Anempathetic sound

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anempathetic sound in a film is the opposite of empathetic sound: it consists of music or sound effects that exhibit an indifference to the current tone, emotion, or plot-point of the film. This type of sound can thereby enhance a sense of tragic apathy and insignificance, as when a radio continues to play a happy tune when a character dies, or in Hitchcock's Psycho the continued sound of the shower running after Marion Crane has been killed, as if nothing has happened.[1]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Chion, Michael (1994). Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-0-231-07899-3.