Avatar - Na'vi and Film Score

After watching the movie Avatar, and actively listening to the music during different scenes, you can decipher the two different styles of music. One would be the typical music score of the orchestra that was played outside the Na’vi scenes and the other is the Na’vi music that consisted of drums and some monotone sounds and background drones.

The Na’vi music, I felt was best described by associating it with certain African style music cultures but after further review and speaking with my peers, I began to realize that it was more complex. There seems to be a Native American theme to the movie and it is only reasonable to consider this style of music as well. A friend of mine stated that Avatar seemed to depict the Pocahontas story in that the primarily white English came to the “New World” and took it over. There is a strong association with the Na’vi treated their world and the way the Native Americans treated theirs. As I was watching the movie, I felt the struggle and the cultural connection that the scene was portraying through the music that was being played.

The orchestral film score that was played was completely different to that of the Na’vi. It was the sound of music that you would typically hear in an epic type movie like Avatar. This score had a sort of battle of survival or uplifting tone that would require you to be inspired or emit some sort of emotion. Because of the struggle between the Na’vi and the marines, you also saw the battle between their two different types of music which made them very distinct.