Breaking Through the Diegesis: The subversive score in Hollywood contemporary cinema.

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University of Amsterdam Graduate School

of Humanities Film Studies

Supervisor: Dr. Blandine Joret Second reader: Dr. Tarja Laine

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“Sound shows us the image differently than what the image shows alone, and the image likewise makes us hear the sound differently than if the sound were ringing in the dark (Chion, 1994, p. 21). One of the most recognizable film scores worldwide is John Williams’ piece for Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975); the two-note leitmotif is a notorious symbol of the shark and its presence in the water of the film. Whenever the score is heard, our expectation as audience members and movie viewers is guided by this motif, and the audience is able to interpret this sound cue as a mysterious or terrifying situation. In Jaws, the function of the score is to generate a dramatic buildup, establishing a sense of terror whenever the shark approaches or attacks. This sense of terror carries on outside of the film, and is now embedded into popular culture – thus, audiences will encounter the same feeling of panic upon hearing the song. Such a reference allows for films to hold an important social and cultural aspect in popular culture. In the context of Jaws, the score has become a symbol of the shark, and vice versa; the image of the shark by itself is immediately carried through the song, while the song alludes to an image of a great white shark. This is what sound theorist Michel Chion suggested in his 1994 work titled “Audio-Vision” - that the relationship between image and sound was stronger than previously imagined. As the sound film introduced a new way of considering the diegetic world alongside the image, it generated interest into how music, the image and the narrative of a film would all co-exist (Spring, 2012). For instance, film in the late silent era used music alongside image even when visual components would provide no diegetic rationale. Thus, music’s role brought about the

questions of diegetic and non-diegetic space, and how film music can be a defining feature of the narrative world of a film. In contemporary Hollywood, film music has acquired a larger array of features, one of them being the use of the leitmotif through score and music that allows film to become subversive.

The music playing in a film as an action is taking place, or as a narrative world is being introduced, can express different emotions, explain character attributes, and make the film’s reality personal to the audience. This music can originate from the story space, being present diegetically, as well as outside of the story’s reality and events, as non-diegetic. The main arguments in early studies on film music have been formulated with a lack of the distinction between diegetic and non-diegetic; early studies within film music were largely concerned with the original score, its traditional modes of production, and the composition of an

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intentional score to strengthen a film’s narrative. With Claudia Gorbman (1987) and her observations on the film soundtrack, as well as the work of Bordwell, Staiger, and

Thompson’s The Classical Hollywood Cinema on music as a technical device in reinstating the narrative, the idea that all music in film should be considered meaningful to its processing began to take shape. A distinction was made between diegetic and non-diegetic sound,

popularized by Claudia Gorbman, which gained interest outside of the fields of musicology and film studies; Gorbman’s (1987) understanding of the score, for instance, came from literary critique (Wierzbiki, 2011). Scholars introduced the idea that the soundtrack of a film should be considered as important as its visual components, thus since the 1990s and up until now, much of the scholarly exploration on film music has been concerned with this

multimodal link between the two (McQuiston, 2000). With scholars like Michel Chion and Gorbman, amongst others, within film studies as well as musicology, the area of interest has remained the interplay between the two art forms of music and film. Much of the work has been based on Hollywood’s Golden Age of filmmaking, thus laying the groundwork for comparison with contemporary cinema. The work in the following chapters attempts to explore this contract between the audiovisual and its contemporary diegetic and non-diegetic uses; firstly, by establishing overarching theories on film sound that have shaped the notions of diegesis and audiovisual contract, followed by an analysis of three specific films within contemporary cinema that shape the way the spectators experience cinema.

To begin by contrasting contemporary cinema with the early beginnings of film, the silent era can be defined. The Hollywood film score existed as an inclusion of instrumental accompaniment to the films before the inclusion of audible dialogue, largely used when the image provided no diegetic justification. The medium of music has therefore long been concomitant with the use of the film score as firstly, an indicator of emotion - adding an extra layer of information the audience can derive from. Music conventions of the 1930s were focused on complementing surfacing narratives, thus presenting the auditory as an establishing element in the story of a film. To illustrate, the classic King Kong (Merian Cooper, 1933) soundtrack was considered a model for all classical Hollywood film scores (Wierzbicki, 2011). This non-diegetic use of the score was largely focused on the use of orchestras to accentuate the film’s reality, tied to the individual environment of the film (Slowik, 2012). King Kong’s film score became of such importance because of its

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was considered the inauguration of film music (Spring, 2012). In the 1950s, film music began including other music genres within its scores, especially jazz, along with an inclusion of electronic and solo instruments (Flinn, 1990); including principles of nondiegetic music, Claudia Gorbman describes several features of this time period of film music, in which the narrative world is emphasized. In Unheard Melodies (1987), Gorbman states that non-

Film music has been added subordinate the development of the characters, script and imagery of a plot, and based on the relatability of the music to these features, rather than vice versa. Composers of film music are assigned with the task of enveloping the film’s true meaning in its songs, challenging and extending the director’s vision. Symphonic scores have merged with popular music in many films of the post-classical period, and therefore classical-style elements have remained inherent in the film soundtrack. With further success of

individual scores, film music became commercially important to the distribution of films – although, as argued by Bernstein (1972), brought about a decrease in the “quality” of the film score. This pandering to more young audiences brought criticism to the world of film music, as scores became more focused on targeting a specific group rather than supporting a story (Wierzbicki, 2011). The inclusion of popular music launched film scores into the production of commercial albums, composed specifically for the film, however sold for film goers – the film’s success was then defined by the ability of the score to make an impact on younger audiences, a phenomenon in which the audiences as well as the motion picture were feared to become of a lower status (Wierzbicki, 2011).

With the birth of the film soundtrack, non-diegetic music in film became a staple in the cinematic experience: from the use of symphonies in the classical Hollywood film to the post-war incorporation of popular music and artists, film music has established itself as a factor of narrative comprehension and emotional build-up for the audiences. The success of a film also lies in the influence its soundtrack has; a ‘prestigious’ or ‘successful’ film strongly captures and plays on the audience’s emotions, thus it is able to exist as an experience beyond the screen for spectators through music. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has long supported this relationship, following its introduction of an Oscars award for music in film in 1935, where films could become critically acclaimed and acknowledged for their soundtracks. Soundtracks, therefore, can add meaning to feature films, and stand on their own as album releases. Specifically, in the context of critically acclaimed awards, a film’s

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Film music has grown outside of a film’s diegesis, thus able to exist in the world of the audience as a cultural product. Popular music and individual scores can also exist alongside each other in creating a film’s soundtrack. The use of popular music is powerful in generating audience responses from their own cognitive environment, where associations can be made with prior films, and emotions can be drawn out from the viewers’ personal experiences. Moreover, the use of popular music can also turn the cinematic experience into a politically subversive process in which film can take charge of the social order and allow stories to permeate the viewers.

