Musings From the Old World

I have always loved music.

On the day I was born, Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You” had just taken a proud position at number 1 in the charts of my home country, Ireland, a position which it would hold onto for five weeks. This somewhat fortuitous sign (who wouldn’t like to kid themselves that they were a gift from God for their parents!) is also bathed in serendipity as I ponder what to write for my first column.

When I think of this song, it always shoots Jack Black to the forefront of my mind (riddling me like a barrage of Tenacious D’s famed “mind-bullets”), and his hilarious castigation of Stevie Wonder’s (in his eyes) latter day failings in the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity.

As I think upon the film, it nudges me towards being greedy, and attempting to mix the two greatest non-human loves of my life together in what I suppose may be seen as a kind of mission statement, a declaration of what I am about, and the things I like discussing. What are these loves?

Why music and the moving image, of course!

High Fidelity is an ideal starting point in a train of thought for the discerning music and film aficionado, and provides an immediate opening up into possibility- a synopsis you will not find here, all I will say is that Stephen Frear’s under-appreciated masterpiece is the film for the guys categorized by Zach Braff’s Scrubs alter-ego John Dorian as “sensies”, or male audiophiles of a sensitive disposition. It has a fantastic soundtrack, (occasionally) intelligent musical conversation and enough knowing references to satisfy any music fan young or old. It always makes me think of the importance of music to a film.

When you put it that way, it seems like the most obvious and banal statement of truth in the world. Of course the score and soundtrack are important to a film! There is, however, a critical aspect of the film production process that is often overlooked, and while not maligned as such, has come to play such a crucial role in inspiring the emotions of viewers that to not shout its importance and creative potential from the rooftops is to do a huge disservice to the masters of the craft.

I am talking, of course, of song selection, editing, and the often beautiful juxtaposition of a haunting song and visually striking images to emphasize a point, hammer home a truth or, let’s face it, simply bring us to tears at the immortal, breathtaking beauty of human potentiality in the creative spheres.

Many film schools stress that film is primarily a visual medium, and there is a certain truth in this. But to say that film should, in theory, be just as artistic and commercially popular when an imaginary “mute” button has been hit is surely a left-over prejudice from the days before “talkies”, is it not? It is certainly difficult to think of iconic moments in films from the last twenty years and not hear the song or piece of music that was obsessively selected as Rocky goes the distance, or Jack Dawson slides beneath the Atlantic. These “moments” are everywhere, they are the life and blood of writers and directors, the reason they set up their laptop or look into a camera, and music is often the second blow of a 1-2 punch, the final nail in the coffin of our self-consciousness as we are visibly moved.

Perhaps the most notable thing about this individual craft and art-form is its universality, its essential humanity as it represents our deepest subconscious desires and meandering thoughts, while simultaneously representing all that is true and good about humanity. Pathetic fallacy is perhaps an overused film and literary technique (i.e a sad man sits under the pouring skies), but there is within all audiophiles a personal tendency towards hearing life, as well as experiencing it with all other senses. The true audiophile will hear the heartbreaking melody as the most important person in their universe tells them that they no longer love them, or the triumphant horns as they reach the absolute pinnacle of success, and this is partly because we’ve been shown how to hear the world, and been aided in our self-awareness by the masters of this craft.

It is a craft, separate and equally as important as any other to the creation of a beautiful piece of art, be it a 40-minute TV episode or a feature film. Editors deserve huge credit, the second for second twinning of a song and a TV coda for example is a gargantuan task that will produce a seamless dance as the music and images tease, reinforce their partner and manipulate the very meaning of each other according to the wishes of the craftsman.
It makes for magnificent viewing, and the feeling that your heart strings have been yanked to the point where they need to be replaced is a possibility I’m not sure exists without this art.

So thank you Mark Schwahn and all at One Tree Hill, thank you Josh Schwartz and Bill Laurence, John Cusack and Stephen Frears, Cameron Crowe and Alexander Payne. You are not just writers, actors, directors, producers or anything else that can be categorized and labeled by any words that possess even a hint of confinement.

You are craftsmen.

Please send in your own favorite Film/Music examples, everyone has their own personal favorites and it would take too long to compile a list that would even scratch the surface of iconic moments. My own personal favorites? At the moment, from television it would be the teasingly revealed return of Brian Greenberg’s Jake Jagielski to Tree Hill in season 2 of One Tree Hill, atmospherically played out to the strains of Jimmy Eat World’s “23” (I just watched it last night), and from film, something else fresh in my mind, the beautiful shot of Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg watching fourth of July fireworks backed by Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” from Greg Mottola’s excellent Adventureland.

What do you think? Add your selections in the comments section, and remember, without you there are no celebrities.