I have a few friends whose primary musical listening tastes is movie soundtracks, and several others for whom it is a favorite way to listen to music. And when I say soundtracks, I don’t mean things like “Grease” or “Evita” or “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” where the movie is a musical. No, I mean soundtracks, the musical scores that underlie almost all movies and TV shows–the theme song and the incidental music. Two such soundtrack fans I can name off the top of my head are Jerry Kindall and Kevin D., although I’ve known several others. They just like listening to the soundtracks from movies like The General’s Daughter or Batman Begins or Troy.
To be honest I have always found this a little odd–not odd in a negative way, but odd in a sort of, “hmm, how unusual, I’m not sure I get it.” I can appreciate the art form, and how much a good soundtrack can add to a movie without the audience being aware of it. But generally, I don’t usually just sit around and listen to soundtracks.
‘m visiting with Kevin this morning and he’s having me listen to the soundtrack recording for Battlestar Galactica Season One. It’s well-crafted music, mind you, and in this particular case quite out of the ordinary for a television series. It’s moody, subtle, and compelling–just like the TV series itself (which, by the way, has its season 2 premier on Friday night–whoot! Can’t wait!).
I don’t see myself regularly buying soundtracks to movies, but I note something: all the guys I know (they’re all guys, come to think of it) who spend a lot of time listening to soundtracks tend to be quite intelligent, a bit geeky, and usually highly computer literate. I’m wondering if there’s a connection somewhere. In any case they can’t be all that unusual–go to any record store and you’ll find a section for soundtracks. It’s usually pretty small, but it’s almost always there, which means that soundtrack fans obviously exist in reliable numbers.
So are there any Dean’s World fans out there who enjoy this… what would you call it, a genre?–of music? Do you frequently find yourself buying movie soundtracks and just listening to them? What’s the attraction?
Honestly I’m curious.
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Dean
I was listening to a discussion of the current state of classical music on PBS where they discussed this.
Apparently the main stream of modern composition in classical music is greatly effected by post-modern concepts. If you want to compose music without bowing to these norms then Hollywood is a good place to work. As long as the composition supports the move or program the director and producer don’t care what norms you use.
Lot’s of dross of course, but one of the persons speculated that in a few hundred years, music that is played from this era will be originally from soundtracks even if the movie is never seen.
How much of the music from the 19th century is overtures to plays and operas that no one remembers except for the overture? Might be the same thing here
Most interesting. Myself, I can’t say I do that regularly or often at all, but I once bought a soundtrack of the original Tim Burton Batman, expecting to hear Danny Elfman’s theme music, but instead all I got was a lot of “pop” music that I hadn’t noticed at all but was somewhere in the background. I was very disappointed. On a higher note, however, one of my very favorite tapes has long been that of the exalting music that Vangelis wrote for Chariots of Fire.
When I saw the Lord of the Rings trilogy I thought it has some of the most beautiful music I’d ever heard. I bought that one right away.
I happen to be one of those who listens to soundtracks a lot. And to break the mold, I`m female and hopeless with computers. And I`d like to thank Dean for pointing this trend out, because I was wondering if I was the only person who loves soundtracks.
Anyone seen the 2003 (around there) remake of Solaris? The soundtrack is amazing. It captures the mystery of space perfectly. (By the way, it was in the War of the World trailer, at the beginning. It was that peaceful music.)
I`m also one of those Final-Fantasy-obsessed people. I don`t mean the games, though I like those, too; I mean the music. I got row 1, seat 1 to the Detroit Final Fantasy concert. If anyone cares, I suggest FFVI`s “Terra`s Theme“ and FFIX`s “You`re Not Alone!“, though there`s so much good music in Final Fantasy, it`s almost a crime to pare it down to these two. At the Chicago concert, fans particularly loved “Aeris`s Theme“, but I can`t for the life of me figure out why. It`s pretty, but boring. Maybe it`s just the popularity of FFVII.
SMA wrote about Danny Elfman in the previous post; I haven`t heard the music to Batman, but I like the music in The Nightmare Before Christmas, though it might be too “pop“ for SMA. But when I say the music, I mean the music. The lyrics are absolutely atrocious.
Other soundtracks I have: Francis Ford Coppola`s The Secret Garden, by Zbigniew Preisner.