Where music and film have begun to expand their synergetic link to greater extents, this thesis aims to explore these distinctive features of film music in today’s Hollywood cinema in order to recognize and credit its impact on film for audiences. More specifically, this thesis presents a comprehensive exploration on the audiovisual contract and the diegesis, consulting various film theories in order to determine the contract in contemporary

Hollywood cinema. The general argument in my thesis will consider the current function of music alongside image in how film can engage in diegetic immersion and non-diegetic subversion.

The three films analyzed, The Social Network (David Fincher, 2011), Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, 2016) and Us (Jordan Peele, 2019) serve as prime examples of critically acclaimed films, specifically awarded and recognized for their innovative and appealing soundtracks. Moonlight (2016) exists as part of contemporary Hollywood cinema, while produced outside of Hollywood traditions part of an independent production – with a soundtrack arranged by independent composer Nicholas Britell, the film has received accreditation for its use of music in describing the tone of the film, including an Academy Award, finding its place in Hollywood. Also a part of Hollywood cinema, The Social Network (2011) has received great critical reception for its musical score as well as an

Academy Award that drove the film’s momentum further. For the most recent production, Us (2019), film music has combined techniques of the original score with popular music and pop-culture references in its narrative, allowing it to become subversive in its story-telling for audiences. The exploration of the interrelation between sound and image has been a previous area of interest within the field of film studies – basing my thesis on past research, and focusing on film music’s effectiveness in justifying diegesis, having an emotional impact, and becoming politically subversive, much of the critical discourse produced will focus on the contemporary move outside of the diegesis, and how the audiovisual contract has been

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rearranged. Using a cognitivist approach, the aim of analyzing these films’ use of music is to explore how cognitive stimulus with the help of music can turn a film into a form political or social communication. This approach towards a changing contract within film has been sparsely used in studies of contemporary Hollywood cinema, challenging the idea that music and film have reached a moment of codependency. This thesis, therefore, aims to contribute to this gap in film music studies, as well as provide a new perspective on the fluidity of audiovisual relations to shift attention to the political significance of a soundtrack.

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2. Film Music and Diegesis Construction

Film music has been attributed the ability to influence, guide and transform the cinematic experience and closely connect it to the emotions of audiences; film production includes music in different ways. Early music accompaniment in film established an inherent spotlight on the diegesis; where music can be a part of the time and space of the narration, as well as originate from the outside. A film’s diegesis refers to a film’s narration, and the characters that comprise it (Gorbman, 1984). The term ‘diegetic’ has been used in connection to cinema by considering different narrative levels; Gorbman (1984) treats the diegesis as containing different narrative levels to be discovered, where elements such as music signal a distinctive level in the narrative. From a narratological point of view, Ètienne Souriau has proposed the idea that each diegetic belongs to a unique setting, pertaining to each individual filmic universe of films (Winters, 2010). The original use of the term “diegesis” comes from Aristotle and Plato, where it represented a basic level of narrative storytelling, while Souriau’s ideas pertain to the cinematic universe as it provides a unique filmic perspective, and thus refer exclusively to the fictional world of the film. When it comes to the distinction between diegetic and non-diegetic elements in film, similarities can be found with Plato’s allegory of the cave. Baudry cites Plato’s cave in his model of the cinema apparatus, in which the darkened hall and screen, as well as the audience and the projector are reminiscent of the “mise-en-scène of Plato’s cave” (Baudry and Williams, 1974, p. 45). Through this inference, Jean-Louis Baudry expresses the belief that audiences are passive viewers, who become unable to differentiate between the “self”, their own thoughts, and the idealism of the film. In this theory, viewers are considered as unaware of the techniques and ideologies presented by the filmmaker and projected onto a screen, thus unable to form objective perspectives. In Baudry’s theory, as in Plato’s cave, autonomy is not present. For Baudry, when the apparatus is noticed, this dream-like state disappears, and viewers are able to re-gain their ideological autonomy. The similar idea that the passive viewers cannot differentiate between the world outside of the film and the world within it is present in the Platonic image of the cave, describing the people of the cave as bonded in subjective perspectives of their surroundings. Baudry also emphasizes that these viewers have no outside distractions such as light or noise, thus the formation of the diegesis is essential in this framing of audiences as experiencing the film’s reality. Baudry’s belief also expressed the belief that film viewers will identify with the characters on screen to a great extent, making them susceptible to the ideologies inherent

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in film, and thus unable to differentiate oneself from the character on screen. Apparatus theory considers the diegesis to be a place where idealism takes place, thus through the projection of films in a dark screening room, the illusion of a closed, diegetic space is

created. The diegetic realm can thus be thought of as immersive, guiding audiences’ emotions and perspectives along with the film’s ideologies. In the comparison used by Baudry, he acknowledges the issue of sound in Plato’s allegory of the cave – the cave acts as an echo chamber for sound, creating the illusion that the sounds coming from the puppeteers, come from the projection. Similarly, Baudry states that sound is integrated in the dispositif, creating an objective reality. This echo chamber created through the sound enhances the immersion movie viewers experience, further distinguishing a diegetic focus on film reality. Particular to each movie, the diegesis uses elements of narration to introduce multiple levels to its story, characters, and a wide range of emotions. The presence of music remains unique to the non-realistic universe of the film – an important aspect in defining the functionality of the score.

2.1 The Audiovisual Contract

Non-diegetic music has served the function of creating mood and meaning alongside narration, while being located outside of the story’s reality. Because this spatiotemporal tension is created in post-production, the application of non-diegetic score creates an additional narrative, and therefore discloses a discrete layer in the diegesis, allowing audiences to immerse themselves in the lives of the fictional world. Michel Chion explores this relationship of audiovisual media, establishing a clear relationship between audiovisual elements in film, namely through an emphasis on the soundtrack – reflected from the time of the silent era until the contemporary filmmaking techniques of today. Chion understands non-diegetic sound as an element existing outside of the film’s narrative time-space continuum, while diegetic sound can be heard in the world of the narrative (Chion, 1994, p. 76). The non-diegetic score is meant to encourage audiences to extract information from this “to make a coherent story in the diegesis” by using prior knowledge (Cohen, 2009, p. 204). In Chion’s approach to the audiovisual relationship of the feature film, he describes the concept of an audiovisual contract; audiences fully immerse into the world of the film, and see image and sound as one, rather than separate entities (Chion, p. 216). Sound enriches the image, thus providing a musical information that remains within the audience’s memories through

