Although we’re surrounded by sound, we don’t give it much thought most of the time. Even the music we listen to is often just background for other activities, unless we’re studying music. But sound influences those who can hear it, even if they’re not fully aware of the effect.
Consider the music in a movie, which usually consists of the score (original music composed for the movie) and licensed music (clips from songs or orchestral works, for example). After you watch a movie, a few catchy tunes or notes might stick in your head, but for the most part you won’t be able to describe what the music was like throughout the movie. And yet successful music will affect the way you perceive the entire film. A trumpet solo might make a scene or character seem more heroic, for example. Soft music might encourage viewers to feel thoughtful in a somber moment. Loud, fast-paced music might accompany a chase scene to enhance the sense of speed or urgency.
Music is just one type of sound that can be part of a movie soundtrack. To think about how sound as a whole functions in a composition such as a movie, you first need to identify what kinds of sounds are involved. A soundtrack can include dialogue—one or more people talking. It can also include sound effects—sounds associated with particular animals or objects, such as birdsong to signal morning or cars honking to provide a busy urban atmosphere. And the music might be a scene-setting background melody or part of a performance happening on the screen. You can use these categories to identify types of sounds in audio-only or multimodal compositions and to examine what purposes individual sound elements serve in a larger composition.
In movies, sound often provides a supporting role. Unless it’s dialogue, sound is usually in the background, enhancing the action on-screen. What about sound in compositions that are strictly audio? A podcast, for example, can be an audio-only file designed to be downloaded from the Internet and listened to on a computer or portable music player.
Whether you’re analyzing sound in conjunction with other modes (when it’s used in a movie, for example) or on its own (as in an audio podcast), it’s a good idea to listen to the soundtrack or audio track several times. So that you can focus on the sound, do not take notes until the second or third time you listen. If there are layers of sound (talking in the foreground and street noise in the background, for example), first examine those elements separately and then think about how they work together.
Analyzing sound in a podcast
In one composition class, students were asked to create a podcast on a compelling local issue. Before they wrote or recorded anything of their own, they analyzed podcasts created by other students. First-year student Talia Souza chose to analyze a podcast titled “Hustlers, Street Vendors, and Farmers,” in which the author, King Anyi Howell, visited a Los Angeles farmers’ market geared toward black customers. Souza knew she wanted to do something related to food and farming, and she was interested in Howell’s focus on selling food in one community. Howell’s podcast offered a rich mix of spoken text and background sounds for Souza to analyze.
Podcast: King Anyi Howell, “Hustlers, Street Vendors, and Farmers”
Souza listened several times, first for content, then a second time to take careful notes on the content. The third time through, she listened for the various background sounds and made some notes on the podcast as a whole.
Notes on an audio podcast
Related topics:
Features: Pitch, pace, and volume
Purpose and audience: Why and for whom is the sound created?
Meaning: What effect does sound have on the listener?