CM: Sounding Off on Soundtracks...

Turn on your television, slip in your favourite DVD, sit back, relax.  Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin...

Turn the sound off. Go on...

I absolutely guarantee you that whatever title you have picked to watch, merely watching it without the benefit of any soundtrack or music is going to diminish the entire experience.  We all recognise the trumpeting of the Twentieth Century Fox intro and the likes of Superman, Indiana Jones, Jaws and Star Wars are firmly lodged in a part of the brain that was supposed to hold on to algebraic formula but never did.  But beyond a handful of key audio inputs or personal favourites, we often take cinematic music for granted.  We can name our favourite films but only a handful of composers or melodies.  Indeed, if it does its job right, a soundtrack’s whole purpose is to up the tone of a scene without you noticing the manipulation of the mood, simply being subconsciously moved by it. 

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