How does sound affect meaning for audiences?

Sound affects meaning for audience's in a few ways. Sound acts as a method of projecting the noises that we as an audience would expect to here in the situation on screen. Diegetic sound is sound which the characters in the film can here such as a conversation or the sounds of cars driving down the road. Non-diegetic is the opposite these are the sounds which only the audience here such as a soundtrack. Contrapuntal sound is also a very effective way of conveying and shaping meaning. This works by juxtaposition, by placing upbeat music against a dark scene or using dark music on an upbeat scene. This is very prominent in a film like 'a clockwork orange' where in the scene above Alex begins to beat up and attack his fellow 'droogs' accompanied by Beethoven this makes us question Alex's state of mind.

Another example of contrapuntal sound is in 'American Pyscho'. In particular the 'hip to be square' scene in which Patrick Bateman(the main protagonist) kills a man with an axe while an upbeat song(Hip to be square) plays in the the background. This makes the audience think.