One of the most disregarded aspects of movies are the soundtracks and/or scores. A movie can be completely changed by the way a soundtrack effects it. The right use of a song in a scene can go a long way to put the audience more in depth and more interested. Many of the movies that you know and love today are partly famous due to the effort put into the music.

Take for example the movie Jaws, when you think of that movie, one of the first things that comes to mind is the iconic theme song. Even people who have never seen Jaws are familiar with the suspenseful song that comes along with the giant shark. Without the theme song, Jaws would have been a much less-successful movie.

Many movies are defined by more than just one standout musical theme, though, such as Lord of the Rings (as mentioned, my favorite film series) which has a massive and highly advanced score. Every scene flows better with the music and the series definitely wouldn’t be the same without it.

Of course, these are just some minor examples of many movies that take advantage of an original score. Others include Jurassic Park, Avatar, Star Wars, Braveheart, Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator, just to name a few.

An effective use of music other than scoring a film is in a soundtrack. For those of you who don’t know the difference, a score is composed specifically for a movie and a soundtrack is a collection of songs chosen to be in the movie. Many movies have taken an advantage of the soundtrack and one of the most successful as of late, is Guardians of the Galaxy. If you are not familiar with the Guardians of the Galaxy one of their members has a mixtape he got from his mom called the ‘Awesome Mix’ that the director, James Gunn, takes huge advantage of. The movie’s soundtrack is the collection of the songs on the Awesome Mix cassette tape that are played at key parts throughout the movie. Guardians of the Galaxy also has a score but the soundtrack is much more effective.

Other movies that take advantage of their soundtrack include, Pulp Fiction, American Hustle, The Departed, and Wolf of Wall Street.

Television shows have also used music very effectively. Just think of how much the Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones soundtrack change the show. Game of Thrones easily has the best theme song for a TV show that I’ve ever heard. Other shows like Lost and Sherlock are helped by their music.

Almost everyday, people listen to and express themselves with music but sadly it often goes unnoticed in music and TV.

The composers of movie scores work just as hard as other people involved in movie making. Some of the most iconic movie score composers are Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Howard Shore, and James Horner. Imagine going to see a movie without music accompanying it. The whole experience would feel incomplete and ineffective.

Watching a movie like Braveheart without its beautiful and powerful score would be an extraordinary let down. Next time you watch a movie pay attention to the soundtrack and its overall importance to the movie. You’ll soon realize how necessary a good use of music is to a movie. There’s even an Oscar category dedicated to it.

Every movie needs just a little bit of music.