MUSIC IN EDGAR WRIGHT'S FILMS
Music is an important factor to Edgar Wright in his films as the music choices are used to build characters, used for comedic relief and to help develop the story. Edgar scores his self with music whilst writing the script of his films, adding important value and emotion into the scenes through music and his writing.
Shaun of The Dead
In the first film of the Cornetto Trilogy, 'Shaun of The Dead', the music is used in many different ways from being used ironically in the pub where the jukebox is on random and plays "Don't stop me Now" when fighting zombies or a sad song about a breakup when Shaun is crying about his breakup to making Ed's death scene much more dramatic and emotional by the music choice. 'You're my best Friend' being the credit song to refer to the death of Ed in the film, showing the two character's friendship and how they developed throughout the film. The way Edgar Wright uses music is the most important value of his films as it adds an increase in the audiences emotions and how they observe the scene, music always being able to sway emotions.
In this film the music is mostly used for comedic value such as the pub fight with 'Don't Stop Me Now' playing and when the music stops when he fails to jump over the fence, cutting off just in time to hear the breaking of the fence. Although it is used mostly for comedic value the music is also used to develop the story, getting more suspenseful throughout the film but also providing comedic relief when it gets too serious. All of the songs refer to the story such as 'Ghost Town' by The Specials being the song at the opening scene of the bar and 'Kernkraft 400' by Zombie Nation as Shaun catches the bus to work and others being Panic and Meltdown. The songs are memorable to the audience, the most memorable song from the film is 'Blue Wrath' once the town is being turned into Zombies at the beginning of the film. The songs are recognizable and when the film comes onto TV, it is easily recognized without having to look at the screen.
Hot Fuzz
In the second film of the Cornetto Trilogy, 'Hot Fuzz' the music becomes a storytelling mechanism for Nicholas and Danny when talking about Nicholas' past and developing their friendship, 'Goody Two Shoes' by Adams Ant explaining Nicholas Angel as a character overall, the song referring to his 'follow the rules' attitude. The music is also used to add suspense and comedic value where necessary to the story, such as jumping over the fence and the music cuts, allowing you to hear the fence being broken as Danny plows through it.
The music is used to develop the story, 'Village Green Preservation' being the song playing as he greets all of the villagers for the first time on his morning jog and the songs playing in Skinner's car around the deaths refer to their deaths such as 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Fire. Four of the songs used throughout the film also have 'Fuzz' in the title, showing the amount of research that went into the music choices of this film to fit to the storyline. The music choices are small but impact the story once you pay close attention to them, the music from the cars referring to how the characters died and foreshadowing what will happen to other characters in the future story of the film.
World's End
One thing that repeats in all three films of the Cornetto Trilogy is the music stops when he fails his jump over the fence for comedic value like in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz to keep something recognizable to the audience throughout all three films. he music in this film is a selection of vintage British rock, pop and rap, all released between 1987 and 1993, inspired by Edgar Wright's own attempt at a pub crawl when he was younger.
Like the other two films the music is used to develop the characters and the story such as the flashback scene has happy music to show how Gary felt about that night and how he remembers it compared to how he feels now. Music is shown to be important throughout this film, from Wright using it to write the script and how the characters work. Gary uses lines from songs as his own because of his short term memory for names, at one point Gary starts to spout The Soup Dragons: in his drink, showing how important music was in writing this character, the theme Song for Gary King is the first song to play, Primal Scream- Loaded. 'Loaded was definitely blaring out when we shot the close-up of Simon’s face for his first scene. It’s really powerful, hearing that in the room.' as quoted by Edgar Wright shows how the character developed by the choice of music, 'Right back at the start, when we were first talking about the film, I said to Simon, ‘We have to use Alabama Song!’ Because the lyrics go: ‘Show me the way to the next whiskey bar/ Oh, don’t ask why/ For if we don’t find the next whiskey bar/ I tell you we must die.’ That pretty much sums up the plot! And the line ‘Oh, don’t ask why’ also addresses the question as to why the characters don’t just get out of Newton Haven.'
Baby Driver
Baby Driver is completely surrounded by music, being the main moving of Baby and how he drives, the car chase scenes edited to the beat of the songs that he is listening to whilst driving, the whole film is shown to be motivated by music. The music in the chase scenes tell the story of the chase, complimenting it by speeding up or down when the chase does, keeping the audience entertained in the chase.
The music becomes a way to develop the characters, the character in Baby Driver who listens to vinyl music being represented by the music playing and one of the songs titles, 'Debroa' being a character's name in the film. The music is also used for comedic value where the team meet for the first time, the man taking Baby's earphones out and singing along to the song. This shows how the characters feel about each other currently and how they will develop over time in a subtle way that the audience doesn't notice, showing that he will get along with one character out of the group best than the rest of them.
References
Den of Geek. (2017). Exploring the music of Edgar Wright's Cornetto trilogy. [online] Available at: http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/cornetto-trilogy/50396/exploring-the-music-of-edgar-wrights-cornetto-trilogy [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].
WRIGHT, E. (2017). Edgar Wright On The Music Of The World's End. [online] Empire. Available at: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/edgar-wright-worlds-end-music/ [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].
YouTube. (2017). Examples of Music in Edgar Wright Films. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvDZIYuoNxs [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].
YouTube. (2017). Primal Scream - Loaded (HQ with Lyrics). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf73xqZvk6k [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].
What-song. (2017). Shaun of the Dead (2004) Soundtrack and Complete List of Songs. [online] Available at: https://www.what-song.com/Movies/Soundtrack/249/Shaun-of-the-Dead [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].
Pitchfork.com. (2017). Behind the Music of Baby Driver, With Director Edgar Wright | Pitchfork. [online] Available at: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/behind-the-music-of-baby-driver-with-director-edgar-wright/ [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].
What-song. (2017). Hot Fuzz (2007) Soundtrack and Complete List of Songs. [online] Available at: https://www.what-song.com/Movies/Soundtrack/136/Hot-Fuzz [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].
What-song. (2017). The World's End (2013) Soundtrack and Complete List of Songs. [online] Available at: https://www.what-song.com/Movies/Soundtrack/1295/The-World-s-End [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].
YouTube. (2017). 12. I MONSTER - The Blue Wrath. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOKwewc9dns [Accessed 20 Dec. 2017].
