The 1960s In Film (And Music's Influence)

The 1960s was the decade where free love and counterculture emerged meaning movies could be more graphic and lest 'prim and proper' as opposed to it's predecessors. This new found sense of freedom gave directors a chance to spread their wings and movies that people had never experienced before came onto the big screen. 

Psycho
Released: 1960

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Although not deemed as a good movie by critics when the movie first came out, public consensus meant that critics re-reviewed with TIME magazine  switching it’s opinion from "Hitchcock bears down too heavily in this one” (TIME, 1960) to "superlative" and "masterly”

Bernard Herrmann wrote the score with the movie even thought at first, Hitchcock did not want any music in the movie although later remarking "33% of the effect of Psycho was due to the music”(Smith 1991, p. 241)

Perhaps one of the most iconic sounds originates from this film with the violin, viola and cellos in the shower scene, simply called “The Murder”.

The sound of the knife entering the flesh was the sound of stabbing a melon (which is what they do even now, for example, for Doctor Who)

Breakfast At Tiffany's

Released: 1961

Director: Blake Edwards

‘Moon River’ – Henry Mancini & Johnny Mercer

“The song was tailored to Hepburn's limited vocal range, based on songs she had performed in 1957's Funny Face” (Spoto, 2006, p. 204 – 205)

"Moon River" is sobbed by a plaintive harmonica, repeated by strings, hummed and then sung by the chorus, finally resolved with the harmonica again.” (TIME, 1962)

The Sound Of Music

Released: 1965

Director: Robert Wise

Music and lyrics written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II respectively, based on the book by the same name by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers”, 1949)

Popular songs:

‘The Sound of Music’ (Ranked tenth in the American Film Institutes list of the 100 Greatest songs in Movie History)

‘My Favourite Things’ (Skoda Fabia advert featuring the car made out of cake. Also covered on many Christmas albums from Rod Stewart to Kelly Clarkson and even by the cast of Glee) 

‘Edelweiss’ (During the 1970s in the US, the song became a popular tune to sing the blessings to in some Christian churches)

‘So Long, Farwell’ (Natwest advert)

It's easy to see how how music has been so pivotal in the film industry even going back 55 years ago with the shower scene from Psycho. If Hitchcock had his way, that scene would've been silent and the movie would not have been as memorable as it is now. With the use of the music in the final cut however, it's clear that music has and will always have a great impact on the way we watch films