This paper provides a critical review of the behavioral research on film music, indicates that there is a visual bias in media attribute research which needs to be balanced, and provides media producers and instructional developers with a theoretical basis and practical guidelines for using music in audiovisual presentations. The question of film music and its implications for instructional and educational media is dealt with in five major sections: (1) an introduction suggesting that practitioners, researchers, and artists need to focus in different ways on film music and that there is a major dichotomous break between the way film music is considered within entertainment and educational perspectives; (2) an examination of film music functions, specific scoring techniques (including theme song, cartoon scoring, and radio scoring approaches), and additional viewpoints on the aesthetics of music; (3) a discussion of film music as nonverbal communication, with emphasis on nonverbal and multiple channel communication theory; (4) a review and analysis of film music research by John Zuckerman (1949), R. C. Nuckols and R. Abramson (1949), Percy H. Tannenbaum (1956), A. A. Lumsdaine and A. I. Gladstone (1958), John Freeman and Charles O. Neidt (1959), and others; and (5) a conclusion which indicates that affective learning is influenced by music although cognitive learning is not, and suggests various implications of the research for practitioners. A 31-item bibliography is provided. (ESR)