Jon Burlingame analyzes the menacing music of ‘Jaws’

The iconic “Duuun dun … duuun dun…” from the Jaws theme is the sounds most people hum think of shark attacks, according to USC Thornton faculty member John Burlingame in a USC News article in honor of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. “The music of Jaws was as responsible as filmmaker and Steven Spielberg’s imagery for scaring people out of the water in 1975, and continues to be the soundtrack for shark imagery,” said Burlingame, a leading expert on music for films and TV. “The music’s sheer intensity and visceral power helped to make the film a global phenomenon.”