Hello,

I agree with you for the most part, overall the quality of film scores has declined over the years and I think that a big part of it has to do with the quality of films today.I think the film industry likes these kind of scores and does'nt give the composer a chance to try new things and on the other hand rejects alot of scores they would call old fashioned(For example the "troy" film score). I also think that the composers of today are thinking about releasing their film score as a cd instead of concentrating on making the music just with the film in mind, Thats why you get scores that are over the top and sound the same following popular styles over and over again. Like other forms of popular music rock,rap ect... everyone starts following the trends and tries to create music that they think will sell and they get stuck in a formulated repetative mode. I think the idea of putting one or two songs in a movie by popular mainsteam artists takes away from the importance of the instrumental film score itself, In the minds of the film industry today If their movie has a song or two in it that is being played on the radio over and over again they think that is what is important and composer's music becomes secondary background noise. Like you said there are exceptions and I do purchase a small number of todays new scores, But I mostly look forward to the older scores being released on the various labels.

Best Regards,
David Phoenix, AZ.

deg63iami, December 7, 2005; 10:15 PM

peter, you just have to see at the facts...
How many composers do we have nowadays? And then how much movies are going to be produces year by year? The life of our society, of each of us is getting filled 5 times more with information (whether we need it or nor) than maybe 10 or 20 years ago.
Todays composers has the difficulties to create something new. And some of them getting lazy (f.e. Horner or Zimmer) even if I think they could do something great.
Sure some movie producers are sort of stupidos who don't realize how much important music to film is. Like David already mentioned: scores like Troy by Yared are going to be rejected because to old-fashioned (wat da hell??). That's one good reason for bad music. Well I must say Troy at all was just flop in my eye.
Some composers try to follow a trend and here we are again: mainstream, awfull music, nothing interesting.

But all this is no reason to get anoying about scores of today. "Seeing at whole" from my view is that not the composers should sent back to school (well maybe some) but lot of film producers have to learn a lot about music in film. When the producer tells you to make a score something like Gladiator then believe me you won't have much ideas because you automatically start to improvice other composers OR you copy your own past works. It's because there are too much composers who do the same.
I'm in the photography and design bussines and every day I kick my ass for new ideas but this is DAMN HARD. You start to improvise other artists, direct or indirect. So maybe I have to go back to school and learn further 3-6 years for nothing. :)

Na, I see all this not that bad. There still are good stuff coming out. Just see at the lastest works by John Williams, Randy Newman, William Ross, John Frizzell, Brian Tyler, John Debney (I like his score to Zathura) or Michael Giacchino (who in my eyes is one of the best young composers).
I just can name lot more well known and unknown artists who've done great scores last years.

And to call Narnia back: good score, this one will get at least a 4/5 rating. You will see. :)
And at the end there is still the taste that lasts.
Movie changes, music changes, people changes.

1701, December 8, 2005; 3:32 AM

Excuse my bad sentence construction (I just got up and I'm not even thru my
first coffee!), but I like it when directors get artists or 'bands' to score a
complete soundtrack (like back in the day when say G&M De Angelis were
used) - for example Air doing the score to Virgin Suicides and (whoever it
was) doing the score to One Hour Photo as opposed to just contributing one
or two songs to create a horrible soundtrack compilation of pop songs.

I wish more directors/producers had the ball to try things like that. Perhaps I
don't watch enough mainstream movies and there are more examples like the
ones I mentioned above.

Imagine - for example - Asking Slayer (!) to compose the whole score to a
great horror movie - but asking them to be a little experimental (not just a
series of songs) or perhaps Beck or even some interesting 'underground'
hiphop acts such as Aesop Rock....

just thoughts.... Perhaps I'm just a little confused? Anyone understand what
I'm going on about? ;-)

Col
(Movie Grooves)



col, December 8, 2005; 11:44 AM

Why did you open a second thread for the same topic ?

falcsanz, December 8, 2005; 4:50 PM

I think the decline of film music it´s a great problem in the American Industry. There are a few great names, and a lot of medium names. In Europe we have a new breed of excelent composers, some of them are working in EEUU like the gorgeous Alexandre Desplat, Philippe Rombi, Zbigniew Preisner, Andrea Guerra, Paolo Buonvino, Bruno Coulais, and masters like Philippe Sarde, George Fenton, Geoffrey Burgon etc. I,m from Spain, things are still better here. Now in the latest ten years we have the best film composers ever, (because a new breed of directors arrived few years ago with special love and care for filmusic) everybody who knews spanish film music gets crazy, names like Angel Ilarramendi , Roque Baños, Carles Cases, Manuel Villalta, Alejandro Amenabar, Luis De Arquer, Suso Saiz, Alberto Iglesias, Eva Gancedo and many more...

byronger, December 8, 2005; 4:55 PM

Don't be so hard on the composers after all they're just working stiffs in the music business. The directors and some producers of films are the bosses and the music is under their control. The smart directors such as Spielberg, give guidance on what the films about and lets a John Williams do the rest. That's probably why their partnership delivers such good film and score results. Other directors mandate what they want, thus lessening the creative genius of many composers. Then too there's the time factor. The frenzy with which films are produced and the short timeframes involved give most composers very little time to be creative. So they reuse past work as a time saving measure. How else can James Horner produce the "Troy" score in a rush assignment after he replaces Gabriel Yared and meet the schedule deadline imposed on him? You've seen this over and over on many films. Let see how the score for “King Kong” turns out after James Newton Howard replaced Howard Shore.

I believe the really good scores are done by the composers who are giants in the industry and as such don't have to take a back seat in the scoring process. On the other hand give any talented composer adequate time and guidance and the results should be worthwhile. I also feel that in the rat race world of film production most composers are producing satisfactory scores; otherwise how would they continue to get work. They have to satisfy the bosses first, not we collectors. We don't have to buy if we're not pleased with the product.

I feel another problem is the lessening amount of “original music” written for films and the influx of music used from an outside source.

hpmoorejr, December 8, 2005; 7:43 PM

These are just opinions:
I think there are several processes here in todays film scoring world . . . I suppose much like many things in todays world. One, the quality may well have gone down some but there is the added problem that its harder to find. I mean with the sheer quantity of movies being produced every year there is bound to be a dilution effect on the really good music that is produced. Then you also have composers in demand (because of the types of movies) like MV and Horner who just churn out the same music because that's what people in the mainstream want as do studio big wigs.
In times past movies couldn't be lazy about the music. Sound and special effects were not there the music played a larger role in defining the movie. Its less the case today.
Finally, its hard to fault the composers, I mean if Jerry Bruckheimer kept coming to you for music to fit blockbuster X, Y or Z it would be hard to ignore the luctrative nature of those movies.
The good music is still there and while it may have lost some of the inspiration and grandeur of the golden age, its still around. You just have to wade through more fodder to get there.

jamestavelli, December 11, 2005; 7:04 AM