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interpretation. Chion, however, stresses that the information is still largely visually-oriented, thus the sound being dependent on the image – in this way, music can provide a different interpretation to the image than what the image shows alone, while at the same time the image can highlight certain parts of a film’s sonic space that may not be visible otherwise – Chion (1994) calls this the added value in the relation between sound and image (p. 21). A meaningful element of this work is that the sensory modalities involved, in this case vision and audio, are not considered to be confined within themselves, but collaborating in conveying each and every sense through one singular entity. To further explain, Chion’s beliefs lie in creating an entirely separate audiovisual element that exists within film, thus denying the presence of soundtrack as an individual technique (Chion, 1994, p. 5). For Chion, audio does not exist for video in film, but the combination of the two gives rise to complex audiovisual material which can utilize the concept of added value to exhibit individual inferences on a film’s diegesis. Music’s quality as a diegetic element seems to exhibit significant importance in how the image is shown, however the image also holds importance in how the sound is heard – from this relation it is clear that the creation of filmic diegesis is largely influenced by the appearance of music. Music that appears on screen shapes the narrative to appeal to any preconceived notions the audience may have, dramatizing and emphasizing actions. For audiences, music decides the narrative, dramatic aspects, and influences spectators’ perception of the audiovisual elements. These shared audiovisual patterns can emphasize the visual, and immerse audiences through the ability of music to provide subconscious information; the associations spectators will hold to certain contexts will also evoke responses, expanding the diegesis (Cohen, 1993).

Additionally, in the way music can communicate, Anahid Kassabian (2001) describes the distinction of diegetic and non-diegetic as insufficient, as it fails to account for the realms that are in-between the cinematic space of the film. Kassabian attributes a fluidity to the audiovisual contract Chion establishes, thus the concept of a film’s score has the space available to move between diegetic levels, having a significant impact on the way music is heard and unheard. This notion acknowledges that the cognitive perception is affected through this, thus shaping the visual connection – deeming Chion’s perception of the

cinematic diegesis as scarce in its ability to discern music’s abilities in the narrative. Another meaningful engagement from Kassabian within film music is her description of the

traditional modes of scoring, in which music is “gendered” (Kassabian, 2001, p. 11) and that they represent a point of discourse focusing on the specifics of white males and Western

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society. Kassabian’s argument further asserts the assumption that an original film score seeks to manipulate audience interpretation to the meanings emerging from the narrative, while a compilation and the use of popular music with an existent role in Western cultures leave the freedom for personal engagement. Using pre-existing music in film offers ground for opening up discourse around the diegesis, therefore the dichotomy between diegetic and non-diegetic realms proves insufficient in accounting for the in-between state it creates.

The work of Claudia Gorbman (1987) dives deeper into the presence of non-diegetic sound and the ongoing emotional interpretation that takes place along with it, in such a way as to understand the polarizing views existing on their roles; the theoretical model described by Gorbman details the diegesis as having two notable principles for the presence of sound, namely that sound must not be seen nor heard in order to influence audiences; the music must be a part of the subconscious of the audience, as to provide referential cues to the narrative (Gorbman, 1987; Lipscomb & Tolchisnky, 2005). In addition to this, Chion’s notion of acousmatic sound is key to understanding how contemporary cinema uses music to cue narrative action – Chion (1994) describes this musical tension as sound either visualized before the image, or after the image has been shown, both of which have an influence on how the narrative action in question is perceived. In Chion’s approach, the use of non-diegetic music itself points out the existence of a possible audience, who is meant to benefit from this feature – Gorbman’s theoretical model stresses the importance of considering non-diegetic music as entirely part in a film’s narrative, rather than separate from it, as well as the realization of the film’s unreality as a separate being from the audience. Going back to Kassabian (2001), the importance of Gorbman’s theories lies in the questions that arise in terms of audience interpretation, and how this is shaped. Both authors agree that there is great value in considering the exposure to pre-existing material in relation to a film’s narrative, as well as the music that gets composed specifically for a particular interpretation. These perspectives suggest that the existence of music within film acts as a mediator between the reality of the spectators and the diegetic space recognized in the film. Narrative

representation relies on music to create different impressions on the audience – in this case, narrative space becomes sonic space, but the gap between the diegetic and non-diegetic use of elements becomes more dependent on the spectators’ apprehension. In this respect, the use of diegetic versus non-diegetic score creates two separate spatiotemporal attributes – the space of the film world, and the space of cultural connotation. When sound escapes to enter the real world, it enters the cultural space of the audience, allowing for both realms to merge.

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As Bordwell (2008) reiterates, viewers of a film will hold prior mental representations to things in the world as a part of their cognitive environment, therefore inputting their

perceptions onto the spatiotemporal world of the narrative. Underlying these particular close relationships between the visual and the auditory, music and the feature film largely shape our perception of a story because of sound’s ability to allow the spectator to be selective in what meanings are being revealed.

2.2 The Cognitive Perspective

The cognitive environment of audience members will help them make sense of the diegetic; while music is there to guide the spectators’ attention to certain elements of the diegesis, it also serves to cognitively involve them in the interpretation of the film’s reality. Cognitive involvement, therefore, is highly important when considering how meaning becomes stuck in the film’s text, as well as the ability to be absorbed by this cinematic text. The use of

cognitive psychology is useful in finding out the general effects film music has on audience’s mental activity while watching a film. The field of cognitive psychology and cognitive science in general have been, in film studies, largely focused on music and specifically film music because of its ability to explain and understand the effect on the audience’s cognition (Cohen, 2015). Cognitive theory holds true assumptions mentioned beforehand, such as Chion’s relationship between music and visual images, Bordwell’s meaning-making through music, and Cohen’s engagement of the audience. The role of music in film is to spark an emotional reaction, and in turn generate a certain memory or association to that particular film. Film music therefore serves a unifying function for the visual images presented on screen, reaching into one’s cognitive environment. With cognitive-emotional responses, film music can create different semiotic interpretations of the emotional responses that arise in audiences.

In his work on narration and filmic interpretation, Bordwell (1985) argues for an appreciation of the stylistic conventions in film as they form a cinematic discourse; movies have the ability to offer triggers to our sensory perception as audience members through various techniques, thus generating emotional responses with each viewing. Much of his work focuses on distinctions between genres of cinema, namely classical and the art film, distinguishing between the conventions of both to achieve an understanding of the difference between film perceptions (Bordwell, 1985, p. 43). Bordwell also attributes audience

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perception to the realm of social psychology, in which characters’ actions can be understood as personal attributes rather than contextual actions. The cognitive approach used by

Bordwell reiterates that the stories of individual films are not only made sense of within the settings of the diegesis, but combine the “non-diegetic”, biased and cognitive perceptions of audience members to spark interest. Providing a dynamic experience of the narrative, elements of cognitive semiotics arise in the meaning-making of the narrative. Although previously a rejected field within the realm of film studies, and deemed as too scientific, cognitivism offers the opportunity to contend information sources outside of visual elements, that are relative to social and historical backgrounds of audiences (Carroll, 1992). Noël Carroll’s application of cognitivism in the field of cinema studies works towards a deeper understanding of how films experience widespread notoriety, what makes them memorable, and how people from different social and cultural backgrounds can enjoy the same film through a varying perspective (Carroll, 1996). This is highly important when defining the ability of film to become a cross-cultural form of communication through music, further establishing the audience’s role outside the diegesis.

