Introduction
Music has always been one of the most powerful tools in cinema. It often communicates what characters themselves cannot say out loud. In queer cinema especially, music frequently carries meanings that exist beneath the surface of dialogue and narrative, expressing desire, tension, repression, and identity in ways that are subtle yet emotionally direct. This project explores the function of music as a narrative tool in contemporary queer film, specifically examining how sound and soundtrack shape audience understandings of queer desire and identity.
My interest in this topic developed through my LGBTQ+ Cinema course at the University of San Francisco, where I began thinking more critically about the formal and historical elements that shape the queer film genre. Because film and music are two of my main creative interests, this project allows me to combine both while engaging in deeper cultural and historical analysis. More importantly, this research emerges from my broader interest in media representation and the social responsibility attached to storytelling. Representation is not simply about presence but about the quality and intention behind that presence. It is making sure that the underrepresented stories are being told by the right people. It is the critical understanding of the social implications our creations have. While art is a reflection of society, it simultaneously influences society’s evolution, and we must be conscious of the art we create and the underlying messages and biases we spread.
A major focus of this project is the lasting influence of the Hays Code on queer cinema. Enforced between 1934 and 1968, the Hays Code prohibited explicit depictions of homosexuality, which it categorized under “sexual perversion.” As a result, filmmakers developed coded methods of signaling queerness indirectly through visual style, dialogue, performance, and sound. Characters who were explicitly queer were often reduced to stereotypes and portrayed as dangerous, deviant, and morally corrupt. Although the Hays Code was abolished in 1968, it created genre conventions, tropes, clichés, and stereotypes through decades of repetition that are still present in contemporary queer cinema.
The two case studies explored in this project approach queer representation through music in very different ways, revealing how sound can either reinforce or challenge historical patterns of queer representation. Call Me by Your Name (2017) uses music to create an atmosphere of romance, longing, and nostalgia. The soundtrack plays a major role in how viewers interpret the relationship between Elio and Oliver, unintentionally romanticizing dynamics that deserve greater critical attention. In contrast, Moonlight (2016) uses sound to explore vulnerability, repression, and Black masculinity in a far more direct and emotionally honest way. The soundtrack evolves alongside Chiron’s identity, reflecting the emotional transformation that takes place across the film’s three chapters.
Using close textual analysis informed by queer theory, this project examines how music communicates unspoken emotion and ideological meaning within queer cinema. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to connect the relationship between sound, representation, and the historical legacy of censorship, showing how music continues to shape the way queer stories are understood on screen.
Thesis Statement
Contemporary queer films utilize music as a narrative tool to shape how audiences interpret queer desire and identity. In Call Me by Your Name, the musical choices subtly promote harmful stereotypes about gay men, influenced by a legacy of queer censorship. In contrast, Moonlight uses music to resist these patterns, creating an immersive and honest portrayal of Black queer masculinity that challenges historically limited representations.
Contemporary queer films utilize music as a narrative tool to shape how audiences interpret queer desire and identity. In Call Me by Your Name, the musical choices subtly promote harmful stereotypes about gay men, influenced by a legacy of queer censorship. In contrast, Moonlight uses music to resist these patterns, creating an immersive and honest portrayal of Black queer masculinity that challenges historically limited representations.
Before we press play on the soundtracks, explore the theories and history that shaped this analysis of queer cinema in the...
Alright, let’s get some tunes going!
(click on an iPod to view the playlist)
(click on an iPod to view the playlist)