The Music Of The Marvel Cinematic Universe Examined

We can all agree that music plays a huge role in both film and television. A movie’s score should set the tone and mood of the scene, evoke emotion from the audience, and in most cases make important moments memorable. However in some cases, music is just simply just background music that doesn’t serve much of a purpose at all.

The same way that commercial jingles get planted into our brains, theme songs from films and now even characters are meant to do the same. For example, in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice we knew Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) was going to make her appearance as soon as we heard her recognizable and fierce theme song.

Every Frame A Painting, a YouTube channel created a video about the importance of a well-composed film score, by asking people to sing one song from a Marvel movie – and they couldn’t. Most were left scratching their heads…

You can watch the full video below:

“Off the top of your head, could you sing the theme from Star Wars? How about James Bond? Or Harry Potter? But here’s the kicker: can you sing any theme from a Marvel film? Despite 13 films and 10 billion dollars at the box office, the Marvel Cinematic Universe lacks a distinctive musical identity or approach. So let’s try to answer the question: what is missing from Marvel music?“

As the video goes on, different composers discuss what’s missing from Marvel music, and their answers are rather surprising. Come to think of it, I can’t seem to remember any music for any Marvel movie – except for Guardians of the Galaxy, which actually used music to perfectly supplement each scene – giving us one of the best superhero movie soundtracks ever.

But then again, those songs already existed…

So, can you hum the Captain America theme song?