The use of diegetic music in an anempathetic way in films can create an ironic effect due to its indifference to the goings on of the scene. Chion notes that there are two different ways for music in film to “create a specific emotion in relation to the situation depicted on the screen” (1994:8), ‘empathetic’ and ‘anempathetic’. Empathetic refers to music that directly conveys the emotion on screen whereas anempathetic means music that is indifferent to the action on screen. This can also be used in terms of sound for example in the thriller Psycho (Hitchcock 1960) the iconic scene where the woman gets murdered in the shower. The audience hears the sound of the shower still running in the background unaffected by the horrific murder taking place. Opposingly, the music in the scene acts empathetically reacting to the woman being stabbed by the knife. Quentin Tarantino is notorious for using the anempathetic music effect with popular songs in his films. In the cult movie classic Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino 1992) there is a scene when Mr Blonde is listening to a radio in this warehouse whilst he is torchering Officer Nash. Tarantino chose to use the song Stuck in the Middle by Stealers Wheel to be played over the radio in the background. The music never alters to reflect the actions of Mr Blonde or the pain of Nash creating irony and the unsettling undertone.
In these examples, diegetic music is used to great effect when it isn’t affected by what is happening on scene. Gorbman notes that “diegetic music [has the] capacity to create irony, in a more ‘natural’ way than nondiegetic music” (1987:23). However, Neumeyer articulates that the diegetic music heard must be reflective of the space and the whereabouts of the character else the audience struggles to be convinced that the characters hear the music (2000). He goes on to further argue that “then any weaknesses in the cinematic illusion of a musical reality, so to speak, undercut the notion of the ‘diegetic’” (Neumeyer 2000:49). With that in mind, this film clip starts out by fitting the brief with Mr Blonde interacting with the song by dancing and singing when he puts it on the radio. Later when we see him leave the warehouse the song fades out and back in sync with Mr Blonde’s position in relation to the radio demonstrating that the music is indeed diegetic.