I don`t know if there`s a special attraction to soundtracks. I don`t usually just buy soundtracks; I usually watch the movie first. I think original scores are so good because it`s one of the few modern genres of music where the composer is allowed to write music of artistic merit (as opposed to pop music merely meant to please gaggles of pre-teen girls).
I suspect part of its quality also owes to the fact that it has to represent something. It has to match the mood of the film or the scene; it`s a giant leit motiv. I said earlier that the music in Solaris exemplifies the mystery of space perfectly. Well, seeing as the movie is set in space and the planet Solaris is supposed to be mysterious, the music fit it perfectly. When I listen to it, I think of space. A good soundtrack should remind the listener of something. In this sense, soundtracks are the new opera.
Erm, I didn`t finish that list of other soundtracks that I have. I can`t think of any others right now.
I repeated some of Hank F M`s sentiments in my post (sorry, I was too antsy to get my bit out to read yours before), but I`d like to add something to what he said.
I`m not familiar with post-modernism, but soundtracks are a perfect medium because they`re constrained in that they need to reflect a mood or whatever, so the composers don`t need to make an album of car crashes to be considered “artistic“, which is what the trend seems to be (and have been for the past century). Outside of that medium, the music needs to be unbearable to listen to to be considered worthy of critical acclaim. Soundtrack composers can say, “What? It`s not my fault the music was good. They made me do it!“
And I already addressed pop music. Popular music that is widely advertised usually follows the annoying fads of the times (boy bands, girl singers, all manners of fluffy pop music, the pop artist who has “reinvented“ himself/herself into a tougher, “less pop-py“ style, rap…), leaving little real creativity for someone to write music.
The only sountrack CD I listen to on a regular basis is The Carl Stalling Project, music from Looney Tunes animations.
Steven – for strange marketing reasons, it is often the case that a movie “soundtrack” consists of pop stuff that is heard from time to time in the movie, usually over the credits, while the movie “score” is the orchestral theme. I’ve *got* the Batman score …
A few recent must-have film soundtracks
Michael Nyman’s “Gattaca”
Edward Shearmur’s “K-Pax”
James Newton Howard’s “Unbreakable”
Thomas Newman’s “American Beauty”
I wasn’t too impressed with a couple of these films as films, but the music is unparalleled in each. (And you can get just about anything by James Newton Howard, he’s one of my favorites.) I can’t say I really enjoy Danny Elfman’s work, though he seems to be popular.
Hmm…Yoko Kanno’s work on the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack merits purchase, but I haven’t found the CD anywhere.
The Transformers movie soundtrack was one of a kind, but its appeal is probably limited to my age group.
And as far as Squaresoft, I’d be interested in the Xenogears soundtrack if I could track it down. But that’s about it, I think.
PFC_Koopman: You probably will have to go to a shop that sells anime and import CDs from Japan. Or there’s a website for import CDs at:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp
I’ve had some success at ordering a few soundtrack CDs from here.
Is it odd that one’s husband doesn’t know that his wife is a soundtrack fan?
If you like rock the soundtrack to “Armageddon” is great!
Rosemary: The Armageddon soundtrack is mostly rock and pop songs by groups like Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Bob Segar, and Bon Jovi. I’ve never heard you listening to a regular soundtrack (or musical score as Jerry puts it).
I have a couple of old Star Trek soundtracks which are surprisingly good. In Voyager and Enterprise and the more recent Star Treks, the composers rarely bother to be very original. Most of the music is what I call Random Menacing Background Music–mostly strings and drums trying to sound ominous without any definite melody. But the older series have different themes for every alien species, every episode, etc. Some of them are beautiful, like the suite from “The Inner Light”. The tribble theme is fun too.
Most movie soundtracks I’ve heard fall into the RMBM category, if they bother to compose original music for the movie at all, instead of borrowing the latest hit from Brittany Spears or whoever.
I also listen to a lot of anime soundtracks. I’d second the recommendation of Yoko Kanno’s music, although I generally prefer her older stuff to her newer (Escaflowne, Please Save My Earth, and Card Captor Sakura have EXCELLENT background music). I like to listen to Inuyasha music, too, which is a very unique blend of traditional Eastern instruments with a Western orchestra in a way that is quite unlike anything else and stunningly beautiful (e.g. the main theme, “Kagome to Inuyasha”,
“Taijiya Sango”).
