Music 🎼: Popular Music & Teen Culture Of The Late 1960s

As I continue to review my ASU Film & Media courses from the 2010s, I found other assignments which were essay questions we were required to write about for “Teens And American Culture In U.S. Film”. There were two questions which comprised 25 points each towards the final exam grade, and I’ll share the first of the two now, and the second one next week. This is what I wrote then:

Popular music has always been a vital part of teen culture and films have used it enthusiastically and often to appeal to teenage consumers. With this statement in mind, The Graduate (1967) is possibly the best film to discuss regarding its use of music – since it’s the most innovative of those we have viewed. Traditionally, most Hollywood films have used music scores created by the in-house studio orchestras which had characterized all the major film production companies. By the time of The Graduate circumstances had changed and according to writer David R. Shumway (in his absorbing piece: Rock ‘N’ Roll Soundtracks And The Production Of Nostalgia) The Graduate was believed to be the first film to use popular music that was already recorded and charted.

The music for the opening credits of the picture is refreshing just for the reason that it’s not some bombastic or necessarily melancholy orchestral score which characterized so many film openings prior to the late 1960s. If anything, the soundtrack for The Graduate is very timely and profound for 1967 as it speaks to the ennui that our main character Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) is feeling as he glumly makes his way through a cavernous terminal of LAX. The first song of the picture “Sounds Of Silence” is not entirely understood in context with the visuals, but it definitely sets the tone for what’s to come, so that the audience can easily grasp the downbeat mood – without being hit over the head by it!

Although the music had not been created specifically for the film, it still harmonized well with the story and the folk-rock of the band Simon & Garfunkel (who gained a higher profile because their songs were used in the movie) they were among other bands and musicians that were all the rage among the counterculture devotees of the turbulent 1960s. Perhaps the most important aspect of the music in The Graduate is the relief one feels when watching the film (even multiple times) is that the soundtrack is not overbearing and detracting from the dialogue or overall tone of the narrative. As Shunway had pointed out with the song “Mrs. Robinson” (which incidentally was written for the film) “only the chorus and instrumental bridge are heard.”

The music can be appreciated much more when it doesn’t overwhelm the narrative or become overly obvious as a cue for something about to happen in the next sequence. It would be similar to a scriptwriter who leaves nothing to the imagination and provides too much exposition – and therefore a disappointingly predictable story. The music (particularly the song “Scarborough Fair”) fits well with the turmoil our young “hero” is tangled up in as he tries to disengage from his shabby affair with Mrs. Robinson – and salvage the romance and true love he had with her daughter. “Scarborough Fair” relates satisfactorily with Benjamin’s central crisis of lost love while the lyrics and melody envelope us into the nostalgic frame of mind that folk songs excel at.