Movie music is music that has been composed specifically for inclusion in a movie. It has various functions, including helping viewers understand the plot, largely through the use of leitmotifs. It also is used to enhance the suspense, emotions, ethnic or national atmosphere, scenery, historic period or other aspects of movies. Some movie music has become so popular that it plays a major role in movies and also assumes a life of its own independent of the movie for which it was written.
It is sometime claimed that movie music is the modern incarnation of classical music. Indeed, some composers of classical music also wrote movie music, and some composers of primarily movie music have attempted to write classical music, although usually with little success. While in many cases there is some resemblance, there are usually major differences, including in form, structure, quality and originality. Thus, most movie music has not entered the standard repertoire of concert performance, although there have been some exceptions.