Why Western Film Scores Matter

When the Philip Morris Tobacco Company began using Elmer Bernstein’s music from The Magnificent Seven to sell Marlboro cigarettes in 1963, they launched a major marketing success, sometimes referred to as the campaign of the century.  The music was so powerful in promoting their brand that the dialogue in the commercials was completely eliminated.  (Below is a short clip from one of those iconic advertisements.) Ultimately, Bernstein’s music branded the entire West as Marlboro Country and imbued it with the masculine and heroic qualities assimilated from the movie.  Similarly, the music from Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly has become a short-cut for competition and confrontation throughout popular culture.  Currently, a more uplifting melody from that film is accompanying the Modelo Especial beer commercials that promote the contribution of immigrants and people of color. 

The adaptation and dissemination of this music into our lives outside the theater supports the notion that Western soundtracks matter. Tracing the history of these accompaniments that have helped to define the West, and thus reinforce its mythology, is the broad topic of my research; from the selections that accompanied the silent Western (from about 1909 to 1927, when sound was applied to film) to the standout classics of the psychological Western released during the late 1950s and early 1960s.