To reiterate how varying film impressions can arise, the use of diegetic and non-diegetic music differs in the responses they create; the different musical scores can change perceptions of a scene, and drive spectators to interpret it in various ways. Non-diegetic music can influence audiences through the use of ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ songs

accompanying the images. Marilyn Boltz (2001) found that the use of positive music is more likely to create positive connotations with characters or future plotlines, being congruent with the images shown. In a similar research, Boltz (2004) addresses the cognitive systems

available to audiences when watching a film, and attributes audio and visual information congruency as being a defining factor in how memorable a film remains for spectators, and how integrated audiences are with the reality of the film they are watching. The similarity with Michel Chion’s audiovisual contract here alludes to the inherent relationship of the audience to the contract, and the possibility of fluidity within it, offering audiences a stronger freedom of interpretation. Film music that accompanies the tone and mood of the footage is much more likely to leave a lasting impression, and engage with audiences in the process of encoding information, thus extracting a deeper understanding and involvement with the narrative (p. 1199). The study conducted to support these claims did not, however, make the distinction between diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The effect of diegetic music is less studied within film studies because of the technical difficulties it poses in post-production;

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Elizabeth Wakefield, Siu-Lan Tan and Matthew Spackman (2017) find that non-diegetic music has a greater effect on shaping audiences’ perception of a scene as it presents as less fearful and more romanticized than diegetic music (p. 15). Cognitive processes in turn are affected by the use of diegetic and non-diegetic music, as well as the music’s ability to transcend these boundaries. In this instance, emotional responses will be shaped by the schematic influence of the music on screen, and whether this provides a level of immersion for the audience. With the two existing modalities of music and film, audio and visual, disparate capacities of interpretation also take place, thus one medium may expect varying effects when audience process information (Boltz, 2004, p. 1196).

Audience perceptions can be tricked into seeing an array of fantasy elements with the use of the camera, while rearranging the setting and placing the actors. To relate back to Baudry and Plato, understanding the technical factors in filmmaking can indeed influence audiences and how the use of music is perceived. Music has received attention for its structural action within film, and its relation to cognitive involvement. In this thesis, this belief of influence and illusion of reality in film will be considered alongside an

understanding of the diegetic world. To reiterate, the use of music can affect how the diegesis is constructed, and whether spectators remain passive in their viewing, or cognitively engage with the projection on screen. To further explore how a film’s soundtrack can guide the emotions, beliefs and perceptions an audience builds, an understanding of cognitive theory in film studies must be implemented to the study. With the use of music, cognitive capacities can be heightened, as the sound can alter and mold comprehension of a narrative in the non-diegetic world of the viewer, therefore holding a close relationship between context and viewer psychology. In accordance to this, film music theory states that the classical film’s narrative must contain music that works in concomitance with the visual elements and context, in order for music to have an emotional response from audiences (Willemsen & Kiss, 2013). This emotional response is indeed passive in the classical film, entirely focused on immersion and guiding audiences to see what the filmmaker makes visible. For cognition to take place, our viewing experiences must be entirely immersive into the reality of the film’s world.

Steven Willemsen and Miklós Kiss (2013) argue that incongruent film scores can have a similar emotional effect on the viewer. To further explain, incongruent film scores do not match the story or expected associations with certain scenes – for example, while a horror film can certainly benefit from a suspenseful score, the choice for cheerful songs alongside

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violence or gore can create an even greater emotional experience. In the following chapters, these notions will be explored to determine how cognitive involvement of the audience takes place in the films analyzed, and what this entails for contemporary film. While the

audiovisual contract of Chion addresses a distinct relationship of the audience with the sound of a film, contemporary filmmaking has shown different patterns in its aim through the inclusion of music. A distinction is also to be made between the cognitive components of film music, namely emotions being present or conveyed through a scene, affecting audience perception, and empathic emotions recognized as a result (Smith, 1999). Due to sound and image being perceived as one singular source for viewers’ perceptions in the contract, the music used in film is understood to be fitting for a scene even in highly conflicting situations (Willemsen & Kiss, 2013). Anderson (1998) explains this cognitive process as a conjoined understanding of the visual and auditory as one and the same in the setting of the cinema, therefore working on viewers’ perceptions to make sense of conflicting elements in the diegesis. Thus, as the cognitive involvement is heighted in the film experience, the viewers are able to break away from that, no longer being trapped in the projection of Baudry’s apparatus, further blurring the boundaries of the diegetic and non-diegetic film realities.

2.3 Classic vs. Contemporary Hollywood scores.

Hollywood, as the leader in the introduction of sound, specifically in the so-called “Talkies”, established itself as the main commercial cinema leader through combining the use of

dialogue with musical instruments (Marks, 1979). For Chion (1994), this era is defining in what he refers to as “audioviewing”, as dialogue and actions are accompanied by a

soundtrack. Bordwell (1985) further describes this era as defining of the “classical”

Hollywood style – a genre where the cinematic techniques, including addition of music, are implemented “to explain, and not obscure, the narrative” (as quoted in Wierzbicki, 2011). In the classical-style film, the diegetic illusion of Baudry’s apparatus is greatly present; the audience is immersed in the story and made aware of the characters’ intentions and plot. The audience of the classical era is able to fully understand the motivations behind the narrative actions taking place. Film music, towards the end of the 1930s, served as one of the tools used by Hollywood’s classical-style productions to build suspense, directly dictated by a film’s plot. This music was almost exclusively non-diegetic, as directors and producers were heavily involved with the addition of music to accompany characters, tie scenes together, and

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produce a more emotive response. Hollywood’s classical period of production was heavily influenced by music composition, and developing at the same time, the great era of film composition strengthened Hollywood’s cultural and commercial authority (Flinn, 1992). This strong relationship of the audiovisual gave birth to a wealth of effects that would become specific to certain genres or filmic techniques, and that would shape how spectators become audioviewers. Ever since the period of classical Hollywood film – with an established sound aesthetic and nuance – the place of the score has been in tying together the visual image. Starting with the emergence of multi-channel film music in the post-classical era of the 1950s, and continuing with the introduction of popular music, genre attribution and defining soundscape for blockbuster feature films, film sound – specifically music – has defined world cinemas’ conventions of the diegetic space through sound.