I, too, am female and only tolerably computer-literate. I am, however, a geek, which is a characteristic I probably share with many soundtrack fans.
I think I agree with earlier responses that movie soundtracks provide access to beautiful ‘classical-style’ music that hasn’t gone all wonky and post-modern.
Interesting that you don’t mention some of the classic soundtracks of all time: Morricone’s spaghetti western soundtracks, or the Godfather soundtrack, or Star Wars music.
I think it’s a modern equivalent of what classical music was in past generations (as opposed to folk music).
Two soundtracks that I’ve always loved, specifically because of their symphonic structure, in which the soundtrack album itself can effectively stand alone without any help from the screen:
The Lion King by Hans Zimmer, and
Jurassic Park by John Williams.
Take out the showtunes from the former and the cacophonic action sequences from the latter, and you’ve got yourself a listening experience that I’d put up against any classical concerto or symphony.
No, I’m serious.
The Carl Stalling Project rocks (only just noticed that comment above).
Man, am I gonna have to educate you all on good soundtracks? ;-P
I’m geeked to see someone here is going to the DSO Final Fantasy Concert. I’m there on the 23rd. Woot! Oh, you should asl be aware thhat the DTE Music Theatre is doing a video game concert as well in August! It’s being put together by some tool who I don’t like from G4 (he did do a great job for the music for Advent Rising) and Jack Wall (composer for MYST 3, MYST 4, Jade Empire…). I’m so going to try to go.
Speaking of viedo game music… it’s quickly becoming on par with film music. It’s becoming more and more common to find video games with full orchestral scores. The first ever to do this was the PlayStation game The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It continued with the Medal of Honor games and now it’s everywhere. However, I’m surprised it seems to have caught on more with American games than Japanese.
Any, I suppose I should include a list of my favorite composers:
John Williams (duh), Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Harry Gregson-Williams, Michael Giacchino, Klaus Badelt, Brian Tyler, Trevor Rabin… Ummm that’s all I can think of.
Man… I could take for hours about this topic!
Oh, Dean asks what’s the attraction. I shall tell you a brief story.
When I was but a wee lad, living in California, I remember hating the music on the radio. I hated it. My siblings, mother and our occasional babysitter loved it. So, I had really no exposure to music other than what I didn’t care for. Then, on day, I came across my mother’s LP of the soundtrack from the “Beverly Hills Cop” movie. On it I found heaven in one track. The instrumental theme for the film.
From there I naturally went to classical (my favorite being Bach) but these works were, sometimes, hundreds of years old. Good, yes, but nothing modern. Then came film music. I think of film music as modern classical. Most classical music found inspiration from great literary works so for modern classical to attach itself to film and television seemed natural. Movie scores, while allowing me to revisit some of my favorite films in a more intimate fashion also allows me to “personalize” it. Face it, when you’re listening to a song with lyrics you’re forced to engage that piece in a specific way. The singer is telling you what the song is about. It doesn’t have to be quite this way with classical. Sure, the composer probably wrote the piece with something specific in mind but he cannot force that vision upon you. So, with a classical collection you define what the music means in most regards. Not the other way around. In this way almost any piece or classical becomes “yours” and therefore more meaningful to you. You imprint the music with your heart. It doesn’t get any more meaningful than that.
Well, that’s how it is with me anyway.
I can relate to that. Much of my favorite music is instrumental–or, has some lyrics, then the musicians launch into long extended musical improvisations. The images and associations to it are whatever the musicians communicate purely musically, and whatever is in your head.
But this may point to a difference I have–I rarely pay attention to lyrics. I view the voice as just another instrument and only occasionally try to make out what the words are saying. So I wind up getting that same thing you describe but out of music that sometimes has words anyway.
Most people do pay attention to lyrics though. So we have that in common. I don’t find them a distraction but I often find them irrelevant.
Great topic! I listen to scores and soundtracks all the time. My favorite scores:
Casino Royale (Burt Bacarach-1966)
The Rocketeer (James Horner-1991)
The Fifth Element (Eric Serra-1997)
Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl (Klaus Badelt-2003)
The Incredibles (Michael Giacchino-2004)
I also remember Live And Let Die (1976?) fondly – I listened to this incessantly in the back seat on my first family car trip from WI to FL. Outstanding traveling music.
