bored

With the gutter trash that directors want today, yeah no.
 
I think once Williams, JNH, Elfman and Silvestri croak, you might as well write off traditional film scoring.

Possible yes.  Likely no

Is it possible in this environment?
 
All time.
Better than everything. Is it possible to write a score challenging for this title?
 
PS: „Everybody likes different things“ argument is bullshit and doesn’t count. People not into Star Wars still acknowledge the mastery of the music.
 
Discuss. Yell at each other. Fight. Let there be blood.

I don't get the love for Finding Nemo. The whole movie has a 10 mins plotline fluffed up by endless comedy routines.

This poll has helped me to better understand the three demographics of film score listeners that make up JW Fan, and for that I am truly thankful. Observe: 
 

Up, for sheer quality and emotional resonance, Shape of Water for interesting, French experimental weirdness. The rest I either haven't listened to or can go suck on a donkey stick. 

Sad testament of Hollywood. 

Holy shit.
 
You think???

Well, decided to listen to this score after looking through this topic and seeing many here give praise to it. Jon Batiste should have done the whole score, without a doubt. I'm sure he could have made some heartwarming orchestral / jazz pieces that would have worked brilliantly. I'm in agreement with @TheUlyssesian that Thomas Newman has danced circles around the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score before it was even written (if you can call loading in a bunch of Logic instruments and playing basic harmonies and looping melodies written). 
 
"Pursuit/Terry's World" is the only Reznor/Ross cue worth a damn. Where it mixes the Jazz style, and beautifully/seamlessly mixes it into a similar sounding synth piece. The rest is the same simplistic, pleasant, ambient piano and synth that people like Hans Zimmer or RCP composers in general, Thomas Newman, and various video game composers have done again, and again, and again, often doing it better.
 
It's not impressive, it's not revolutionary, it's not interesting to listen to, it's not special, it's typical. It's the new generic. The fact that these type of scores that work fine in the film get awards as often as they do, is a testament to how low people's standards for music have gotten. This is a score I and many other amateur composers could have written within a month at most, if I spent a day on each cue. 
 
"Well it worked really well in the film." Sometimes silence works really well in films. Doesn't mean we should praise the music for not existing. A more melodic score for this movie probably would have worked as well, would have had more effort and skill put into it, and would've been a more rich listening experience in film and outside of the film. These 2 composers were chosen because they're associated with a lot of really good movies, and many audiences, critics, and directors follow a very simplistic logic for film music. If the movie sucks, the music sucks because it emphasized crap writing. If the movie is great, then the music was great and fit the film perfectly. 

I randomly bumped into him once at Nordstrom store a few blocks from where I live.  He was literally looking through a rack of flannel shirts.  It was so surreal and out of context I couldn't connect the dots till later!

Well, decided to listen to this score after looking through this topic and seeing many here give praise to it. Jon Batiste should have done the whole score, without a doubt. I'm sure he could have made some heartwarming orchestral / jazz pieces that would have worked brilliantly. I'm in agreement with @TheUlyssesian that Thomas Newman has danced circles around the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score before it was even written (if you can call loading in a bunch of Logic instruments and playing basic harmonies and looping melodies written). 
 
"Pursuit/Terry's World" is the only Reznor/Ross cue worth a damn. Where it mixes the Jazz style, and beautifully/seamlessly mixes it into a similar sounding synth piece. The rest is the same simplistic, pleasant, ambient piano and synth that people like Hans Zimmer or RCP composers in general, Thomas Newman, and various video game composers have done again, and again, and again, often doing it better.
 
It's not impressive, it's not revolutionary, it's not interesting to listen to, it's not special, it's typical. It's the new generic. The fact that these type of scores that work fine in the film get awards as often as they do, is a testament to how low people's standards for music have gotten. This is a score I and many other amateur composers could have written within a month at most, if I spent a day on each cue. 
 
"Well it worked really well in the film." Sometimes silence works really well in films. Doesn't mean we should praise the music for not existing. A more melodic score for this movie probably would have worked as well, would have had more effort and skill put into it, and would've been a more rich listening experience in film and outside of the film. These 2 composers were chosen because they're associated with a lot of really good movies, and many audiences, critics, and directors follow a very simplistic logic for film music. If the movie sucks, the music sucks because it emphasized crap writing. If the movie is great, then the music was great and fit the film perfectly. 

