Music and visual media (movies, tv shows, etc.) have a very long, and complex relationship. Music as accompaniment to a performance goes back a very long time. Operas were perhaps the first example of scored (that is with music) visual performances. The great composers like Mozart, Beethoven, and many more created masterpieces to accompany these operas, which were in essence the movies of the old days. While operas still exist now, movies and TV series are the preferred mode of mass entertainment and with movies come soundtracks.
Soundtracks are the music that exist in a work of visual media, whether for a movie, TV show, musical play, etc. Soundtracks serve many functions in the visual media but perhaps the most important is the enhancing of the story. Great soundtracks not only sound good, they also make you feel what the filmmaker wants you to feel when you watch the movie.
Most movie scores are composed after filming is done, as this allows the composer to attempt to grasp what is happening on screen in order to create music with the right tone and feel for each scene. What this means is that the score is inextricably bonded to the movie. Composers create what’s called a “leitmotif” which bonds certain pieces of music to certain ideas or characters, e.g. Superman’s Theme, or the love theme from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. These pieces are tied to these “themes” in the movie so they will invoke the same emotional response from the audience every time it’s heard on screen. In a way, the composer tells a parallel story along with the filmmaker using music.
Now for the statement on top of this rambling. Why shouldn’t you listen to the score before you’ve watched the movie? Because, just like how the score elevates the movie, the movie deepens the score. Emotional tracks on movie scores are only emotional because of their importance to the movie itself. Tracks like “Test Drive” (How To Train Your Dragon [2010]) become incredibly moving, not just because it’s a good song (which it is), but because it musically chronicles the point Hiccup and Toothless are in their relationship. Soundtracks (in this case, songs with lyrics written or chosen for the movie) can also have a similar effect, in that you only feels the full weight of the song after you’ve seen the movie. Prime examples would be the Into The Spider-Verse soundtrack, and the legendary Lion King soundtrack. “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King” becomes great because off the story of the movie. “Be Prepared” is an excellent Villain Song because Scar’s plan (mostly) comes to fruition. When you listen to these songs you remember these moments and you feel like you’re watching the movie again. Interestingly enough, this is why the Disney remakes feel cheap and tacky, but that’s a different rant.
Also, great scores have a way of telling you the movie’s story through music. How To Train Your Dragon (2010) is a brilliant example of this. As the movie goes through Hiccup’s hero’s journey, the music tells the story of Berk and Dragons, so in a way, we are on the same emotional journey as Hiccup. Listening to the score before having seen the movie acts as a kind of emotional spoiler. You know what you’re supposed to feel before you actually feel it. I think it’s positively scandalous that it didn’t win an Oscar but, again, different rant.
I’ve written all this, not knowing if anyone’ll even read it. Or if anyone cares. In the end, it’s your Spotify playlist. If you choose to jam to the ITSV soundtrack before watching the movie, that’s your choice.
