What do you think when you hear the term, “trailer music?”

Most people think trailer music might be something that rednecks listen to from their rundown trailers in the dark depths of the Mississippi bayou. It conjures up images of a fat guy in a t-shirt sitting on his patio chair next to his dipiliated trailer, holding a half-empty beer bottle in his hand. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Trailer music is orchestral; it brings you into its story with its wide spectrum of emotions and tonalities.

Trailer music, simply put, is music that is produced for movie theater trailers.

The common misconception is that the music you hear in a movie trailer comes from the movie that the trailer is portraying. Nope, that’s not the case. A movie trailer is usually produced before the movie is finished and before its music has been created.  Other people entirely separate from the movie production create the music for the trailer. Within the past ten years, the music for trailers has become a genre of its own. Nowadays, there are many trailer music works created that have never touched an actual trailer; this is music created for the ever-growing group of trailer music fans.

What makes trailer music different? It’s most similar cousin is the motion picture soundtrack. But what it takes a soundtrack two hours to convey, trailer music produces within three minutes. It tells its own story, but does so with a much greater intensity than a soundtrack, whether it’s bombastic like an epic medieval battle scene, or sad like a tragic farewell, or joyous like a national celebration. Good trailer music simply does all of the above well.

Copyright 2012 by Daniel Castillo