Although we are used to movies before 1927 being "silent", movies have never been completely silent. From the beginning, music was regarded as an indispensable accompaniment. Lumiere's films were accompanied by their pop piano improvisation when they participated in the first American film exhibition in February 1896. At first, these musical accompaniment had nothing to do with it, and any form of accompaniment with movies was enough. However, in a short time, playing lively music, a solemn sense of film disharmony became obvious, and film pianists began to pay attention to the emotional appeal of their works.

With the increasing number and importance of violinists and cellists in theaters, they will join pianists in some cases, and small orchestras will be formed in larger theaters. For a long time, the choice of soundtrack for each film is entirely in the hands of the band conductor or leader, and usually the qualification for this position is not the skill or appreciation taste of a musical work with so many personal libraries. Since the conductor is rarely seen, the film will be shown until the evening (if the conductor is really lucky enough to see the film), and the music arrangement is usually improvised in a hurry.

In order to solve the above difficulties, the film distribution company started the business of printing music accompaniment tips. For example, in 1909, Edison Company began to release films with signs of "joy", "sadness" and "excitement". The suggestion is more clear, and there are signs that the music prompt table contains emotions, suitable names of music works and accurate instructions to express one thing to the next leader.

Some movies have music specially written for them. One of the earliest specials was the film One Country composed for DW Griffith, which was released in 19 15.