6B. Soundtracks

In 1975, a young Steven Spielberg screened a rough cut of a shark film to a small test audience in Los Angeles. The reaction, by his own account, was polite. Not scared. The camera work was good, the shark was menacing enough, but nobody left the room saying they had been terrified. Something was missing.

That something arrived a few weeks later, delivered by a slightly bored composer named John Williams, who sat down at a piano and played just two notes. E and F. Over and over. Slow at first, then faster. Faster. Spielberg is said to have laughed. 'That's it? That's the shark?' Williams nodded. Spielberg screened the film again with those two notes underneath, and the audience finally screamed.

The story of 'Jaws' is now a small legend in film schools, but the underlying point is bigger than one movie. Music does not decorate a story. It tells us HOW to feel about it. A cheerful piano behind a car chase turns it into comedy. A single low string behind a smiling face turns it into a threat. Filmmakers know this, and often begin cutting a scene with music already playing in their headphones — because the music, more than the words or the shots, decides the rhythm.

You experience this every day, whether you notice it or not. Shops choose slow music to make you spend longer inside, and fast music to make you finish your meal quickly and leave. Airlines use slow, warm music while you're boarding, because it lowers heart rates and reduces conflict. The gym next door does the opposite, because nobody deadlifts to lullabies.

In our own lives, we do the same thing without noticing. We put on one playlist for cleaning, another for driving at night, another for the morning we finally decide to change our life. The music we choose becomes the soundtrack we live inside — and, quietly, it starts writing the script.

So the next time you feel unaccountably heroic while walking to the shops, don't be surprised. Check what's in your headphones. You may not have written the score of your life, but you did press play.