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There must have been this moment where you heard some music or watched a film and said: "I've got to listen to this again". A genetical error? Possibly. But it certainly changed the courses of our lives... Well, sort of. :wave:

So when was it?

For me it was somewhere around 1991-1992, when I first heard music in Batman Returns, Hook and Jurassic Park. I just had to watch these movies again. At first I didn't quite know why, but then I started to hum the music and then I learned these kind of things get soundtrack releases.

And here I am today, keeping my schedule clear to order new "limited" editions and refreshing web pages like mad. ;)

Karol

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Star Wars (and its sequels) did it for me. I started realizing how many other awesome scores had also been done by this same John Williams guy, and then I started realizing that there were others, too, and then I started learning more about the craft and it all just fell into place.

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I can't say when the idea was first planted (maybe Jurassic Park, not sure), but it was Fellowship of the Ring where I came out of the cinema humming things. Both the film and score absolutely overwhelmed me.

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I first wondered what classical music that was in the climax of Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings. I didn't yet know of the concept of original film music.

Later I taped the end credits of Gremlins 2 from the VHS. Still didn't think about where that music originally came from.

I had tears in my eyes during the first dinosaur scene in Jurassic Park, but it never entered my mind that the music may have something to do with it.

Then I heard Gerhardt's Star Wars CD.

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My older cousin bought me a copy of the RCA Empire Strikes Back album for my birthday in 1997, I was about 10. I steadily accumulated some other albums through the years, like Prince of Egypt, Mask of Zorro, the prequels, etc. Finally in 2005 after Revenge of the Sith came along I really started to get into Williams, and other composers by extension over the years since.

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After reintroducing myself to SW for the first time in years when I was twelve, I went to a weekly flea market that I knew sold SW toys, and they had a copy of the ESB single LP. I bought that, bought a record player to play it on, and instantly fell in love. From then it was buying cassettes and taping music off the TV (held a cheap tape player up to the speaker) until I properly acquainted myself with CDs and the soundtrack world.

Magic, it was.

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Interesting topic. I had meant to start something similar.

I had always listened to Star Wars and E.T. growing up. That and the Beatles were all my dad ever listened to, but I never really got into it.

I remember going into War of the Worlds and seeing a giant poster they had, and for some reason, there was a giant "MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS" credit next to the "DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG" credit at the top. Finding this strange, I paid special notice to the music in the film and fell in love with it. I remember watching the ferry scene and just getting goosebumps hearing the wordless choir and knew that I had to get the soundtrack.

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The soundtrack to Star Wars got me really going and I suppose King Kong (1933) and Gojira started it all when it comes to films.

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My mum has an audio cassette recording of me aged 8 humming The Raiders March. I also remember loving Superman's opening credits even more than the movie itself - I was utterly transfixed by the imagery and the music.

It wasn't until 1993 that had my moment of clarity.

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My brother was into it before I ever was, and it rubbed off on me eventually. Jurassic Park probably planted the seed, it's the earliest film I remember seeing in theaters. One of my earliest memories, period. I was around 3 years old. The Rock is what did it for my brother musically, even though he was very fond of Fantasia when he was little. He collected soundtracks while I just liked the movies.

Then in 2002 I got into the whole expanding my tastes and collecting when I got copies of Signs, Spider-Man (the soundtrack, not the score release), and The Phantom Menace and Attack Of The Clones as a gift. JNH, Elfman, and Williams were my top 3 composers for a long time, and even though my love for Elfman has dwindled quite a bit, I still feel obligated to buy his scores.

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Yep, another one for ....

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I was only 3 years old in '77 and I can't even begin to explain how much of an impact this movie made on me.

The burning homestead is an image and a musical moment in time that I'll never forget.

I'm pretty sure I didn't really understand the idea and concept of movie music back then but I'm so grateful that my mum used some initiative and bought me the soundtrack.

That music has lived with me ever since and it still sounds as fresh today .....even better actually :)

Well, I've actually just watched a crazy fan-edit called 'Addicted To Star Wars'.

All 6 movies play simultaneously :o

addictedtostarwars.jpg

:lol:

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I guess my parents helped me along by buying 8-Tracks of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. Once Superman rolled around, I began to notice the name of Williams and realize that he was the same guy who did Star Wars.

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I guess my parents helped me along by buying 8-Tracks of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica.

That's cool man, I never had any 8-Tracks :o

However, when I got this baby -

swa0.jpgswb012.jpg

It was the next best thing than going to the cinema :lol:

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I remember the day my Dad let me pick one thing from the mall visit, and that record was the one. Coming home and finding out it wasn't the original voices was shocking, but I soon realized it had its own really cool vibe working. Great little record.

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For most of our generation (I was a year ahead of steb--guess I still am, at that), it was Star Wars. That one changed it all, for all of us.

There must have been this moment where you heard some music or watched a film and said: "I've got to listen to this again". A genetical error? Possibly.

Why a genetic "error?" I don't know that I'd go along with that assessment, although I think you may be onto something when it comes to the chromosomes. Or maybe it's just a certain type of psyche. Whatever.

I just think there are some of us who, when we call to mind those movies we remember with fondness, always associate the music with it. Before I knew about OST's, I could often be heard whistling my favorite movie tunes--Close Encounters, Superman, all the greats. T.V. ones, too. When we played Battlestar Galactica out on the playground (sticking our arms out wide, at a slightly lowered angle, to represent the wings of our Colonial Vipers), I was constantly replaying the Stu Phillips theme in my head. And when we re-enacted Star Wars on our elementary school playground equipment--which, I'd like to say, was an old wood-and-tire setup that was the PERFECT recreation of the Death Star set--I wasn't the only one to be heard belting out the "DA-DAHH, DUH . . . DA-DAHH, DUH . . . DA-DAHH, DUN-DA-DA-DUN-DUN!" while firing my "blaster" at the phantom stormtroopers.