The only score I have that has disappinted me is from The Matrix (the score is much harder to find than the soundtrack) – it just doesn’t seem to stand up to independent listening.
Other great soundtracks that aren’t really scores but aren’t just compilations of random pop songs would include That Thing You Do!, A Mighty Wind, and all the Cowboy Bebop releases (there I think 8 of them now – be careful not to get the cheap Taiwanese bootlegs from SonMay or EverAnime).
Hey, those Sonmay and EverAnime releases at like $15 cheaper than their import brothers! And I’ve seen no difference in quality owning a number of them and direct imports.
I suppose I should list some of my favorite movie scores since everyone else is:
The Peacemaker (Hans Zimmer)
Armageddon (Trevor Rabin &Harry Gregson-Williams)
Stargate (David Arnold)
The World Is Not Enough (David Arnold)
Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (Howard Shore)
Jurassic Park (John Williams)
Medicine Man (Jerry Goldsmith)
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (Marco D’Ambrosio)
Starship Troopers (Basil Poledouris)
The Hunt For Red October (Basil Poledouris)
Tears Of The Sun (Hans Zimmer)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Klaus Badelt)
Children Of DUNE (Brian Tyler)
The Rock (Hans Zimmer &Harry Gregson Williams &Nick Glennie Smith)
Hmmm, I think that’s enough for now. Don’t get me started on video games!
Dear Kevin D.:
Thank you! This has been a most fascinating discussion. I will look for those soundtracks.
SonMay and EverAnime are cheaper because they’re pirated. Sure, they’ll cost you less money, but they aren’t going to do any good for the composers that actually own the music. If you aren’t going to pay the owners any money, just download the music off the internet for free and save yourself $15. Don’t bother encouraging piracy.
Ummm… isn’t that a tad hypocritical? I’m not trying to be an ass or anything, because I completely understand where you’re coming from, but downloading the music is preferrable to buying a pirated CD?
Well, if you buy a pirated CD you’re putting money in someone’s pocket who isn’t sharing with the original creator–a form of double-theft, really. If you pirate the music online no one’s paying anyone anything.
Ahhh… the lesser of two evils.
Yeah, the high quality is the whole problem with the Taiwanese bootlegs – they look exactly like a legitimate commercial product. I have 6 of them and I never realized they were bootlegs until I read about the problem on a fansite.
And what the heck am I supposed to do with them now? Burn them? Pass them on to someone who wouldn’t otherwise know about them? $90 pissed away, and now I have to spend another $180 to give the artists the tribute they deserve.
Yeesh, I can access the computer only once a day, and look what I missed out on. A video game concert at the DTE Energy Music Center?! I need to go!
Yoko Kanno`s Cowboy Bebop soundtracks are great, too. “Tank“, “Real Folk Blues“, “Green Bird“….
Oh, another good video game soundtrack: Secret of Mana, though you can only get it in Japanese these days. (http://www.gamemusic.com)
Hey, Harry-Gregson Williams! He composed the music to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The latter was better than the former, and was actually very good, though I don`t have the soundtrack.
I’m just glad my name isn’t Derwyn Lackey, ha! ha1
Ehrich Weiss
Replace mp3-*-name.mp3 with the names of your songs (using Terminal, you can just drag and drop the file/names to Terminal and it’ll add the name/path). The “>” is the output pipe, and the “joined-songs.mp3″ would be the resulting name. You can change this to whatever name you want.
Armando Anthony Corea
The instructions in the article are really easy to follow – in fact, they deserve to be inscribed in stone for the benefit of humankind (and the puzzlement of future archaeologists).
Truman Capote
recently wrote a guide explaining how to convert .ra files to mp3 using only open source software (mplayer and lame) on windows.
Boy George
For instance, I typed “cat” in my Terminal, and dragged three files from my iTunes Music folder in to the Terminal window, and followed with the > pipe and specified ~/Desktop (”~/” is Unix shorthand for your “Home folder”) and the file went to the Desktop with the name I specified
Isaac Sidney Caesar
If you’re not afraid of the Unix command line, you could do this with the Cat command. Just type cat mp3-1-name.mp3 mp3-2-name.mp3 mp3-3-name.mp3 > joined-songs.mp3.
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