Today I finished reading a novel with my classes, and then I played a song from the Meet Joe Black soundtrack. Their task was to imagine that they were making the book into a movie and to choose which scene should have this song as background music. Then as they were listening, they wrote about the scene, describing the surroundings and the emotions of the characters.
One student said how cool it would be if real life situations had background music. Another student (who is continually in trouble) said when he gets sent to the principal, he would have something like the Jaws theme playing. As he's walking to the office, the music would get louder and faster, then swell up when he gets there, and stop abruptly as the door slams shut behind him. One girl said it would make some conversations easier to understand if we had some music to let us know what kind of mood the other person was in.
I can think of moments in my life that would be even sweeter if I had instrumental music behind me softly playing. And wouldn't it be cool if you could hear some rock intro. with a great beat before you had to do go in for an interview or give a presentation? I'm not sure what my "theme" song would be, but I love "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" that Brandon and I walked out to at our wedding. I wouldn't mind hearing that playing occasionally throughout my week.
