Johnny JonezBy adding music to your video, you get a powerful tool for influencing the viewer’s emotions. Music can both enhance the emotional effect of viewing and turn the product upside down, giving it a completely different meaning.
Of course, the perception of music is a subjective thing. Everyone communicates with it in their own way, and there is a little rationale here. A track can stay with you for life simply because some strong memory is associated with it. The genre, composition, and quality of the recording in this case do not matter. On the other hand, some absolutely fantastic composition that sounds stunning may completely pass you by because you were in the wrong mood or environment to notice all its merits. It is important to find free background music to download and use every time you are up for some good vibes.
What’s Important?
There are several sensations, the transmission of which through music is perceived more or less universally. Let’s take a look at them, noting genres and musical characteristics that do the job well:
- Calmness — Music that is practically free of dissonance can be described as soothing. Take a relaxed, even a little lazy rhythm, pleasant harmony, and steady notes, and you will have an almost irrefutable tool for relaxing your viewer. For pacification, ambient, downtempo, slow jazz, and classical music are well suited — music with a slight emphasis on rhythm, spiced with good melody and harmony;
- Voltage — Tension in music is often achieved through dissonance. These techniques are more likely to create a sense of excitement in the viewer. Music that goes from melodiousness to knocking, grinding, and other less musical sounds is aimed precisely at taking the listener out of his comfort zone, immersing him in a tense atmosphere. Minimalist tracks are well suited to create tension. They contain a large amount of free space, which stimulates the viewer’s imagination not only due to the excess of information but on the contrary — due to its absence;
- Drive — Remember your favorite scenes of chases, battles, and fights, and you will understand that such scenes are often accompanied by energetic, rhythmic, and noisy music. Use it to add dynamism and energy to your video. Modern dance electronics are very well suited for such tasks;
- Expectation — When the soundtrack itself contains ambiguity and the musical phrases are constructed in such a way that they seem to be a question, the audience begins to subconsciously expect something. Like tension, anticipation moves towards the unknown. We can smoothly and accurately lead the viewer to a climax or an important plot moment with the right melody or sounds. Waiting scenes are often accompanied by monotonous and rehearsal music with increasing volume or expression, leading the viewer to the desired climax on the screen;
- Fear — Let’s go back to the classics. Let’s remember the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Psycho.” Despite the absence of violence, everyone viewing this scene is accompanied by feelings of horror and fear thanks to the ingenious musical accompaniment of Bernard Herrmann. And there is nothing super complicated in the soundtrack itself. The rehearsal dissonant sound of the strings works great to create the right atmosphere. Everything ingenious is simple.
As you can see, music can do a tough job by creating a special mood and helping you deliver the target emotion to the viewer.