To understand this use of the audiovisual contract and how this creates assimilating and affiliating identifications with the plot, its characters, and the setting, I will, throughout this thesis, analyze three contemporary Hollywood films. Exploring how films challenge the theories mentioned, I will delve into the current interplay between how diegetic and non-diegetic realities are created through music, and how contemporary cinema uses these two elements to redefine the Chion’s contract. The importance between auditory and visual elements in contemporary filmmaking lies within how the film viewing experience is shaped – the use of the score aids in defining that experience. Wherein the use of music in classical cinema was to immerse audiences in the lives of the characters projected on screen, music in contemporary cinema is more concerned with restoring audience autonomy. Thus, the classical Hollywood film score fits with the diegetic illusion of Baudry’s apparatus and Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which audiences are fully immersed and guided with the story. Making use of spectators’ cognitive environments to provide referential cues to cinema disposes of Baudry’s belief that movie viewers will follow inherent notions governed by filmmakers in film. Beyond the bounds of the film, the score can transcend genres, and allowing for music to do more than support the diegesis; the score provides the ability to move outside of the diegesis, and shift the attention to a fluidity of the audiovisual.

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3. Music as Cinematic Language

The way audiences make sense of a film is through the narrative’s resemblance to everyday perception. In this way, cinema produces an illusion of reality through its closed diegetic space (Allen, 2002). To further illustrate how audiences are engaged to take part in this objective reality, three distinct films within contemporary cinema have been chosen for analysis. Firstly, David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010) was selected for the critical acclaim of the film’s soundtrack and narrative vision it accompanies; secondly, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight (2016), whose soundtrack is used to highlight social hierarchies; and finally, Jordan Peele’s recent production Us (2019), for its personal take on film references as a politically subversive tool. Naturally, along the course of contemporary Hollywood film history the use of music has become gradually important. The contemporary film soundtrack holds value in the extent to which it is effective in creating an audience response; in

Hollywood, this is seen through diegetic, non-diegetic sound, and often times sound effects to accompany dialogue and visual components (Kassabian, 2001). From thereon, the score also began to exist separately, as a popular culture piece, being sold as individual records – with the composers of a film’s soundtrack further affecting moviegoers. As mentioned earlier on, Kassabian (2001) distinguishes between popular music used in film, as well as composed pieces for a film’s narrative; although typically a classical film feature, original scores continue to support a narrative in contemporary film, thus shaping audience immersion. This becomes an important point when considering the cultural context of two of the movies, specifically Moonlight (2016) and Us (2019) when considering the films’ modes of scoring outside of tradition. When considering the cognitive belief that film spectatorship is a “rationally motivated and informed action” (Allen, 2002, p. 174), audiences can be intuitive in reading the narrative and emerging in the setting. Baudry (1975) argues that the cinematic world projected onto the screen is inherently meaningful, in which the continuous movement of the camera allows the audience to understand the world represented by withdrawing information from their personal experiences and cognitive environment. Spectators can therefore make sense of what is being projected through their own surroundings. Specifically through Moonlight’s (2016) original orchestra soundtrack, composed by Nicholas Britell, and Jordan Peele’s choice of popular songs in Us (2019), Baudry’s idea of the cinematic

experience is challenged, as the scores allow the audience to pierce through the hypnotic situation, and become subversive. Moreover, by giving the famous hip-hop track “I Got 5 On

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It” in Us a sonic makeover, the element of personal history and associations from one’s cognitive environment get involved with the narrative of the film. This is what Kassabian (2001) refers to as ‘affiliating identifications’, in which audiences have the binding of their historical associations, as well as the freedom to move around them. Through this, it explains how audiences are tethered to popular music, and offers certain connotations to the setting of the film. Similarly, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, in their reinterpretation of In The Hall of The Mountain King by Edvard Greig, change the dynamic of the sound and the visual all at the same time, merging them together in a spatiotemporal setting. These two opposing practices are substantial in understanding the relationship between audiences and film music in contemporary film.

3.1 Structuralism and Immersion in The Social Network (2010).

In The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010), the union between music and audiovisual elements has a profound effect on the perception of the story, putting a dark, brooding twist on the founding of Facebook biographical drama. Mostly through non-diegetic music, the soundtrack becomes significant from the very first scene of the film, where people can be heard chatting in the background of the opening sequence, in concomitance with a rock song and dialogue, even before the visual can be seen – Chion’s (1994) notion of acousmatic sound is greatly portrayed here, with the film’s introduction starting with sound instead of image, further influencing the narrative space the audiences experience. The score received an Academy Award for Best Original Score following its premiere in 2010, with wide spread fame in the world of film. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, members of the rock band Nine Inch Nails composed the score for the film; the film therefore obtained an original score, from composers already known in the field of film music as well as outside of it. Released as a separate album, it contained 19 tracks, of which most notable being the theme song for the film “Hand Covers Bruise” and the remixed orchestral “In The Hall of The Mountain King”.

The theme song, “Hand Covers Bruise” is played during the turning points of the film, for instance in the scenes where the protagonist experiences negative emotions, or where other characters’ frustrations are directed at the protagonist. Combining a distinct piano sound with lower octaves of a string instrument, which is what distinguishes from other soundtrack pieces in the film, the song evokes distant feelings of frustration and discloses that the narrative is dealing with a negative situation. These two instrumentals together as well as

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separate become significant at their own points in the story, suggesting a sense of urgency and impending doom. This melancholic and gritty piece appears during intense moments in the story, first following the break-up of Mark and Erika, secondly his deposition, and thirdly the end of Mark’s friendship with Facebook partner Eduardo. These three moments correlate in showing Mark’s character development, as well as opening up the emotions and

frustrations he causes around him for the audience. The third inclusion of the theme song in the narrative emphasizes this the most, where only the sound of the melancholic piano line can be heard, with the absence of the lower tones - almost like the silence before the storm. In the context of the scene, Mark realizes what he has lost so far – his girlfriend and now his friend – in order to continue developing Facebook as his own creation. The piano notes denote Mark as disoriented and lost, as well as in a way foreshadowing the immense impact Mark’s creation will have worldwide – that he is perhaps aware of the tension and

expectations of him. Through the use of this theme, the relation of anchorage and relay is present – when Mark realizes the negative effects of his plan, the song reinforces the meaning and mood along with the image of the protagonist as central. Established by Barthes (1964), anchor and relay are two functions of emphasizing meaning in a piece of media; anchor refers to a function of denoting meaning to a text, or image, through another form, allowing viewers to interpret meaning in a media piece, while relay refers to a more complementary

relationship between two pieces of media, in which its function is to advance the meaning of a text (p. 156). Anchorage through the score in this film aids spectators in their interpretation of the character, and in interpreting the scenario. The calmness of the overall theme

combined with the sense of urgency it brings signifies Mark’s journey to create this online world, but also shows Mark as a character. The score’s ‘calm before the storm’ attributes work to characterize Mark – the carefully structured theme song mimics the structure of everything Mark is made up of – where the theme song becomes a frame of himself.

