Gaute Barlindhaug will present his ongoing project on the politics of music and sound in the Star Wars series Andor.
The second and final season of Andor premiered in 2025, becoming one of the most critically acclaimed installments in the Star Wars franchise. Following online discussions about the series, the way audiences connected the plot with present-day political struggles also made Andor stand out in comparison to other recent Star Wars productions. My project examines how the use of diegetic music in the series might have contributed to bridging the fantasy-driven Star Wars universe with our contemporary society.
“Diegetic music” is a term used to describe music that characters in the universe of the movie listen to. It can include music playing at a party, music performed by the characters themselves, or even random background sounds from an urban soundscape. In creating a realistic environment in movies, such music can be an important element of the production. For producers of sci-fi movies, however, the use of diegetic music can present a challenge: what music would people in a galaxy far, far away listen to?
Earlier Star Wars productions have addressed this by focusing on exotic music, sounds, and timbres unfamiliar to a Western audience, helping viewers label the characters as "others" inhabiting a strange, fictional universe. The TV series Andor, in my opinion, takes the opposite approach. Andor’s diegetic music closely resembles styles, instrumentation, and melodies found in contemporary Western culture. My argument is that this is done deliberately to make the narrative more relevant to our society, allowing the struggles of the rebellion to resonate with conflicts in our own society and history.
This event is organized by the research group ENCODE: Engaging Conflicts in a Digital Era.