The Magical Music of Theme Parks

Let’s face it, a theme park without music would just be creepy!

Written by Kaci Pelias
Illustrated by Jessica Wu

Theme parks are designed to be immersive experiences, created to help their audiences escape the real world and enter an imaginary one. As the entrance to Disneyland states, once you pass through the threshold, you “leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.” In these worlds, anything is possible. Children become princes and princesses, magic is real, and happy endings exist for everyone.

The key to immersion? Music.

In movies, the often subtle musical score shapes the movie’s emotional arc and draws in the viewer. Similarly, theme parks insert instrumentation that you almost don’t notice, unless you start to think about it. In fact, many of the original Disneyland creators, known as Imagineers, worked in film beforehand, and viewed the parks as an extension of the cinematic landscape.

A walk down Main Street, U.S.A., Disneyland’s walkway leading to the castle, would be incomplete without 1940s jazz and Big Band tunes. Universal’s Harry Potter-themed world would feel bizarre without the familiar “Hedwig’s Theme” streaming through hidden speakers. Even park restrooms are sometimes themed with music, like in Walt Disney World’s Epcot. Theme parks don’t let the horrors of the outside world seep in, even when you’re peeing; the magic stays alive.

Here are a few notable instances of music in theme parks:

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Universal Studios)

Everything about Diagon Alley in Universal Studios feels familiar too those that grew up with the “Harry Potter” book and movie series, which is a lot of people with a lot of knowledge of Harry Potter lore. In order to appeal to this audience, the creators of this world had to tap into a wealth of deep-rooted nostalgia. Not only do the shops and streets of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter resemble those in the movies very closely — they also sound like them. This land mostly uses music from the films: visitors walk in and out of Ollivander’s and Honeyduke’s to the tunes of “Harry’s Wondrous World” (the theme by John Williams from “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”), feeling like wizards themselves.

Pixar Pier (Disneyland)

You’re not supposed to cry in Disneyland, right? Unless they’re playing that one song from “Up,” or the “Ratatouille” theme, or the song that plays when the toys from “Toy Story” realize that they all matter to their “kid.” The soundtrack of Pixar Pier, the appropriately named Pixar-themed area of Anaheim, CA’s Disneyland park, is full of guaranteed tear-jerkers. This land, much like the Wizarding World and all the other parks on this list, is designed to appeal to young people who watched these iconic movies growing up and families who used them as a way to grow closer together. While the songs are from vastly different movies, most of them were composed by the same few artists (Michael Giacchino and Randy Newman are Pixar Gods), so they flow together nicely, creating an overall mood of “sad, but happy about it.”

Galaxy’s Edge (Disneyland and Walt Disney World)

While the Imagineers behind this immersive “Star Wars” park could’ve easily followed the precedent, relying on familiar John Williams songs to set the physical scene (which includes a life-sized model of the Millenium Falcon), they chose a more creative route. Galaxy’s Edge uses mostly ambient soundscapes that resemble rustling bushes, chattering crowds of aliens, or even the changing stations of a futuristic racer pod radio. The intended purpose of this land is to make visitors feel like they’ve actually left Earth, so the Imagineers curated the experiences of all five senses. This area, which is in both the Disneyland park in Anaheim, CA and the Disneyworld park in Orlando, FL, is also designed to invoke wonder in visitors of all ages. The soundscapes leave children and adults alike peeking around the corner, looking for actual aliens.

Camp Snoopy (Knott’s Berry Farm)

This historic theme park goes mostly unnoticed by the average person, well-known only by California residents or the rare theme park fanatic from out-of-state. Cited as being one of the first “theme parks,” Knott’s Berry Farm doesn’t boast a lot of intellectual properties, but they do have a hold on the “Peanuts” gang. The park turns, of course, to the musical talents of Vince Guaraldi, the original composer of many of the most iconic Snoopy songs, to set the scene. These tracks are instantly recognizable, and bring up waves of nostalgia (are we sensing a pattern here?). Who doesn’t feel instantly happier when listening to the bouncing keys of “Linus and Lucy?”

The Bathrooms Next To Journey Into Imagination with Figment (Walt Disney World)

This wasn’t a joke! While most restrooms in the Disney parks unfortunately do not continue ambushing you with theme park whimsy, there’s a special one that does for people who really want to escape. Located next to an attraction called Journey into Imagination with Figment, these bathrooms are both less crowded and more magical: the background music loop from Journey into Imagination with Figment seeps into the stalls. Visitors to these porcelain thrones can hear the instrumentation of the Sherman Brothers’ “One Little Spark,” a song about imagination and dreaming that sure is fun to hum along to while peeing.

Let this inspire you to visit more theme parks, listen to the music they play, and lean in to the immersive experience! Let nostalgia overtake you! Or, just look up an hour-long Pixar Pier loop on Youtube and … imagine.

Afterglow ATXNovember 22, 2019