Disney works musical magic at its theme parks

Entering a Disney theme park is like starring in your own movie, concludes University of Auckland senior lecturer in music Dr Gregory Camp in his new book devoted to the many clever ways music is used in the parks.

“At its 12 parks, Disney is effectively putting visitors into an imaginary film and making the whole experience work like a film score,” says Camp, a Disney music enthusiast.

“In a film, it’s not just the moods created by the music, but the actual techniques; the way the music is written, the way the melodies and harmonies work, all stitched together, which bring you through the story and create a musical narrative that works alongside the visual one. And it works like that in the theme parks as well, except in a more immersive way.”

Music at the parks is a meticulously curated blend of original compositions, film scores, and background music (BGM) loops designed to immerse guests in different ‘lands’, he says.

In his book Music in the Disney Parks (Routledge, 2025) Camp draws on years of visits to theme parks around the world, where he particularly noticed how Disney blends classic and newer songs to appeal to multiple generations in four areas: show, area, ride and parade music.

“The parks expertly use a wide variety of Disney music to build these shows around. So, you have ‘The Little Mermaid generation’ who want to hear that music, like me, and other younger visitors who want to hear Moana, and then for my parents’ generation, there might be something like The Ballad of Davy Crockett.”
 

All of this is created behind the scenes by people called ‘Disney Imagineers’; multidisciplinary teams responsible for everything inside Disney’s parks, resorts and cruise ships. Their work blends storytelling, architecture, engineering, art, design, technology and show production.

Camp’s book explores how musical layers support storytelling, mood, and the movement of visitors through the parks, enticing them subtly toward the next attraction as they hear the strains of the next song up ahead.

“Disney has carefully laid out which direction the speakers face, so if you're transitioning into another area, you're getting a musical transition as well. You're having a fade out and a fade in as you walk through,” says Camp.

Critics of Disney would say that this use of music, designed to evoke nostalgic emotions, is a purely economic strategy to increase revenue via things like merchandise.

“And I’d agree,” says Camp, “that it's kind of obvious that if you develop an emotional connection to something, you’ll buy the products associated with it.”

The parks allow visitors to experience everything through multiple senses, unlike a movie that mostly operates on vision and hearing, says Camp.

“You can touch it and experience it through all your senses, including smell. And if you're on an immersive ride, you can look all around you and see not just what your camera angle is, but multiple angles at the same time, so you’re experiencing the space in three dimensions.”
 

Songs in Disney do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of plot and character, he says.

His personal Disney favourite is the little mermaid Ariel's iconic number Part of Your World (1989) – which he can sing note-perfect – by famous songwriting duo Alan Menken (music) and Howard Ashman (lyrics), who have collaborated on some of the most well-loved Disney tunes in the company’s history.

“It has the perfect combination of melody and harmony, really good rhyming (unlike some others), and it fits the character and establishes the plot to such an extent that the film couldn’t tell the story effectively without it,” says Camp.

“The best Disney songs are in the Broadway/musical theatre tradition, in that they move the story forward with music far more than with dialogue.”

Disney is one of the most financially and culturally powerful brands on the planet, and is carefully guarded in terms of intellectual property, so research is challenging when everything, including musical scores, is locked away in closed archives, says Camp.

“But I’ve spent so much time in the parks around the world, and watched so many fan videos on YouTube, that I was able to transcribe, and then analyse, some of the ride and show scores myself, which I include in the book.”
 

The book will appeal to musicologists and film scholars, as well as those from the wider Disney scholarship community, which is now globally substantial and has its own dedicated journal. It will also appeal to others who study various aspects of music’s role in live and virtual spaces, he says.

“People study Disney because of its global cultural impact, economic power, rich texts (films, parks, branding), its presence across so many types of media and its controversies and debates on things like representation, corporate influence and political engagement; it’s endlessly fertile ground. And also, because like me, they enjoy it themselves.”

Music in the Disney Parks, published by Routledge as part of their music research series, is available as a hardback and e-book.