Hello lovelies! How is Noirvember treating you so far? Have you felt inspired to watch any movies?

What is the sound of film noir?

What are the must-have elements of a film noir? For me it’s the setting (a dark city), the characters (a femme fatale, a detective, a crook) and… the music. The style of noir is undisputably very visual, but the music also sets the mood for the dirty affairs taking place in the shadows. And what is the sound of noir? Why, of course, it’s jazz.

Up ’til 1930s and 1940s movie soundtracks were dominated by classical orchestral arrangements. Then, somewhere, Hollywood married the then-new jazz styles with the gritty, black-and-white mystery film, and linked them forever in the popular consciousness. Jazz became truly popular as a style of music used in movie and TV soundtracks in the 1950s. It was the music of the street, the music of bars and clubs, so whenever these elements were prominent in the stories on screen, jazz became the background sound. The particular type of jazz which we can hear in the film soundtracks is now dubbed “dark jazz” or “crime jazz”(a retroactively-given name, much like “film noir”). Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing defined this genre quite brilliantly as “jazzy theme music from 1950s TV shows and movies in which very bad people do very bad things”.

Get yourself in the mood for some noir with these tracks!

So, do you agree with these choices? Do you have your own Noirvember playlist? Share them in the comments!