Music of Avatar

The music of Avatar is both unique and familiar. The movie score itself was full of western influences and used music theory to convey the emotion proper for the moment. There was a full orchestra of violins, cellos, percussion, and various aereophones. All these sounded very familiar. While occasionally there were some sounds that were somewhat more foreign, from the west that is, there was nothing that hasn't been used before.

The music of the Na'vi was different. Obviously the point of the sound of the Na'vi was to sound different and alien, and while the sound was fairly unique, it never strayed too far away from our, or at least my, definition of normal music. The chants were "religious" sounding. The vocals, although not exactly like any specific type, group or style, were similar to many types, groups and styles. The drums had a unique sound, but the beat/timing was familiar. They sounded similar to, and this was confirmed by an interview with Ethnomusicologist Wanda Bryant, who consulted on the Avatar music, the African talking drum. This is a unique sound that only works with languages that can communicate through pitch, which the made up language of the Na'vi, and certain African dialects have in common.

Overall the music, was very powerful and sounded different without becoming that we the audience couldn't recognize as music. The music served its purpose very well by taking the audience away from their world and connecting them to the world of the Na'vi.