Music in Role-Playing Sessions

Since I began playing D&D again last year, I've wondered how (or if) music could be used to set a particular scene, establish a mood, or achieve some other effect during a role-playing session. I haven't made up my mind yet. Two recent experiences with music in my campaign couldn't have been more different.

The first was entirely organic. It grew out of the events in the game, and I had nothing to do with it. Three sessions ago, the players executed a brilliant plan that involved attacking a heavily guarded and fortified house in the middle of an ancient city--Olynthus Kios for those of you who read my session report from last week. The city itself was engulfed in a three-way war, and the house was crawling with heavily armed lizard folk. The players had to figure out how to get into the house, which hid the secrets they were searching for. They took quite a while developing their plan and then executed it flawlessly. As events unfolded, their attack came to resemble a commando assault against an enemy headquarters. It probably wouldn't have played out all that differently had the PCs been Navy SEALs armed with assault rifles and rockets rather than quasi-medieval adventurers with swords and fireballs. During the middle of all this, one of the players pulled out his phone and started playing the theme from The A-Team. It was perfect! The plan had indeed come together, and nothing was more appropriate than playing that song at that moment. (Here's a reminder: The A-Team)

The second experience wasn't as great. It occurred at the end of the session where the players had finally learned about Amalric, my campaign's Big Bad Guy. I had decided ahead of time to play Johnny Cash's neo-classic, "The Man Comes Around". This song often appears in movies and TV shows with an apocalyptic theme. For example, it shows up in the last episode of the first season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and in the remake of The Dawn of the Dead. I thought playing it would give the players a visceral sense of just how bad Amalric was and how terrible things were likely to get before it was all over. It didn't work. I played the song at the end of the session. By that time, it was about 2:00 a.m., everybody wanted to go home, and we had already started packing up. The song made no impression on me nor, I suspect, on the players.

With those two experiences under my belt, I remain unsure what role, if any, music will play in my campaign in the future. I'd like to hear from others on this topic. Under what circumstances, if any, can music be used to good effect in RPGs? Does it depend on the kind of music? On the kind of RPG? Are there any other factors that could make a difference? I'd love to hear what people think about this.