ABSTRACT
The eight case studies presented in this section are a small selection of movie music moments that use diegetic song placements in interesting, entertaining, powerful, and/or ingenious ways. Diegetic music, also called source music, is commonplace in Hollywood films and may be heard in all kinds of settings. By definition, it is music that has its source within the ede and that characters in the diegesis can hear. The possible sources for diegetic music are numerous, be it background music at a supermarket or in an elevator, someone listening on headphones while running, a car radio on the morning commute, a jukebox at a bar, or a wedding band. How this music is introduced depends on the setup and setting and, conventionally, it is quite obvious from context whether music is diegetic or not, though sometimes these lines are blurred (see also Section 6). In recent Hollywood cinema, pop songs will serve as diegetic music in the vast majority of cases. The song choices are sometimes planned as early as the script stage, or they may emerge in the production or post-production process. Diegetic songs often mean something to at least one of the characters and they can serve a range of functions to aid storytelling.
