Have you ever heard a film’s soundtrack that made you feel some sort of way? In this blog we will explore the way in which film soundtracks play a role within the structure of feeling and relate to post continuity.

When thinking about the ‘structure of feeling’, we think of the aspects within media that make us react, make us feel something. Soundtracks are a key factor that connect the audiences with the visuals being presented, often directors use pop culture classics in order to create a sense of nostalgia e.g. Mamma Mia gained popularity as a classic due to Abba’s involvement within the soundtrack, now being turned into an off screen experience for viewers to enjoy a karaoke of the soundtrack.

In other instances, directors hire musicians to write brand new songs that have a close connection to certain scenes, for example, in the 2010 film ‘Submarine’, Director Richard Ayoade hired Alex Turner to write 6 original songs. There is the idea that ‘sounds add value to the image’, in a sense this can be seen as true as we are more likely to feel heavier emotions if we can stimulate multiple of our senses, to transmit fear, sadness, etc.

It can be argued that post continuity and soundtrack are closely related as ‘continuity cues that are not provided visually are instead provided subliminally on the soundtrack’(Denson and Leyda, 2016), in the 2022 film ‘Aftersun’ this can be seen through the use of ‘Losing My Religion’ by R.E.M., the lyrics of the song mixed with the visuals provided the viewers with a deeper understanding of where the narrative was heading. This can be linked to the way directors use post continuity to grasp the viewers attention by altering the linear way of portraying the plot.

References:

Music/Video: Histories, Aesthetics, Media by Gina Arnold (2017)

Post-Cinema: Theorizing 21st-Century Film by Shane Denson and Julia Leyda (2016)

Mamma Mia! (2008)

Submarine (2010)

Aftersun (2022)

By Gabriela Vadcard