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Before the internet, how did you find out which films were scored by John Williams?


1977

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In my case, I used to visit my local public library and trawl through books such as Halliwell's Film Guide, Tony Thomas's Film Score A View From the Podium and a book the title of which escapes me that listed all the Oscar nominees by year.

 

I also used to write away for catalogues sent out by specialist soundtrack retailers, advertised in the film magazines of the day.

 

Sometimes a JW score would catch me completely unawares. I vividly remember watching the opening titles of Dracula on TV in the late '80s and thinking to myself, "this music sounds just like John Williams"! Needless to says when the Maestro's name appeared on screen I was quite in my element. The same thing happened with "The Mission" from Amazing Stories, except that I had to wait until the end of the episode to confirm my suspicions.

 

I also fondly recall turning the VHS covers in my local video rental shop around to check the credits boxes for that wondrous bit of text: "Music by John Williams". That's how I found out about Midway (titled The Battle of Midway in my country).

 

Compilation albums were also a good source. Imagine my surprise on getting a dodgy faxed copy of the back cover of Kunzel's Star Tracks II (thanks to a music retailer in another city that I had phoned and asked about soundtracks), and discovering that JW had scored something called SpaceCamp!

 

Ah, the days before the world was hardwired into itself...

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I didn't really get into film scores until 1994, and by that time rec.music.movies would have told me everything i needed to know about upcoming films and their composers

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4 minutes ago, Jay said:

I didn't really get into film scores until 1994, and by that time rec.music.movies would have told me everything i needed to know about upcoming films and their composers

 

So much more boring than my experience :D

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I remember going to a book store in the early 90s and finding a guide to movies or something like that.  It was basically imdb in book form, you could look up actors, directors, composers, cinematographers, writers and it listed their complete credits.

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Makes you wonder what people today would do if the internet vanished overnight. 

 

 

"Cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria!" 

 

Peter Venkman

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I used to scan movie magazines for new film adds and was trying to spot Williams name in the credits. Those first years of being a fan, with the internet in its infant stages, bring about some of the fondest memories... 

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39 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

I actually wonder if in some was we would not be better off?

 

Interesting point, Michael Crichton wrote a bit about that very idea in The Lost World. Something about groups in isolation evolving faster or better than those that are all connected. Quite prescient if you ask me.

 

I think some under 30s today would rather be without fresh water than their social media...

 

* he says wistfully while tapping this message out furiously on his smartphone *

 

22 minutes ago, Sandor said:

I used to scan movie magazines for new film adds and was trying to spot Williams name in the credits.

 

Yes, good point. I remember seeing the standee for Home Alone in '90 at my local cinema and spotting the music credit for the first time.

 

Such fond memories...

 

I also remember planning whole trips to a major city 4 hours away with the sole intention of visiting its huge (compared to my town's) music stores. It was in one of these stores that I randomly discovered the Stanley & Iris OST, a film which wasn't even shown theatrically in my country, and which I had no inkling was scored by JW.

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I think the natural human disposition is to be nostalgic for the things in one's past.  Certainly the enjoyable things; sometimes even the unenjoyable things.  So while I find my own method of discovering film scores -- mostly by checking out movie posters -- to be a bit more glossy than being able to just get online and find out anything anytime, I know it's not actually so.  It just feels so.  And it'll feel so in exactly the same way to Internet users whenever whatever the next thing is comes along.  They'll look back on their web-surfing days and sigh a little bit and say, "It ain't like it used to be."

 

They'll be right AND they'll be wrong.

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18 minutes ago, Bryant Burnette said:

They'll look back on their web-surfing days and sigh a little bit and say, "It ain't like it used to be."

Whatever is gonna happen, that makes me wistfully think of the web-surfing days, I don't want it to become reality.

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I remember back in the 2010s, when I was a teenager, we actually had to type letters into Google to find out.

 

Now the info is delivered by brain implant immediately after wondering about it, but it's not quite the same.

 

Ah, the 2010s, those were the good old days.

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1 hour ago, Bryant Burnette said:

I think the natural human disposition is to be nostalgic for the things in one's past.  Certainly the enjoyable things; sometimes even the unenjoyable things.  So while I find my own method of discovering film scores -- mostly by checking out movie posters -- to be a bit more glossy than being able to just get online and find out anything anytime, I know it's not actually so.  It just feels so.  And it'll feel so in exactly the same way to Internet users whenever whatever the next thing is comes along.  They'll look back on their web-surfing days and sigh a little bit and say, "It ain't like it used to be."