Throughout the film, he is repeatedly made to be extremely arrogant and hard to work with, which the sense of impending doom of the score perfectly encapsulates. The score does so through the function of relay; as it accompanies Mark, even when is not present in the diegetic, the score advances the meaning of his character, thus guiding audiences towards a diegetic feature not present in the image itself. The song has the power to frustrate both the characters of the film, as well as the audience watching it, as it fuels anger towards his decisions and mannerisms. Being a biographical drama, the film stems away from trying to place a particular timeframe, keeping the story individualistic – as a technique, this is

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effective in playing at the audience’s cognitive environment, telling the very popular story of Facebook’s upbringing, as well as leaving space for personal emotional responses.

The score, through its repetition, tries to grasp at audience’s cognitive understanding of the film’s environment through using their own associations, as Bordwell (2008)

described. The protagonist is constantly made to look like a narcissist, facilitated by the way the people around him act as well as his own personal lines. To illustrate, during the opening scene of Mark breaking up with his then girlfriend, he is heard dismissing Erika’s study because of her university’s reputation and ranking (B.U. vs. Harvard). Immediately after this, the theme song begins. This alone gives an indication of what is to be expected of the main character throughout the whole film, which audiences can interpret using their prior

associations with such a dialogue. Here, Fincher makes use of anchor and relay once again in creating a lived experience through the characters. In semiotics, anchor and relay are

concerned with creating relations and meaning between different things; they entail that the meaning of a text can only be understood through another. Applied to film, these functions drive audiences to construct images according to other modalities on and off screen, such as one modality existing in relation to another (Meinhof and Smith, 2000). In the case of film, the two modalities used in the anchor and relay relation are sound and image – in portraying Mark Zuckerberg in this film, the theme score piece exists in relation to Mark’s identity, as it only finds its presence when Mark’s character is visible on screen, or engaging in dialogue. Mingled within this is also the way in which the score avoids conscious thought for the audiences – therefore the track becomes Mark’s persona, and thus the cognitive recognitions of spectators take place each time it appears. The repetition of the same piece adds to the audience’s comprehension of the narrative, as each time it is heard again, they will hold a certain relation to the context being portrayed. Creating an intertextual relation between the character and the track sustains an emotional involvement of the audience, and draws on the previous narrative to explain the identity formation of Mark in relation to his interpersonal relationships.

The film’s score strives to create most of the same atmosphere in this way. The film is immersed in the diegesis, as all of the meaning to the film is stuck in the narrative. In this film, the spectator can be considered as passive as in Baudry’s theory of the apparatus, being absorbed into the story by these functions adding onto the meaning of the plot. The film is set out to portray characters in the diegesis in a certain light, from which viewers can not

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experience of immersion for the audience. A way The Social Network enhances the immersion is through the film’s structuralist way of communicating. Structuralism allows spectators to understand the film through the use of a recognizable structure – the use of the same theme song in different tonalities and octaves creates the meaning for the audience.

The composers’ rendition of the classical piece “In The Hall of The Mountain King” is another part of the score that accompanies the perception of visual elements. At the heart of the Winklevoss twins’ characters lies the infamous rowing scene where this piece can be heard in the background – where the Winklevoss twins, Mark’s rivals, and Harvard are pitted in a challenge against the Dutch rowing team. The scene is shot in slow motion and with an edge blur, making the spatial elements of the mise-en-scène appear smaller and more distant (Fig. 1).

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The same construct is applied to the audio – “In The Hall of The Mountain King” begins on a muffled note, and slowly starts speeding up and increasing in volume as the rowing takes place. The choice of this particular score and the visuals surrounding it complete the image of the twins as stark competition, portraying them as not only privileged but hard working. The intensity of this scene allows audiences to see the Winklevosses in a new light; where previously portrayed as immature, the importance of them as rowers shifts their image to be more respectable, as reflected by the score. Boltz’s (2004) experiment on congruence in music and the visual elements found that scores that match the emotional and narrative tone of the film are more likely to enhance emotional responses and make audiences use different cognitive processes. As decribed by Boltz (2004), “mood-congruency promotes an

integration of audiovisual information” (pp. 1201), showing that the film’s use of music in concomitance with the images manifest a version of Chion’s audiovisual contract, in which the audiovisual elements are seen as one united entity. Because the visual space of the film depicts a more ominous mood through the color scheme and grey skies of the landscape, the sonic space reflects the fast-paced and almost threatening environment of the competition. Although the track is not a stereotypical energetic sports song, it is straightforward and utterly fitting for the setting – highlighted through the scene’s colors, edge blur, close-up shots of struggling athletes and the movement of the water from the row boats.

It becomes clear that the role of the non-diegetic music is to provoke an emotional reaction and provide an element that the characters will be remembered by, cueing emotions of self-confidence; in this case, the twins will be thought of as a contrast with the protagonist, but also emphasize their roles as competition. The instrumentals of the song also serve as motifts as they remind audiences of the theme, serving as a parallel between these main characters – when audiences are confronted with a similar sound, they are likely to be reminded of the associations they hold with it, namely Mark’s character development. The film, through its soundtrack, makes Mark Zuckerberg its central theme, even when he is not present.

The representation of the characters in the film are extremely structuralist; this allows for various cognitive interpretations, where the music allows for the severity and vigor of the situation to be seen. The sound of the film supports the diegesis greatly – to reiterate the role of Baudry’s apparatus theory and Plato’s allegory of the cave, the film is entirely a place where the idealism of this story takes place, thus providing the closed diegetic distance between spectators and the projection on screen. In The Social Network, commentary is added through the soundtrack only in guiding the expectations and emotions of audiences,

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rather than exiting its diegetic to include the viewers’ own world. Immersion in the narrative is strongly constructed alongside the score, where the gap between the characters and

audience members is efficient in portraying Baudry’s notion of connection with the characters, thus resulting in a passive response from audiences. Such a distinction is

important for this film as part of contemporary film, in order to raise the question of whether or not other ways of diegetic space are available.

3.2 Meaning-making Device in Our Senses: Moonlight’s (2016) Synesthetic Experiences As sound supports a lot of the diegesis in The Social Network, the move outside of the diegesis comes into play with Moonlight. The film explores meaning-making through its soundtrack entirely different for a contemporary Hollywood film. The drama tells the story of a boy, Chiron’s, three stages of life: his childhood in which he is known as Little,

adolescence as Chiron, and adulthood as Black. These three stages become enunciated early on through symbolic elements, such as the film’s colors, sounds, and experience of the sound. Each individual stage has a specific structure, mimicking Chiron’s tumultuous experiences. A mix of a combined and original score was used, which received nominations for Best

Original Score at the Academy Awards. With this acclaim in one of Hollywood’s most important award ceremonies, the film becomes larger than an originally independent production. While its aims were not necessarily to make profit, or be released outside of art theatres or festivals, by becoming well-known in Hollywood, the film pushes for the ideas of visibility and diversity within cinema. The harsh setting of the film is made evident through the layered music of sounds of strings, piano, slowed down tones, lower and higher octaves, and an overall mix of melancholy and darkness.

