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Has JW changed your life?


Josh500

Has JW changed your life?  

50 members have voted

  1. 1. Has JW's music changed your life?

    • Hell, yes. I'm the person I am now because I listen to JW's music on a regular basis. Let me explain (see below).
      27
    • Yeah, I guess . . . JW changed the way I listen to music, anyway. Nothing more, nothing less. Let me explain (see below).
      9
    • No, I wouldn't say so. His music's good, fantastic even, but he hasn't changed me personally in any way. I'm sure I'd be the same person whether I listened to JW or not.
      14
    • The idea's ridiculous. No music, however good, can change your life.
      0


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Well, has it? What do you think? I would definitely answer with option no. 1. I know I wouldn't be the same person if I hadn't discovered JW when I was 12 or so.

How am I a different person? Well, of course I can only guess, but for one thing I'm now more artistic, I think, more concerned with details (not that I am fussy, I mean it in a good way). I started playing the piano when I was in my teens, and also started writing. His music inspires you to do creative stuff--because his music is all about art! Also, his music makes you feel STRONG EMOTIONS . . . whether it's fear or love or anger or awe. Listening to his music full-blast makes you wanna release those emotions--artistically, that is. And finally, I think his music inspires you to do great stuff yourself--you'd think, "When JW does what he loves so well--writing music, that is--I wanna do something that I love as well, and I'd be lucky if I had a fraction of the talent he has!"

:D

What do you think?

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No. Not really. I voted the third option. I do get bored with some orchestral film music at times and decide to listen to something completely different... It just depends on my mood whether I want to listen to .

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If you listen to JW in any way close, it can't but change you. When you become aware of John Williams, how he works, etc, you can't help but be effected by it, by who he is, how he is far above the norm, he is excellence personified.

Not everyone compares themself to others to gauge how they are themselves though. That's a personal decision. For any composer to compare themself to this man could be painful. In my opinion, he dwarfs everyone else, even classical composers like Bach and Mozart.

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I voted for the first one, though it did not necesarilly change me, but rather shaped me. Thanks to my interest in his music I became a fan of film music in general, which is really an important part of my Self (psychologically speaking).

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I answered yes ; JW definitely changed my perception of music and even art ; his music is inspring , comforting, interesting...

The man himself, bright and yet humble, is as it has been said a model for excellence.

This is an essential topic : can music change one's life ? Yes of course ! How many have been influenced by Mozart, the Beatles, Sinatra... (or more regrettably by less talented "artists") ? Why could'nt film scores change one's life likewise ?

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I voted for #3.

The only thing he's had an effect on is for me to have a very large CD collection and I really don't count that as a major life change because I'd be collecting something else if it wasn't film music.

Plus I'd probably have some film scores, even if I weren't a big movie music fan. I've always had an appreciation of music. Maybe I understand music a little more than I did but nothing to warrant a life altering inspiration.

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#2.

It as changed me in the fact that I'm exposed to more good music (art) and it has probably changed my musical knowledge. But it certainly hasn't changed me in a spiritual way.

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#3

Without being able to see an alternate reality, it's hard to say. But I probably would have got into film music with or without Williams (after all, he only composed one of the 3 scores that got me into scores). Discovering scores has definitely change my life, so go figure.

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Sigh...I voted for option 3, you bunch of illiterates!

Oh yeah, you already said that . . . I tend to skip your posts, sorry . . . old habit. :rolleyes:

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I don't know as though the music has changed me as a person, but it has certainly changed my life in external ways. I found this place in 2001, and have made several good "real-life" friends as a result. So those relationships, as well as just the daily interactions with all kinds of interesting people around here, are aspects of life I'm very thankful for, and are direct results of my interest in Williams' music.

Ray Barnsbury

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John Williams was probably the main factor in my decision to pursue a career in music composition and, subsequently, homelessness. Thanks a lot, John.

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You can't blame him for the failure of your life, you just can't!

How is pursuing a career in music composition because of Williams a failure in life?

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To avoid controversial discussion, the second part of option #4 has been removed.

I think the kind of music I listen to has affected me in a certain way, but I'm not sure if I can put that solely on JW or just film music in general.

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Option 2, for one reason: without a love for Williams music I never would have come here and become part of this great community, or gone to Houston to see some wonderful new friends in person, etc. So in that aspect it has changed my life.

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I'm not gonna vote on this one because I think Maestro Williams' influence on my life has been both bigger and less important than any of these options. He has certainly influenced my musical tastes immensely--in fact, he's almost solely responsible for the fact that I listen almost exclusively to orchestral music. He hasn't affected my work ethic that much, though I do have enormous respect for the man's diligence and intelligence and humility. His music itself has made a big difference in my life in the sense that I listen to it all the time and play it at the piano all the time and edit it on the computer and transcribe it and study it and all that jazz--but I don't think I'm a "better person" because of John Williams. I have very different tastes than I would have had, but that's about it.

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I listen to lots of orchestral music, I regularly visit the opera and local concert halls, I've been to London 3 times just to hear Goldsmith concerts, I'm singing in a choir... yup, it's #1. Which means he did what... (now that that part has been removed) supposed others could not.

