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Alf Clausen fired from The Simpsons


Alex

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On 31/08/2017 at 0:17 AM, crumbs said:

The show makes Fox a fortune, unfortunately. Despite being rubbish for 20 years!

 

This is clearly a cost cutting exercise. They'll ditch the orchestra and bring in a cheap synth composer (probably one of Zimmer's el' cheapo mass-produced music houses).

 

Looks like you were right!

 

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Almost wish I was wrong. How disappointing for Clausen, replaced by a mass-produced sample library.

 

Fox make a fortune but they'll keep cutting around the edges until the show is a hollow shell of its former glory ... oh wait, that already happened!

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8 hours ago, Baby Jane Hudson said:

Why is hiring ten composers cheaper than hiring one?

 

Because presumably they're paying one or a few at a time, not all of them for each episode, and they're not going to command anywhere near the same figures as the guy who has been doing the show since essentially the beginning. 

 

7 hours ago, crumbs said:

'Composers' is being generous.

 

No it isn't.  

 

You may not like that Fox has done this, or that these guys and others like them are increasingly prolific, and you may not like their music, but these are real composers, people who make music, and more importantly, real people with real lives and families who are trying to make a living by doing something they love.  

 

The stupid faceless internet hate that gets tossed around sometimes is fucking reprehensible, not necessarily you specifically, but it doesn't help. 

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8 hours ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

You may not like that Fox has done this, or that these guys and others like them are increasingly prolific, and you may not like their music, but these are real composers, people who make music, and more importantly, real people with real lives and families who are trying to make a living by doing something they love.  

 

The stupid faceless internet hate that gets tossed around sometimes is fucking reprehensible, not necessarily you specifically, but it doesn't help. 

 

Doesn't help against what?

 

They make music, but is it music that has any quality other then what its written for? 

 

Film music blows now and its in part because of these countless unknowns who crop up everywhere, doing at best mediocre work for a small amount of money. Containing little or no individual quality.

 

You may love this, partly because it must be hopeful to see people of your sorta skill level "making" it. But what good is it doing in the end artistically?

 

Fuck the uninspired vermin! They're the music equivalent of the cheap Polish worker putting the skilled labourer out of business.

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I like it when Zimmer does his thing because he does at least put thought into it, and I really dig Djawadi's scores. But I'm disturbed by the trend to just manufacture background music by committee so it automatically fits the desired corporate formula. But maybe that's exactly what modern Simpsons deserves?

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22 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

Doesn't help against what?

 

They make music, but is it music that has any quality other then what its written for? 

 

Film music blows now and its in part because of these countless unknowns who crop up everywhere, doing at best mediocre work for a small amount of money. Containing little or no individual quality.

 

You may love this, partly because it must be hopeful to see people of your sorta skill level "making" it. But what good is it doing in the end artistically?

 

Fuck the uninspired vermin! They're the music equivalent of the cheap Polish worker putting the skilled labourer out of business.

 

Composing probably isn’t the career you should be going into if you want to support a family. 

 

This is is the future of film music. If people are happy that this is the way it’s heading, cool. 

 

But people shouldn’t be surprised when people dismay at the state and death of the genre.

 

People shouldn’t be assholes to these composers online though. 

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Same with media and journalism. It's all dying and I wouldn't dream of supporting a family on a salary that a media career pays unless you're an industry celeb.

 

So many of these women I date also want kids and I cannot and will not give them that!

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27 minutes ago, Baby Jane Hudson said:

Same with media and journalism. It's all dying and I wouldn't dream of supporting a family on a salary that a media career pays unless you're an industry celeb.

 

So many of these women I date also want kids and I cannot and will not give them that!

 

So you always use a rubber?

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4 hours ago, Stefancos said:

 

They make music, but is it music that has any quality other then what its written for? 

 

Well let's be honest, what did Alf Clausen's transitional ditties and gag arrangements have going for them beyond their function?  We're talking about The Simpsons here, a show which, even before turning to trash, wasn't scoring heaven.  Are we clamoring for complete releases of every season?  Nah.  The show always could have, and now definitely can, get along just fine with functional music. 

 

The outrage over what happened with Clausen is about principles - and rightly so - not some massive loss of quality. 

 

4 hours ago, Stefancos said:

 

Film music blows now and its in part because of these countless unknowns who crop up everywhere, doing at best mediocre work for a small amount of money. Containing little or no individual quality.

 

This has always been the case. Film music is more than the handful of scores we remember from each year. But with the huge, and unnecessary, amount of production now happening, it's just more noticable.  The great outliers seem more like, well, outliers. 

