A small disclaimer: I go into detail about the actual recordings, so if you want to follow what I’m saying then make sure to click the links (words that are underlined) to hear the reference pieces, and follow the timings that I’ve written in. I try not to spoil anything here if you haven’t seen the show, but if you really hate even the slightest giveaway, don’t read the part about ‘Trompe L’Oeil’.

I hope you all enjoy!

How often do you listen to a film?

We think of films as mostly visual things, and often place them in a different category altogether from music and sound. Sound is, however, just as important to the film experience as the visual stimulus. Take, for example, this music video without the music. It is unfair, perhaps, to use these as examples as they were made specifically for music, and so it wouldn’t make sense to play them without it. But take the training scene from Rocky or the first shark scene from Jaws, and without the music, they are a lot less effective.

I recently finished watching the HBO series Westworld; based on the 1973 film of the same name, the series recounts a future in which robotic ‘hosts’ populate a purpose-built park made to look like the Wild West. High-paying guests can enter the park and live in this western world indulging in violence, lust, greed and adventure, without fear of being harmed by the hosts as they are simply programmed machines, and the guests remain unaware of the disturbing things that happen behind the scenes. Other than the fact that it’s an intense and thrilling show, I would rate it as one of my favourites purely because the music plays such an important role.

Westworld’s composer is Ramin Djawadi, the mind behind the sounds of Game of Thrones, Iron Man, Clash of the Titans, and many more. In an interview, Djawadi described the show by saying that “everything is so real until you look closely”. This thought is perfectly demonstrated from the first episode as the (robot) pianist in the saloon plays Djawadi’s arrangement of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”. The lyrics to the original are:

I think this song was a perfect choice for the first episode. As said by Djawadi, “The show has an anachronistic feel to it, it’s a Western theme park, and yet it has robots in it, so why not have modern songs? And that’s a metaphor in itself, wrapped up in the overall theme of the show”. Using contemporary music in a ‘wild west’ setting was a decision made by the creators, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. In an interview, Nolan said “everyone [in the audience] comes with a pre-existing relationship to the song. So it allows you to short-circuit or short hand an idea or feeling”. To me, the words “Black hole sun” evoke images of darkness, death, oblivion, against the warmth and brightness of a summer sun. It is a musical taste of what is to come in the show. Additionally, as was said by Chris Cornell, composer of the original song, “No one seems to get this, but ‘Black Hole Sun’ is sad. But because the melody is really pretty, everyone thinks it’s almost chipper, which is ridiculous.”

Djawadi rearranged the song for a player piano, and put it in the background of a scene, going almost unnoticed. This reflects beautifully on the whole premise of the show. Westworld attracts guests with its “pretty” and “chipper” front, but after watching the show, it would be ridiculous to see it that way. You have to look closely, and more importantly, listen closely, to pick up hints of something sinister taking place in the park; and if you don’t, it will go unnoticed. When asked about the line “Times are gone for honest men”, Cornell said “It’s really difficult for a person to create their own life and their own freedom. It’s going to become more and more difficult, and it’s going to create more and more disillusioned people who become dishonest and angry and are willing to f*** the next guy to get what they want.” Once again, if you’ve seen the show, you’ll understand why this applies to so many characters (Dolores, William, Bernard, Maeve… to name a few).

Djawadi has arranged songs from Radiohead, The Cure, Amy Winehouse, and many more. This website gives a great summary of the most significant covers and their contexts within the episodes, and is well worth a read.

Moving away from covers, Djawadi proves his musical brilliance to us through his original compositions. I believe the main theme to a show should be able to tell you the whole plot through music; if it doesn’t do this, it has failed as a theme. Listen closely to Westworld’s main theme, and if anything you could probably at least guess that it’s not going to be a comedy. But listen closer, and you can pick out ways that Djawadi has managed to get across the Wild West, the contrast between old and new, and the illusion behind Westworld.

The first instrument that is heard is a guitar being strummed to an A minor chord. In the next 6 seconds of the piece, you can hear an synthesised pulsing bass coming in from behind the guitar. Throughout this song, there is a use of acoustic instruments, like piano and strings playing the melody, while synthesisers provide the rising bass pattern. This is a fairly obvious way of illustrating the contrast between the old and the new; in fact, in an interview, Djawadi said that throughout the show, the piano was like the “go-between” of both worlds.

Player pianos were a popular form of entertainment of the mid-19th century. Djawadi spoke about player pianos, saying that they were sort of the first robots, a “primordial version of our hosts”. In fact, much like the hosts, they are just machines that have been built to provoke human emotion. Nowadays, keyboards are the most popular instruments according to the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. You may notice that in the theme, the piano plays the melody with the strings from 0:32, but at 0:51, it picks up a motif similar to that of the synthesised bass, and the strings follow suit at 0:55. If we imagine that the synthesised bass represents the modern world, while the melody in the strings and piano at the start represents the wild west, here you have the piano literally being the go-between of both musical motifs. (The piano motif is also descending, which you could say reflects the underground maintenance labs below the park, or the gradual unfolding of sinister things in the show, but maybe that’s stretching it a bit).

There is one piece in particular, ‘Trompe L’Oeil’, that tells a full story from beginning to end just using music. ‘Sweetwater‘ is played every time someone comes into the park on the steam train, starting a new ‘loop’ day that all the hosts live in. I don’t really need to tell you that this song just sounds like a steam train in the Wild West, because of the accented off-beats in the player piano, or the continuous crotchets played by the guitar, all of which suggest movement (and the acoustic instruments are used, which we know represent the Wild West because of the main theme music). ‘This World‘ plays at the end of the very first episode, where Dolores is talking about her world (Westworld), and how she chooses to see the beauty where others see ugliness (here is a clip of that scene). ‘This World’ is therefore established from Episode 1 as Dolores’ theme, or at least a musical theme to represent Dolores’ love for her world.

‘Trompe L’Oeil‘, which plays while the Man in Black reveals his true identity to Dolores, has the ‘Sweetwater’ theme at 01:47, which, given his newly revealed identity, feels incredibly bittersweet because you are reminded of the first time he came to Westworld on that very steam train, versus who he has become after all these years. The piece also has an altered theme from ‘This World’ at 02:28. Hearing it in Trompe L’Oeil reinforces Dolores’ connection with the Man in Black, and reminds the listener of how much she used to love her world, and the people in it. So, in Trompe L’Oeil, Djawadi tells us who the Man in Black is, how he became the way he is, his relationship to Dolores, and how he used to once feel about Westworld, using established musical motifs. Listen attentively to the entire soundtrack of the show and you will notice themes that always seem to make a return in unexpected places. This compositional device is called a leitmotif, and it is incredibly effective in storytelling through music, because the composer will establish an emotion or character or place with a particular musical theme, and so every time it is heard, you are reminded of said connection. (Here is a brilliant video that explains leitmotifs in more detail.)

Next time you start a new show or watch a movie, listen to the music and you may find things out about the story that you would never have realised with the visuals alone. (Music can even hint at things to come, as explained in this video mostly about music in World of Warcraft, but also musical spoilers.) As said by Djawadi about Westworld: “The music is being controlled, and it’s being chosen for a reason.” (As robots are controlled, and everything they do is for a reason). And something that can be applied to all shows and films: “The great power of music is that something subconsciously happens when you listen to a piece of music, even if you don’t pay full attention to it. It just does something to us that nothing else can do, other than music.” Thus continuing the concept that music is a language, but one that can go a lot further and deeper than words. 

If you haven’t seen it yet, watch Westworld.