Music in Environmental Documentaries: Semiotic Approaches

Abstract

Concerns with climate change are growing every day, more and more people are becoming aware and acting on the big problem of the twenty-first century. Documentaries play a big role in informing the mass population. There has been research on popular music as a tool for ecological awareness. However, few studies have explored film music in environmental documentaries. Using theories from semiotics field and departing from Heidi Hart’s book Music and the Environment in Dystopian Narrative: Sounding the Disaster, this thesis will explore in which ways music accentuates the narrative of different films. Specifically, in my thesis, I will discuss examples from Océans by Jacques Perrin (2009) and A Plastic Ocean by Craig Leeson (2013) in order to reveal recent narrative techniques. I will argue that music in these documentaries carries an immersive function and that horror conventions are used as a trigger for a high emotional response. In conclusion, this thesis aspires to shed new light on the way our emotional response is activated in order to take action for the pollution of the oceans.