Do you think no one asks for Williams anymore?

[publicist 4,643]

18 minutes ago, Thor said:

but when there's so much great film music being produced out there, in all imagineable styles and forms and genres and shapes -- if one bothers to look and explore -- I see no logical reason to dismiss it out of an attitude that there's "nothing interesting out there".

 

But there really isn't. As i said, there's too much uniform/unmusical stuff, i. e. too much watered down minimalism (it had its run but is really a tired device right now) and textural stuff that works great in the respective movies but does not interest me much, musically. If you care more about the actual music that matters more than you seem to process.

[Quintus 5,399]

11 minutes ago, Thor said:

It only feels sparse if one has a limited area of exploration, IMO.

 

Reasonable, and one can only hope it's true. I barely see anything outside of TV these days, but when I have watched the odd movie here and there, the music hasn't registered. 

[Thor 7,478]

23 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

But there really isn't. As i said, there's too much uniform/unmusical stuff, i. e. too much watered down minimalism (it had its run but is really a tired device right now) and textural stuff that works great in the respective movies but does not interest me much, musically. If you care more about the actual music that matters more than you seem to process.

 

I hear what you're saying, and I do agree that there's a large amount of the sound you're describing. "Watered-down minimalism" and "textural stuff" are the calling signs of the majority of Norwegian drama movies, for example. Yet in the scheme of things, it's only a small part of what's out there. I feel fairly confident that if you had access to the IFMCA list, and worked your way through it, discovering some of the gems that are there, your outlook on 'current state of affairs' wouldn't be so glum. What you're after EXISTS. One just has to look for it. It doesn't just fall in one's lap from the big Hollywood films or other "hot potato" movies (although excellence can be found there too).

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

The answer to this question is not so much about what directors want, if they wondered about it deep in their hearts, it's about the popular demand/trend for great film music. How many people care about orchestral music in film, How many average people do you see listening to that in their cars or during work or at hangouts? Film music doesn't need to be great anymore, just minimally affective.

 

Directors have figured this out and have been able to cut corners, essentially, while still affecting film music fans into loving their music..somehow. I never can grasp how people can love so much bad film music, personally. So, John Williams is not only amazingly talented, but lucky to have had some time windows to focus on quality.

 

 

[publicist 4,643]

30 minutes ago, Thor said:

What you're after EXISTS. One just has to look for it. It doesn't just fall in one's lap from the big Hollywood films or other "hot potato" movies (although excellence can be found there too).

 

I sometimes find that, i. e. in Wintory's recent 'The Rendezvous' and other stuff by him, and some of those i recommended here in the last Listened-thread (Spotify is a great enabler, btw) but it's rare that i watch a movie either on streaming services or in the cinema and don't yawn myself through it, musically speaking. 

3 minutes ago, Borodin said:

It's because not many people care about orchestral music in film.

 

No one ever has and no one needs to, people care about effective film music, this can be achieved by whatever means. It just would be nice if it had more MUSICAL qualities these days. That was one thing that worked better before the 2000's, because you hadn't that many sound effects.

[KK 3,307]

7 hours ago, publicist said:

As for my lacking loyalty to recent film music, the truth is i have moved away from it years before and with lots of interest in all kinds of genres i explore (often much more musically satisfying), i just don't see the obligation to debate with myself the merits of Emoji Movie or The Revenant etc. and so on. This stuff catches my imagination or not on first listening inspection and mostly it does not. Though i see that watching the movies changes perception for many of those i just have not that big interest (read=time) in movies.

 

This has been situation lately as well. Which is why I rarely bother checking out the latest Thors or Justice Leagues with little more than passing interest. There is just more interesting music out there (concert hall, alternative genres, etc) that requires less effort to find than digging through hundreds of film scores to find the occasional Greenwood or Wintory.