DJing the Score

One of the ways I like to listen to music in a film is when it is presented in a live fashion and therefore diegetic. The film may be about a particular band or singer, and their rise to success and/or failure, but throughout the film you get to listen and watch rehearsal sessions & gigs.  
Two of my favourite films are The Blue Brothers and The Doors by Oliver Stone.

One thing I also enjoy watching is when a DJ is playing music in a film. This could be what the actual film is about such as ‘It’s All Gone Pete Tong’ which follows the life of Frankie Wilde who battled against a hearing disorder and learnt how to cope with this and continue djing, or perhaps there is a certain part of a film where a DJ plays a tune i.e..record shop in Human Traffic. This could be in a club, shop or just a case of messing around on a pair of decks at home, but to watch this and hear the music is, to me a ‘real life’ kind of experience.

There is film called Once, a love story starring musicians Glen Hansard from the band, The Frames and Marketa Irglova. In this film there are instances when music is being played on a bus, in the street or in a music shop.  

I guess in some cases, adding music like this to a film would be part of the films subject, but if not it can add a different dimension to what people are watching and listening to.

  DJ mixing scene from the film 'It's All Gone Pete Tong'.

From the film Human Traffic, one of the main characters works in a record store waiting for those vinyl junkies to come in and spend some money.

   

One of my favourite films La Haine, where the music being played starts off from a DJ in his flat. Notice that there is no doubt that (if watched from the beginning of the scene) it is diegetic music, but if you started to watch after the shot of the DJ, you could say it was non-diegetic.