 

They'll be right AND they'll be wrong.

 

Very true and well said. I'm completely aware that the fond memories I have are very personal and have nothing to do with whether things were or weren't better 25 years ago...

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I'm sure there was a bit of a "treasure hunt" aspect to fact-finding back then that you really don't have to nearly the same extent every more.

 

The only ways to sort of experience it are through games, really, and in fact I have just been inspired to try out the Wikipedia click game I heard about a while back. 

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Before the Internet, I used to ask the clerk at the record store which CD's from John Williams are in stock or are available on order.... I found out about the Spielberg Williams Collaboration CD, so I knew about Raiders, Jaws, E.T. etc.

 

I had no idea just how many movies JW had scored, though. By the time, I really got into it, the Internet was just getting off the ground.

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I started buying soundtracks in 1990, but I had been aware of - and loved - his more famous scores up till that time. My first guitar teacher arranged the Star Wars Theme into a duet that we performed when I was about ten. He also arranged the Jaws Theme - I didn't play it, but he played it for me and I recall liking the parts beyond the two-note motive. I remember being captivated by Superman when I saw it in the theater at around the age of 6. I knew he wrote Olympic Fanfare and Theme. I caught a current affairs in the early 1980s that sadly featured a young boy dying of cancer. The segment focused on his love for John Williams. I think I learned from that that Williams had scored ET. I knew he had written The Raiders March and I remember being amazed by The Ark Theme. I also remember noticing the composer credits at the beginnings of films. So by the time I started buying soundtracks in 1990, I was already aware of names like Jerry Goldsmith, Bill Conti, James Horner, and Alan Silvestri. Actually, they were probably the only composers I was aware of at the time besides Williams, of course.

 

After my first purchases, I began exploring the soundtrack sections of CD shops. Besides soundtracks themselves, compilations provided a lot of information, in particular Erich Kunzel's recordings. And that became a cherished part of travelling, which I did a lot of in the mid-late 90s. I also began squinting at the fine print of movie posters. Every time I saw a movie, I would check out all the other posters. I recall I first learned Williams has scored Far and Away from its poster. I also explored a few books at Canberra's National Library. One I remember had a list of Williams' earlier works like Bachelor Flat, How to Steal A Million, etc. So that was it really, soundtrack sections of CD shops, movie posters, and the occasional book in a library. I didn't start using the internet until around 1996, around the time the first ET expansion was released which I remember reading about with much excitement.

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I used to look at movie posters or ads if I could see JW's name. I used to spend a lot of time in record stores flipping through the soundtrack section. That's how I found out he scored The Cowboys or The Reivers or Presumed Innocent

 

I also got as subscription to print FSM in the mid 90's before I used the Internet

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6 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Film posters and adverts, CD's that had just come out. The credits on a VHS casette box. It was actually quite hard to find things like a complete filmopgraphy back than. 

 

It really wasnt that long ago. But you had to find information by going through library books etc.

 

Add to that, trailers, radio shows, such as Star Sound (I remember JW being interviewed about MIDWAY), magazine articles (Films And Filming was a good one), televised concerts (Filmharmonic '76), and buying OSTs from specialised record stores (58 Dean St. Records; That's Entertainment).

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Good topic for us old folks! I do agree with those who said it was more like a 'hunt' for information back then, which is more exciting than the "Google It!" mentality these days. I often find that rude, to be honest -- you can't even ask a question about something, without being told to "Google it!". For me that's kinda akin to someone in the early 90s asking another about information that he knows the other guy possesses, yet the other guy just says "there's an encyclopedia over there on the shelf; look it up!".

 

Just a personal peeve.

 

To the topic at hand, I had two major sources to find out in the early 90s, when my film music interest took off. One was a computer database program that was used by the local (quite extensive) video store. Another film buff friend of mine got hold of the program, since he knew the store owner, and shared it with me (it was only a couple of diskettes). You could just type in, say, "John Williams" and get quite an impressive overview -- although not without error (it didn't separate between the guitarist and the composer, for example). I used this program extensively when I was exploring new composers like a madman.

 

Another source was what you've all mentioned -- film posters. But rarely actual film posters, but posters within the cinema 'now playing' section in the newspapers. I often had to squint to make out the fine print to see who the composer was.

