Course Description
An overview study of music in film, television, games, videos, and multimedia. Music for film and other media is about “helping tell the story” of the film, show, or game play. We will be critically analyzing the underscore (and songs) for various genres to help gain an understanding of how underscore works to help tell the story.
Athena Title
Intro to Media Music
Semester Course Offered
Offered summer semester every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
At the completion of this course, the student will have learned to critically analyze the purpose and effects of music within the visual context of various media including commercials, television, films, and games. Further, the student will have learned to break down underscore by its instrumentation, rhythm and tempo, and elementary harmony considerations to better inform how the music “helps tell the story” for various genres including drama, thriller, comedy, horror, sci-fi, superhero, and animation.
Topical Outline
All topics will be illustrated with case studies drawn from award-winning and critically-acclaimed commercial media. • Class Concepts: Underscore, Source music, Harmony concepts, Melody, Instrumentation, Tempo, Rhythm • Underscoring Drama: Musical characteristics of Drama – Tempo and Rhythm, Instrumentation, Simple Harmony concepts • Underscoring Science Fiction: Musical characteristics of Science Fiction – Tempo and Rhythm, Instrumentation, Simple Harmony concepts • Underscoring Action: Musical characteristics of Action – Tempo and Rhythm, Instrumentation, Simple Harmony concepts • Underscoring the Super Hero: Musical characteristics of the Super Hero – Tempo and Rhythm, Instrumentation, Simple Harmony concepts • Underscoring Comedy: Musical characteristics of Comedy – Tempo and Rhythm, Instrumentation, Simple Harmony concepts • Underscoring Animation: Musical Characteristics of Animation – Tempo and Rhythm, Instrumentation, Simple Harmony concepts • Underscoring Thriller: Musical characteristics of Thriller – Tempo and Rhythm, Instrumentation, Simple Harmony concepts • Underscoring Horror: Musical characteristics of Horror – Tempo and Rhythm, Instrumentation, Simple Harmony concepts • Song use in films: source music, songs as score, Harmonies used, Instrumentation, Rhythm and Tempo • Music in TV: Discussion of TV Formats – Long Form (1 hour), Short form (30 minutes), Sitcom (30 minutes), Reality TV • Music in Documentaries: Discussion of the format, How the music differs in Documentaries • Music in Videogames: Discussion of the Format, Music Looping, Music Layering • Music in Commercials: Discussions of the needs of commercials, Branding, Selling the product • Script Breakdown: Read a script and put together an excel spreadsheet of all of the music needs, Source music, music onscreen, possibilities for score
General Education Core
CORE IV: Humanities and the Arts