 

Whether or not current great composers tickle your fancy is the result of nothing but your own taste. 

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What great composers? Name any?

 

It has nothing to do with taste, it has to do with standards. I grew up being used to better than what we're getting nowadays. And I have a problem with lowering my standards just because its film music.

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No, Stefan, it wasn't a constructive answer, but the point still stands that why should one base the quality of film scores today on your standards of what that should be? 

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3 minutes ago, Arpy said:

Lower your standards? If you don't like the music, you don't like it. I'm not asking anything of you.

 

Then what is your point?

I'm not getting what I want from the vast majority of film music today. I'm allowed to express my opinion about it. That's what I'm doing here.

 

2 minutes ago, Baby Jane Hudson said:

None of us are really Mensa material anyway. We should just embrace our MV/RC future and enjoy it, even if it means pretending to.

 

Why is Dame Maggie Smith in your avatar?

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20 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

That's an intelligent and constructive answer.

 

I couldnt give a damn about Alf Clausen's music for the Simpsons, btw. But I'm 99% sure that a scoring factory will not do anything more creatively satisfying for it.

 

Who said they would?

 

1 hour ago, Stefancos said:

What great composers? Name any?

 

It has nothing to do with taste, it has to do with standards. I grew up being used to better than what we're getting nowadays. And I have a problem with lowering my standards just because its film music.

 

And who said to lower your standards because it's film music?

 

Currently working great film composers:

 

John Williams

Thomas Newman

Hans Zimmer

Alexandre Desplat

John Powell

James Newton Howard

Johann Johansson

Austin Wintory

 

All of them have written great scores and duds in the last five years.  That's pretty much average.  At any given time there are such a handful of exceptional composers, putting out exceptional stuff a few times every few years.  

 

And yes, it's taste, not standards, because if I put my coldly analytical musical specs on, there's no decrease in objective compositional quality in the highlights.  The language has just changed. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

There won't be any great composers like Williams, Goldsmith, Herrmann in near future, because they don't get the chance to show their talent.

On 2.10.2017 at 6:32 AM, TheGreyPilgrim said:

John Williams

Thomas Newman

Hans Zimmer

Alexandre Desplat

John Powell

James Newton Howard

Johann Johansson

Austin Wintory

Apart from Williams (and Zimmer and Johansson who obviously don't do really orchestral music) I do not consider any of them composers of standalone music (although there are exceptions).

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What are you talking about?  Why the "puzzled reaction" to my post?  We were saying nothing about standalone music.  What does that have to do with anything?

 

Why does it matter that someone doesn't do orchestral music specifically?  And how is it that HZ and JJ don't, according to you, despite the reams of music they've written that involves an orchestra?

 

And to say that there will never be any more great composers, for whatever reason... that is just the type of fallacy that I don't have the energy to deal with on this forum anymore.

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4 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

There won't be any great composers like Williams, Goldsmith, Herrmann in near future, because they don't get the chance to show their talent.

Apart from Williams (and Zimmer and Johansson who obviously don't do really orchestral music) I do not consider any of them composers of standalone music (although there are exceptions).

I mean you can consider them anyway you want, but “not standalone composers” is demonstrably false. Both Johansson and Zimmer have written music away from film. And film music is inherently not standalone music. So... not sure what your point is. 

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Most of these guys (e. g. Alexandre Desplat, John Powell, James Newton Howard) have done lots of stuff beyond movie music. But since we're so far from the impossibly high standards of ID4, Titanic and Waterworld, why bother?

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He's new here, right? Still believes that "proper" film music can only sound like 80s John Williams.

 

If he sticks around long enough, I'm sure he'll learn.

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11 hours ago, publicist said:

#forever stuck in the musical aesthetics of the 80's/90's

Yes, and therefore based on another guy's style, but that is not where their talent lies. Just give 'em time and freedom like you give it John Williams.

 

13 hours ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

Why does it matter that someone doesn't do orchestral music specifically?  And how is it that HZ and JJ don't, according to you, despite the reams of music they've written that involves an orchestra?

When people want to interprete a comment as hostile, they simply do.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/17/2017 at 11:17 PM, Koray Savas said:

I mean you can consider them anyway you want, but “not standalone composers” is demonstrably false. Both Johansson and Zimmer have written music away from film. And film music is inherently not standalone music. So... not sure what your point is. 

 

That and the fact saying Zimmer doesn't do orchestrated music is just...false. 

 

 

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  • 1 year later...

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