Soundtrack for love: wedding videography, music and romantic memory

Abstract

Professionally produced wedding videos are evocative artefacts. Capturing the ritual of the wedding, the wedding video stands as a postcard that showcases the conspicuous display of emotion that assumes a central place in the memorialization and indeed the very praxis of the modern wedding ritual. The role of music in the wedding video is crucial; representing a key partner to the imagery of the wedding, the musical dimensions emotionally charge the artefact in perpetuity. In this article we argue that the musical soundtrack of wedding videos services manifold functions, including the enabling of narrative continuity, providing a sense of propulsive rhythm, pacing and supporting the successful communication of emotions that sits at the centre of the compressed iconography of the wedding. Although the visual elements play a lead role, we contend that the unseen qualities of the musical materials also play an integral function; undergirding the images of the wedding and mediating the emotional and affective display. The argument presented is based on an analysis of 132 selected publicly available videos, sourced from wedding videographers based in the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne.