reducing anxiety. Our brains are programmed to take in music and associate it with emotion. Seeping into all crevices of the brain, music activates the auditory cortex, and according to a study done by Harvard Health, while listening to music the parts of the brain that control our emotions sync up. This is why a beautiful song could move someone to tears.
By utilizing this neurological quality that music has, it allows artists to expand the breadth of their art and how it affects new emotions in the viewer. “Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time,” goes the famous quote from artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. I believe that by combining the two, we decorate existence.