Some FYI for those interested.
 
Since I have all the Godzilla scores in my collection, I went ahead and purchased GvsK.
 
I had bought KOTM at FYE and it was a regular CD. So I tried my luck again and ordered GvsK from them. I can't tell if this is a CD-R, but I'm thinking it is. The coloring is off just a hair.
 
There is no orchestra credit at all on the CD. There's an "Additional Music By" credit and an orchestration credit. It appears to be all Synth and done at his studio. 

Given what has constituted as popular EDM these past couple of years, I unfortunately can't discredit this particular idea. Especially given Junkie was a bit of a known name in the electronic scene in his earlier days. Plus, those two remixes he did (the Elvis Presley song and the Buble Spider-Man theme cover) certainly put him in the spotlight.
 
I always wondered if the reason RCP has made their brand of scoring particularly popular is because they've made it in a way to where it's considerably more accessible to the average consumer. With how simpler the music constructions are, as well as emphasizing the poppier aspects of sound, it's like they cracked the code to making the regular joe pay regular attention instead of every once and a blue moon.
 
I do feel electronic music is its own art that very much functions on different parameters than regular music does. It kind of mirrors film scores in that sense, in that you have to dig around to find the real gems instead of sticking with whatever the popular offerings tend to be. And in the case of Holkenborg, he definitely fits the "flavor of the week" bill, alright.

Why do mainstreamers go gaga over this Junkie bloke, but they remain ho-hum by actual composers?

The first video with JNH's Kong theme makes me realize the huge difference there is between Junkie XL's score and what could have been done with a better composer (McCreary for example)
 
I'm not saying I don't like him, but his score for this movie was forgettable and didn't have any strong thematic ideas to support the action and the emotional scenes as well as it could have.
 
And why did he decided Ifukube's themes were too old fashioned but then went ahead and composed a theme that it's almost exactly like it, but with a few notes changed? McCreary's arrangement of the classic themes was done in such a way that they were fitting for the movie, even if its a "modern" movie.

Well, after hearing the score in the movie, it's not good, and I don't blame anyone for skipping through it. It's just Man of Steel and BvS again. Loud, pounding drums, simplistic action writing, dull motifs classified as themes, and occasional emotional cues that are written well enough, but sound like they could come from any movie. 
 
I will say that I hated the Superman theme in Man of Steel, but in the Snyder Cut of JL, I did find it to be surprisingly touching at times, and somewhat epic when he saves Cyclops. Part of that was the fact that it was actually used in different ways and different key signatures, whereas I can't remember a single time in Man of Steel where the theme had any power and I wasn't just rolling my eyes at how derivative and dull it was. 
 
Of course this is all rendered moot by the awful Wonder Woman wailing which undercuts many scenes that could have been epic or emotional. 

No I get what both of you is saying. Once again, you can easily do this with orchestra and jazz, or a Thomas Newman-like approach. Composers have found many ways of conveying different worlds and moods through many different instruments. I like electronic music. I don't just like one musical idiom. I even said I thought "Pursuit/Terry's World" was very well done. The issue is the electronics never get to that level of sophistication in the writing ever again. 
 
I think the issue is, electronic music is relatively recent, so we think the most basic progressions and sound design are more impressive than they really are. I firmly believe any amateur composer could have cranked the R&R part of this score out in a month at most. I know what my ears hear, and what they hear is barren, simplistic music.
 
You want to say the barren, forgettable music is the point and made for artistic reasons? Fine, I get that, that makes sense. To praise this score however as anything but serviceable to the movie? I can never agree. 
 
Newman isn't a specialist? There are plenty of Newman ambient tracks that sound almost identical to this style.

One more time.
People who vote for these awards are not score fans or music scholars. They are filmgoers.
The scores that tend to win are the ones that STAND OUT. In other words music that moved people while watching the film.
Scores that may sound " unmusical or " simple" often are the ones that get the viewers attention.
Scores like GRAVITY and JOKER command the listeners attention while more sophisticated/and or subtle scores might not be noticed.
 
 

Well, decided to listen to this score after looking through this topic and seeing many here give praise to it. Jon Batiste should have done the whole score, without a doubt. I'm sure he could have made some heartwarming orchestral / jazz pieces that would have worked brilliantly. I'm in agreement with @TheUlyssesian that Thomas Newman has danced circles around the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score before it was even written (if you can call loading in a bunch of Logic instruments and playing basic harmonies and looping melodies written). 
 
