# Need technical term for background music in movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 10, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773 "2009-12-10T21:17:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zeno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zeno/32/15040_2.png) [@zeno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zeno)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773/1 "2009-12-10T21:17:15Z")
I came across the term once, but I can’t remember it. Sometimes in movies somebody turns on the radio or something like that and the music plays and sets the mood for the scene. I was watching Apocalypse Now the other night. There is the scene in which Colonel Kilgore plays Wagner music over the air invasion. There is another scene in which Willard plays the radio which plays ‘Satisfaction’ over Mr Clean’s water skiing. Help me out, willya? ---
**Author:** ![dasgupta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@dasgupta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasgupta)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773/2 "2009-12-10T21:38:01Z")
Could you be thinking of [diegetic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diegetic#Film_sound_and_music)? I usually hear it in reference to _Rear Window_, where all the music comes from within the movie world. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773/3 "2009-12-10T22:50:46Z")
ambient? not what you’re looking for. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773/4 "2009-12-10T23:22:51Z")
> [@dasgupta](#): > > Could you be thinking of [diegetic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diegetic#Film_sound_and_music)? > > I usually hear it in reference to _Rear Window_, where all the music comes from within the movie world. Almost all of the music. There is music over the opening and closing credits that is not diegetic, but all the music during the body of the film comes from the composer’s apartment or radio music. There is also incidental music, which is music that is in the background of the film (like music in chase scenes, or the rising tones when the hero achieves his big victory), but that isn’t digetic. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773/5 "2009-12-10T23:22:59Z")
I’m seconding (thirding, apparently) diegetic. Has to be naturalized within the fictional world, though, as dasgupta says-- once the John Williams orchestra kicks in it doesn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![zeno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zeno/32/15040_2.png) [@zeno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zeno)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773/6 "2009-12-11T04:17:58Z")
> [@dasgupta](#): > > Could you be thinking of [diegetic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diegetic#Film_sound_and_music)? > > I usually hear it in reference to _Rear Window_, where all the music comes from within the movie world. That is the word. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773/7 "2009-12-11T23:53:47Z")
The distinction between diegetic (also called source and ambi-diegetic) music and non-diegetic music was the basis of a great gag in _Blazing Saddles_: Black Bart is riding his horse to a rising jazz swell, which the viewer can only assume is tacked-on and non-diegetic. The camera then dollies to reveal, in the middle of nowhere, the Count Basie Orchestra playing right there in the desert… ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773/8 "2009-12-12T00:22:55Z")
In the “[Dogme 95](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95)” filmmaking movement, if music is included, it must be diegetic. All other sound, too. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-technical-term-for-background-music-in-movies/520773/9 "2009-12-12T00:26:46Z")
> [@The\_Scrivener](#): > > also called source … music This is the term I’ve always heard to describe it. Except for the opening theme song, all the music in _The China Syndrome_ is source music.