Abstract:

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This dissertation investigates the ways in which music can influence the perception of a narrative and in turn, influence the emotional investment and narrative immersion into it. The first of three chapters investigates the way in which music and narrative are independently capable of creating emotional responses in an audience. The second chapter looks at a selection of relevant contemporary pieces of media to illustrate the connection between music and narrative, from music being used to manipulate the audiences emotions towards a character, to music being used to set up the subversion of narrative expectation. The third chapter investigates how the factors that typically contribute towards spatial and flow immersion in the medium of video games can instead be creatively used to create narrative immersion.