"Pursuit/Terry's World" is the only Reznor/Ross cue worth a damn. Where it mixes the Jazz style, and beautifully/seamlessly mixes it into a similar sounding synth piece. The rest is the same simplistic, pleasant, ambient piano and synth that people like Hans Zimmer or RCP composers in general, Thomas Newman, and various video game composers have done again, and again, and again, often doing it better.
 
It's not impressive, it's not revolutionary, it's not interesting to listen to, it's not special, it's typical. It's the new generic. The fact that these type of scores that work fine in the film get awards as often as they do, is a testament to how low people's standards for music have gotten. This is a score I and many other amateur composers could have written within a month at most, if I spent a day on each cue. 
 
"Well it worked really well in the film." Sometimes silence works really well in films. Doesn't mean we should praise the music for not existing. A more melodic score for this movie probably would have worked as well, would have had more effort and skill put into it, and would've been a more rich listening experience in film and outside of the film. These 2 composers were chosen because they're associated with a lot of really good movies, and many audiences, critics, and directors follow a very simplistic logic for film music. If the movie sucks, the music sucks because it emphasized crap writing. If the movie is great, then the music was great and fit the film perfectly. 

Well, decided to listen to this score after looking through this topic and seeing many here give praise to it. Jon Batiste should have done the whole score, without a doubt. I'm sure he could have made some heartwarming orchestral / jazz pieces that would have worked brilliantly. I'm in agreement with @TheUlyssesian that Thomas Newman has danced circles around the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score before it was even written (if you can call loading in a bunch of Logic instruments and playing basic harmonies and looping melodies written). 
 
"Pursuit/Terry's World" is the only Reznor/Ross cue worth a damn. Where it mixes the Jazz style, and beautifully/seamlessly mixes it into a similar sounding synth piece. The rest is the same simplistic, pleasant, ambient piano and synth that people like Hans Zimmer or RCP composers in general, Thomas Newman, and various video game composers have done again, and again, and again, often doing it better.
 
It's not impressive, it's not revolutionary, it's not interesting to listen to, it's not special, it's typical. It's the new generic. The fact that these type of scores that work fine in the film get awards as often as they do, is a testament to how low people's standards for music have gotten. This is a score I and many other amateur composers could have written within a month at most, if I spent a day on each cue. 
 
"Well it worked really well in the film." Sometimes silence works really well in films. Doesn't mean we should praise the music for not existing. A more melodic score for this movie probably would have worked as well, would have had more effort and skill put into it, and would've been a more rich listening experience in film and outside of the film. These 2 composers were chosen because they're associated with a lot of really good movies, and many audiences, critics, and directors follow a very simplistic logic for film music. If the movie sucks, the music sucks because it emphasized crap writing. If the movie is great, then the music was great and fit the film perfectly. 

Well, after hearing the score in the movie, it's not good, and I don't blame anyone for skipping through it. It's just Man of Steel and BvS again. Loud, pounding drums, simplistic action writing, dull motifs classified as themes, and occasional emotional cues that are written well enough, but sound like they could come from any movie. 
 
I will say that I hated the Superman theme in Man of Steel, but in the Snyder Cut of JL, I did find it to be surprisingly touching at times, and somewhat epic when he saves Cyclops. Part of that was the fact that it was actually used in different ways and different key signatures, whereas I can't remember a single time in Man of Steel where the theme had any power and I wasn't just rolling my eyes at how derivative and dull it was. 
 
Of course this is all rendered moot by the awful Wonder Woman wailing which undercuts many scenes that could have been epic or emotional. 

Frisbees like this one is why the soundtrack genre is dying. 
There's no reason why you would pay any double digit price for a disc pressed full of irrelevant ambiance. 
 
I don't believe for a second that any of these people who voted for this listened to even one minute consciously. 
 

I did an experiment. 
Of 48 score cues, all of them except maybe 10 or 12 start with long, brooding, drawn out pads or other sounds. 
 
How do you listen to this without contracting narcolepsy? 
I've never skipped through an album this fast. 
If you don't grab my attention within 20 seconds, done. Next track. 

I just want to be an extra in the way distant background. My head just pops up in the back of the frame every now and then.

I just want to be an extra in the way distant background. My head just pops up in the back of the frame every now and then.