 

Beyond that, I also found out by watching film credits onscreen or on VHS covers. Same as you all. By 1994/1995, several of my high school/upper secondary/college mates (whatever you call it in your country) had gotten internet at home, so I was able to visit them and search for more information. I think Asif's John Williams site was the first one I discovered, and shortly thereafter Jeff Eldridge's site. Then we eventually got internet ourselves. It was smooth sailing from there.

 

 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Thor said:

You could just type in, say, "John Williams" and get quite an impressive overview -- although not without error (it didn't separate between the guitarist and the composer, for example).

 

Not that it's gotten much better in this regard. If you Google JW, Google doesn't know the difference between conductor and guitarist either. :P

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Back in the days, while I was watching a movie, I always recognized the hand of John Williams. I would then wait until the end credits appeared to see if I was right, and voila, it was indeed John Williams. Today history is repeating itself with Alexandre Cre Desplat. Today when I watch a movie and I think "Hmmm, that sounds a bit like old school Williams. Could it be another score by Desplat?" Bam! It is Desplat! No Google necessary.

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I started listening to scores in 1997 so I always had the internet. Filmtracks.com was my primary resource back then. It had (and still has) filmographies of most composers.

 

I remember a time when rounded corners was considered cutting edge web design!

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I remember leafing through a movie magazine in the mid-nineties and finding out by chance that Nixon was being released the following week, and it was scored by JW!!! 

 

What a complete surprise that was. :D

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12 hours ago, Daniel Clamp said:

I looked at the "Music by..." credit in the opening or closing titles.

 

Any more of that, and I'll come round your house, tie you to a chair, and force you to listen to Men At Work records, on a loop, for three months!

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5 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

Back in the days, while I was watching a movie, I always recognized the hand of John Williams. I would then wait until the end credits appeared to see if I was right, and voila, it was indeed John Williams. Today history is repeating itself with Alexandre Cre Desplat. Today when I watch a movie and I think "Hmmm, that sounds a bit like old school Williams. Could it be another score by Desplat?" Bam! It is Desplat! No Google necessary.

 

Of course in the old days movies had a full set of opening credits too, and Williams was always credited a few minutes in. So your story is complete and utter bullshit.

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4 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

Of course in the old days movies had a full set of opening credits too, and Williams was always credited a few minutes in. So your story is complete and utter bullshit.

 

I disagree there... If you were like me growing up you caught many movies in progress on TV and didn't get to see the opening credits or sadly hear the opening titles... That's how I found many a Williams score back in the day as a kid... I got to know his sound and if I thought it was him I waited till the end credits and hoped it was him... Might have been fooled a few times but was always excited to see it was him at the end or if they cut off the end credits on tv or they were too small had to go to blockbuster or the music store to see if I could find out if it was him. 

 

So "bullshit" I think not.

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I wasn't a soundtrack aficionado until about 1995 or so, when the Internet was already in place at my school and I was obsessed with finding MIDI files of my favorite tracks so I could print out sheet music using Cakewalk and play along with the few CDs I owned. 

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I caught onto the internet fair late in the mid 90's. I was in college and I think I failed in a few courses because of it ;)  I'd spent discovering new John Williams related information early forms of Real Audio sound clips. And of course much before the internet there was STARLOG magazine, my only source to movies and which would often update on who's scoring and what not. Then came FSM in its early iterations as a pen pal club and then we were blessed with the internet. I would also visit the US Library and go through the NYT news paper tosee the film ads on the Sunday special and look for John Williams,

 

 

 

 

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15 hours ago, Stefancos said:

TV didnt excist when Alex was a kid. I call bullshit!

 

:lol: I doubt that records existed, when Alex was a kid!

 

To be fair, some films (TPA, TTI, SW, CE3K) placed JW's credit at the end of the film, but usually, his name was presented at the start of the film.

Not so with television.

For the other films, I doubt that even Alex could work-out that JW scored a film from, the credit "Orchestrations By Herbert Spencer".

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That's how I learned Williams used orchestrators, Richard. The End Credits!

 

Clearly people here never watched films on TV. It's not like going to the theatre to watch a movie that you have waited a long time for (even then I don't read all the names that appear). Watching film on TV in the old days was different. Indeed, sometimes you missed the opening credits or you still are doing something else when the movie already has started. It's only when I recognized the hand of Williams (or there was something I liked about a movie) that I truly wanted to know who the composer (or the director or cinematographer) was. 

 

 

Alex

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