The synesthetic quality of the film’s score lies in its close relationship to the imagery – through the complexity of the mise-en-scène and use of the score alongside it, Chiron’s struggle with finding himself and the exploration of his sexuality becomes symbolic through the influence of sensory modalities. Vivian Sobchack (2000) description of the film

experience entails the way the body makes sense of a film; to emphasize, Sobchack explores the concept of cinematic communication through bodily experience. Providing a tactile perspective to the way film can communicate, her understanding rationalizes the body as central to the understanding of the world around, where the body allows audience members to engage in the world of the film. The embodied experience of Moonlight takes place through

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the score’s play on the spectators’ senses, as Sobchack expresses the need for the senses to make sense of a film when it cannot be cognitively understood. Audiovisual synesthesia has also been described as occurring when stimulation of the visual elements generate feeling through the audio, and when auditory factors stimulate the visuals, amongst other sensory perceptions, is a way of considering synesthesia for the film (Whitelaw, 2008). Sobchack’s synesthetic experience, however, is described as if audience members have a meaning-making device in their senses – namely, an image or texture can be felt simply through the sense of sight, although it is only seen (Sobchack, 2000). The senses become sensitized to the particularity of the film, thus creating a mismatch or multimodality in the senses. This can be seen in various scenes, amongst them being Chiron’s swimming lesson, where the strength of the waves can be felt through the screen. In this experience, therefore, the audience members are as much a part of the story, as they exist outside of it. Due to the constant interaction of the senses in Moonlight, the perceptual experience of the narrative becomes fused into hearing what is shown, and seeing what is heard. The film involves all the senses as a part of its cinematic experience, hence the ability to closely feel the physical and psychological changes Chiron experiences. In the opening sequence, Juan, the main character of the first stage of his life as Little, is introduced through the use of diegetic music. The track can be heard first, followed by the image of a car pulling up – emphasizing the stimulated perception of sound as vision, and the interrelationship between the senses. The synesthetic character of this scene lies in the fact that audiences delve headfirst into the audio, and experience the visual with a difference of a couple of seconds – those seconds are important in also defining the sensory perception that arises from the scene. Similarly to Sobchack’s film experience, those couple of seconds are needed for the senses to create meaning around the situation. Together with this, Chion’s technique of acousmatic sound is used here to create the atmosphere for the introduction of the main characters, creating suspense and expectations for what is about to come. Shortly after the visuals appear on screen, the music stops, and the camera begins to circle around the car and the characters around it – the steps of the young boys seen chasing each other as part of the introductory steady long take can be felt through the screen as they gain meaning.

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Figure 2. Moonlight Opening Scene.

The camera goes steady when the character of Juan is at the center of the shot, emphasizing the importance he will hold later on, when he meets Little. The use of diegetic music is strong in Little’s introduction, as music starts again once he and Juan spend time together at a diner, varying in volume throughout the scene. As Little remains quiet during Juan’s attempts to make a conversation, the track quiets down, and the scene changes. This variation in volumes and tracks happens quite often during this stage of Chiron’s life as Little, inconsistent in its use of diegetic and non-diegetic music, abruptly making space for dialogue and silence to be heard. This variation in volumes and tracks happens quite often during this stage of Chiron’s life as Little, inconsistent in its use of diegetic and non-diegetic music, abruptly making space for dialogue and silence to be heard. Music appears at the same time Chiron experience fear or intimidation – when running away from boys, confronted by a male stranger, and playing football with other boys of his age. The use of music in these instances is entirely an attribute of gendered discourse; Butzel and Silverman (1988) refers to gendered sound in film as a way to locate and prioritize the male screen voice (p. 31). In Chiron’s hypermasculine environment, the juxtaposition between classical music and hip-hop is a way to reinstate this gendered voice. Through various uses of relay as a technique to express Chiron’s personality outside of the hardened masculinity of his community, the score places Chiron outside of the male voice of authority. Thus, the idea of gender is encoded in the score.

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Music gains political meaning through the audiovisual contract portrayed in the film – the gendered discourse to the fluid space of the story includes the spectators in a visceral way. The film addresses stereotypical ideas surrounding masculinity, sexuality, and Black communities only in a search to reach a different social climate, to make audiences look past Chiron’s story as a singular narrative, and look past stereotypical images. The accompanying score only aides to this gendered sound in its blend of classical music outside of its usual consumption, accompanying the story of a lower-class black community, as well as the reoccurrence of hip-hop and Latin music. As Kassabian (2001) writes, traditional film scores by and large represent an association with a white, Western predominance (p. 11). Gorbman (1987) notes that the presence of a female character on screen was represented through the “emotional excess […] in the euphony of a string orchestra” (p. 80). Correspondingly to Gorbman’s understanding of gendered sound, Little is portrayed through the use of these emotional orchestras, allows the movie viewer to detect the character’s conflict. Although the focus is largely on differentiating Chiron from his tough surroundings, the music of the film also saves the attention for the ideals of masculinity in his community. Those ideals pertain to the concept of gendered discourse in film, as they continually announce their presence

through the use of hip-hop music. In the film’s case, the original score averts the use of seeing the Black community through eyes different than their own, thus focusing attention solely on the tactile aspects of the characters. Janet Staiger’s (1997) concept of an internal hybrid applies here, as the film includes an all-black cast, and is created by a member of the same community. Staiger (1997) exemplifies this concept as a genre contributing towards a criticism or stray from dominant discourse, particularly reserved for when minorities use Hollywood genres. Here, what film spectators hear is a confrontation with information

outside of expected outcomes and stereotypes, the music guiding audiences to the raw aspects of the story. The use of the classical music in the original score, a form of high culture, is paradoxical to the low-class community of Little – this gives the score a certain power in taking classical elements and instruments outside of their environment of high art, as it provides a new interaction of cultures. The use of classical music manipulates audiences entirely in their interpretation of Little, suggesting that this urban environment is not a typical story about drug dealers and violence. The film creates a fluid audiovisual contract, where the incongruency of the score with the images and gendered ideologies presented sharpens this fluidity. The way it does so is entirely through the use of the different music genres in the score. High art is shown to be entirely capable of telling the story of someone outside of its

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normal culture even more intensely, by juxtaposing the two worlds available. Hip-hop, on the other hand, is a pre-existing genre with a plethora of available associations to the general public, leaving more room for interpretation of its role within the narrative. The mesh of composed and pre-existing music allows for the gendered and social discourse prevalent in traditional film scoring to connect to other expressions of musical information, to appeal to multiple societies. The interplay between these two worlds of high culture and low culture – songs using classical strings combined with hip-hop and rap – combines the innocence and profundity of Little with the hardened exterior of Black, while also allowing the film to be a collaboration of different art forms. Throughout the entirety of Moonlight, the use of music is entirely political. Sharp contrasts in the score are inherent to the story because of the

gendered and subversive environment they create; more so, the synesthetic take on the portrayal of light and darkness alongside this, challenges audience expectations and allows them to understand Chiron’s world through sharing the same palpable experiences.

