[Listening extract audio not available in printed QP] In a film, a character opens a door and hears a radio playing a pop song inside the room. What term de...
Question 1 Report
[Listening extract audio not available in printed QP]
In a film, a character opens a door and hears a radio playing a pop song inside the room.
What term describes music that characters within the film can hear? [1]
[Total: 1 mark]
Answer Details
The term for music that characters within the film can hear (as opposed to background music only the audience hears) is diegetic music (also called source music). [1]
In film studies, "diegetic" refers to anything that exists within the world of the story. Diegetic music has a visible or implied source on screen that the characters can hear: a radio playing, a band performing at a party, a busker on a street corner, or, as in this example, a radio playing a pop song inside a room. The character opens the door and hears the music, confirming that the sound exists within the film's world. By contrast, non-diegetic music (also called underscore or background music) is music that only the audience hears. It is added to the soundtrack to create mood, tension, or emotion, but the characters are unaware of it. A film composer's orchestral score is typically non-diegetic. Sometimes composers blur the boundary between the two, with diegetic music transitioning into non-diegetic scoring or vice versa.
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