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I didn't vote because none of the choices were exactly right.

Has film music changed my life? ABSOLUTELY!

Has John Williams by himself changed my life? Probably not.

Although he is my favorite composer, I would still like film music without him.

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  • 1 month later...

I was first introduced to JW in 2000 when I bought Sorcerer's Stone. It led me to purchase tons of other JW scores along with other composers. I give this some credit to my decision to major in music in college. Now I'm in my third year, now a fan of classical and film music. ROTFLMAO

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My first JW soundtrack was Phantom Menace OS. It opened me up into the world of music. Now, half my life is devoted to music, whether it's playing trombone or piano, or listening to it. It's also cheered me up in time I need to be.

I voted option 1.

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Yes. Before John Williams came into my life, I was loved and respected in my neighbourhood.

After John Williams they actually hate me because I listen to his music sooo loud... ROTFLMAO

Honestly, John Williams has PROFOUNDLY change the way I hear to music, and the way I react to music. I love all kind of classical music. But no other music can make me feel the emotions I feel when I hear John Williams. He's a pure genious of music, not only film music, but music in general.

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Yes, definitely. When I was watching Jurassic Park 13 years ago on the big screen, and the helicopter entered the Isla Nublar skies, John Williams entered my life. His music IS me. The marches, the action scherzos, the sadness, the coolness, the heroic music - his music expresses all the emotions I feel. I only have this same feeling with Prokofiev, and sometimes with Dvorak, Bernstein and Milhaud. But never as much as with JW.

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I voted for #3.

Loving his music get me in the filmmusic world, making me discovering other composers (while remaining by absolute favourite). He may have changed the way I listen to music, but not changed my life in a concrete way. Like some said, if it wasn't for him, I'd probably have started liking filmmusic thanks to some other one, but I don't know if that person would have such a great impact on me like JW.

After all, for at least 3 generations he scored those movies we loved when we were children and still loved over the years (Star Wars and Superman: The Movie for the "old" ones, the Indiana Jones trilogy for me and my generation, Harry Potter for the younger) so I can see how he and/or his music could have made a strong effect in many people's life.

John Williams is the musician I have more CDs than any other in m CD collection (over 30 CDs, with the second having less than 20 CDs) so he may have changed the way I buy and collect CDs, but then again like Mark Olivarez said, if he wouldn't for him I may have collected someone else's CD or other stuff.

So he didn't change my life but he was the one who got me in the filmmusic world, and if I love movie scores is because fo him!

Option 2, for one reason: without a love for Williams music I never would have come here and become part of this great community, or gone to Houston to see some wonderful new friends in person, etc. So in that aspect it has changed my life.

Oh well if you put it in this way, you're right as well. But there are so many boards in the world, and maybe if it wasn't for this board, you would have ended up in some other board.

It never happened before to me to call friend or being called friend from someone who lives so far, and I'll probably never meet. It's a beautiful thing, 'cause it makes you feel like there were no distances between us, and we could almost meet each other like real friends, even if only through a computer screen.

Damn, I can't express myself as I'd love to...I need to go in the U.S.A. more often! :D

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I can offer one to this one, that I dare anyone to beat!

Putting aside that John Williams is all around in my life, it was thanks to this passion that I met this guy a few years ago. In the begining we would talk about Williams and music. As time went by, we begun talking about life and all the matters of the soul and so on, and I think of him as my dearest and closest friend.

So, puting aside all the rest, all the passion I have for John Williams music, just for that, for allowing me to meet this kind and dear young gentleman, John Williams did changed my life... for the better.

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Option #1. I discovered John Williams through pure chance. My father's friend owns a CD shop and gives me promotional copies of CDs. My first were Spider-Man, Phantom Menace, and Attack Of The Clones. I still wasn't into scores for a few years. My brother was a Hans fan from the second he saw The Rock. Like a typical little brother I wanted to love film scores as well, but I couldn't have chosen Hans because it would be obvious I was copying. So I looked at what scores I had, only 3. Those 3 led me to John Williams and Danny Elfman. Then last year I answered a bulletin on Myspace by the creator of a John Williams fan page. I asked him if he could help me find a couple scores to add to my growing John Williams collection. He offered to send them to me, and that moment is what led me to me not being a Hans-only fan, to love John Williams and to gain all his scores, as well as to lead me to this site, where I gained hundreds more scores, and made great friends I talk to every day. John Williams has certainly changed my life.

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Yes, absolutely. His music made me want to be a composer for films. So I would say he had a huge influence on my professional life - as well as my personal, since he gives me a lot of great music to listen to.

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Yes, absolutely. His music made me want to be a composer for films. So I would say he had a huge influence on my professional life - as well as my personal, since he gives me a lot of great music to listen to.

Your music sounds amazing.

(there was also some Sibelius in that "star wars style" piece , in the end of the chorale part)

To the topic:

My wife left me because of my fanboyism and also my kids hate me. I got fired from my orchestra , I would liked

to play only Williams' music. Then I started to drink , heavily.

So , I voted : No , not really.

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