Consequently, the score’s juxtapositions are necessary in characterizing the male persona of Juan as the ruling voice, and Little’s as subordinate alongside his community. Although both characters elude any intentions of violence in complete opposition to the people in their environment, the score locates one as the masculine screen voice. Moreover, the interplay between congruent and incongruent scores allows the film to underline its politically subversive nature, specifically subversive on stereotypes of gender, sexuality and race.

During this first stage of life, Little finds most of his comfort in Juan and his girlfriend Teresa, who let him stay over at their house, and provide food and support for him. Juan becomes a father figure for Little, advising him about his path in life, teaching him how to communicate, and serving as an example for the boy. In one of the most defining scenes for his childhood, Juan teaches Little how to swim. Music colors this scene with a different nuance, morphing visuals and auditory elements together, and letting them exist as one. The film’s most prominent example of the film experience as entirely synesthetic comes to life in this scene. The track “The Middle of The World” flows along with the waves of Little’s body learning how to stabilize itself in the water. Similarly, the track tries to find a balance of volume and instruments, and mimics the sound of a thunderstorm. This synergy with the waves transcends Little’s experience of the water for the first time to the audience – spectators are experiencing for the first time along with him, seeing and hearing every movement and vibration of the waves. Watching this scene without this particular piece of music would render entirely different emotional responses – beautiful and terrifying at the

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same time, the non-diegetic use of the score gives it a powerful emotional and almost physical charge, where the waves can be felt, reiterating the film’s synesthetic quality and symbolizing Little’s ongoing battle with himself. The complex and conflicting piece allows Sobchack’s mechanism of a meaning-making device in the senses to take place, resembling Little’s experience and reflecting it to the audience. The buried uneasiness of the waves going over Little’s head is entirely reflected in the way the volume of the score increases, once again allowing the waves and moving tones of the song to exit the diegesis and reflect it back to the audiences. The film’s constant reliance on synesthesia to immerse audiences into Little’s experiences creates a conscious film experience where all senses are involved,

strengthening the emotional experience. By uniting the senses, the scene places the characters in the middle of the world – the world of the narrative – allowing them and the water to take center in the screen and through the music, where the volume of the song is faded into the scene, upped, and the climax of the string orchestra living alongside Little’s accomplishment to float on water. In this scene, the audience can feel the ocean waves and smell the beach on behalf of the score – in this matter, the film crossing boundaries of audiovisual information through its score becomes even more tantalizing for synesthesia. On another note, this move outside the diegesis reflects the fluidity of the film’s score, able to move between diegetic levels in order to generate the gendered discourse, thus leaving space for audience autonomy to take shape in the cinematic experience (Kassabian, 2001).

In the next stage of his life, where he is known as Chiron, non-diegetic use of music becomes primarily important. There is a notable difference between the introduction of his childhood years versus his adolescence. At the start of him as Chiron, the score becomes angsty, gritty, and excellent in replacing fear with anger. The score also becomes more apparent in its use of gendered discourse; at this stage, the boy’s struggle with his sexuality and the violent heterosexism around him come to the forefront of his negative emotions. A critical scene in the development of Chiron is after he had let himself be scrutinized and beaten by a classmate; while the camera pans down to a shot of him diving his head into a sink full of ice water, the lights flicker, and the ambient instrumental noise becomes louder, emphasizing his shift from a compliant and avoidant teen to a confrontational man. The presence of music here anchors Chiron’s exterior, taking back a dominantly male point of view. The track for this scene echoes the pain of Chiron’s wounds, both internal and external, and following his actions above the sink forces the viewers to feel the ice on his bruised face, and trace the blood coming from his wounds, feeling the shift happening in his character with

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every sound cue of the score. The scene jumps straight into the physicality of his trauma preparing audiences for the same moment of submission and maturity taking place within Chiron. The music follows him to the next scene, where he is seen walking up to said classmate for revenge. Surrounded by the ideas of toxic masculinity and a dangerous environment, this stage of his life appears tragic and hopeless, which by the end deviates to conform to a hypermasculine idea of blackness, affirmed through this choice of music. In a biased setting where men are encouraged to be dominating, men like Chiron have no place, thus facing constant scrutiny for not displaying the same attributes of strength, violence and blatant heterosexuality, Chiron’s identity suffers to find its worthiness, both within his community as well as in his sexuality. Although Chiron has the chance to delve into his sexuality during his teen years, the moment excludes any moment of optimism and further desire, and replaces it with the underlying complications from the boys’ surrounding rigid masculinity.

As the film becomes more politically subversive in its story-telling and connection with the characters, the exploration of Chiron’s experiences and revelations allows audiences to place the objective realm of the film into their own realities, becoming socially important. Touching on ideas of gender, social and economic hierarchies, and stereotypes of race and sexuality, the music’s interplay with the image in Moonlight strengthens its political meaning. Chiron’s adolescence is perhaps the one stage of his life to hold most silence and sparse dialogue, as it is crucial in defining his persona later on, and for audiences in making the transition between his previous traits and his dominant male ones. Understanding

Chiron’s experience may not be understood through the use of one’s cognitive environment, however the synesthetic experience allows the movie viewers to make sense of his diegetic through the senses. Essentially, the character’s swimming scene as well as his attack scene hold similar value in synesthesia; audiences can intellectually comprehend the brutality of the boy’s classmates and his struggle to stay afloat, through sensory perception. Furthermore, the inclusion of a haunting score plays on audience’s assimilating and affiliating identifications, while reflecting Chiron’s fears and disconnect to his enclosing habitat. The score places him in a personal limbo, unable to move forward in either direction until he is defeated by the overflow of violence. The interplay between various music genres, pitches and inclusions of music reflects the differences Chiron lives through during the transmute of the three stages of his life – each music piece emerges from the screen telling a different version of the story, allowing Chiron to also reincarnate with each pattern. As the movie begins, the audience is

Breaking Through the Diegesis: The subversive score in Hollywood contemporary cinema.

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