I guess we're just a unique breed. And I wouldn't change that for all the money in the world.

- Uni

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Here is a cool site for more: Read Along Adventures

Haha, I only put the youtube links to avoid telling you ......I've downloaded all the SW stuff from there! :lol:

I never had the 'Empire' read along as a kid though, so I was actually very happy to be able to finally check it out!

Good one man, cheers :o

I guess we're just a unique breed. And I wouldn't change that for all the money in the world.

Absolutely man, it was most certainly .....a more civilized age :)

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Just like pretty much everyone else here, it was Star Wars for me. It's one of those movies that I can't remember a time when I hadn't seen it, but I do specifically remember the afternoon when it actually dawned on me that there was fantastic music playing throughout the whole thing.

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Now this is the classic question asked at least once every year on the messageboard. :lol:

I am of the Jurassic Parkgeneration and that started it all for me. I saw it when I was 12 and Journey to the Island opened my eyes and ears to this wonderful music. I had listened to some classical (meaning orchestral) music before and liked it very much but this was something entirely different. There was a certain kind of majesty and awe in the music that must have been the key element that fired up my brain like nothing else. Of course I did not know then that soundtrack albums could be bought at record stores so I was left for a time with the initial thought in my brain: Film music is wonderful and I should look into this more. And thus I began to note pieces of music in films that sounded interesting, amoung them Batman. I used to rewind the video tape to hear the main titles over and over again, same with Jurassic Park later of course trying to record the end credits from TV.

When my cousin bought some JP film deluxe set with all kinds of dinosaur memorablia, among the goodies was the soundtrack album. He and I listened and relistened to that to bits and I had him copy the soundtrack on cassette for me and I played it literally to death. He also copied for me a sci-fi compilation with Battle Star Galactica, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back etc. and for a time I hailed Imperial March the greatest music ever written. And then when I looked at all the films whose scores I adored, they all came from the same man, John Williams.

I am sure I used to irritate other students at school as I was allowed to play JWs music in class. They thought it was funny stuff, especially when "they play the same stuff again and again, it's stupid" (meaning the use of a theme). :o

For me the restating of themes was the most natural idea in the world. It all made sense. To them it obviously didn't.

I remember around that time listening to the Brave Heart soundtrack album which was not one of my favourites in those days but I guess that did not have the melodic appeal of the JWs greatest music I had stumbled upon.

I bawled my eyes out when I saw Schindler's List mostly because of the music, I realized, and Williams' name popped up again in the end credits. I thought this man was just awesome and apparently there was nothing he could not do in music.

And soon after I got my first CD player (I was 14, so it came a bit late when compared to the modern preteens with mega hi-fi systems and iPods) I got my first CDs as well, the Lost World and Schindler's List soundtracks, for Christmas. Not a bad start. Then the SW scores followed, first I borrowed them from the library and then bought Empire Strikes Back Collector's Edition because of my love for the Imperial March. And everything else in my strange hobby has followed from that.

I think the music as a hobby has widened my horizons considerably, inspired me to read on things and study things I otherwise would not have, instilled a wider interest in films and music and culture in general. It is difficult to asses how much it has steered my life to a certain direction but I am really happy I noticed film music when I did. It is difficult to even imagine my life without music, film music in particular.

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Pretty much TESB

But I was already very much aware of JW through Star Wars and Superman and Ce3K (my aunt gave me a Star Wars re-recording album around 1978) but my fandom was crystallized with TESB

I got into Jerry Goldsmith at the time also (to a lesser extent) because of Star Trek The Motion Picture

Star Trek 2 and Cocoon made me a Horner fan

Moonraker and The Black Hole made me a Barry fan

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Moonraker and The Black Hole made me a Barry fan

Yeah, The Black Hole is without doubt my favourite Barry score and is screaming out for a complete release!

For a kids sci-fi fantasy film, the music combined with the imagery gives it a wonderful gothic flavour.

Until TESB came along, that and SW were my most played albums, they probably still are.

What was also wonderful about back then was that there weren't 30 score releases a month, so almost every bar of music from those albums was devoured and absorbed.

Great stuff ;)

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Nice imagery there, Steb. Agreed.

Cheers man ;)

Although, around the same time as being inspired by SW, etc, I was lucky enough to be exposed to all the great Universal and Hammer/Amicus movies and the wonderful music in them.

I know you're no stranger to these ;)

35267651.jpgtwmr.jpg

ttbod.jpgthtdb.jpg

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It was actually not watching films that made me want to go out and seek my first soundtrack.

It was listening to prog rock and instrumental electronic music, and suspecting that soundtracks would provide a similar "concept album" feel. I can't for the sake of me remember what THE first soundtrack CD was, but it may have been Williams' FILM WORKS compilation. Well, no, it may actually have been a cassette copy of the TWIN PEAKS soundtrack around 1990, but that's a whole other story. Or a cassette copy of JURASSIC PARK, ca. 1993. Or a CD of THE COMMITMENTS, ca. 1992. Damn, I'm bad at remembering this stuff.

Suffice to say that I was interested in film from a very early age, and my interest in music as a filmic tool actually predates my interest in soundtracks, which is a whole other thing.

So - as you can gather - complex story.

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My first soundtrack cassettes were Elfman's Batman and his first compilation album, both of which I got for my eighth birthday. I'm guessing it was Batman that did it for me. I probably fell out of the soundtrack game for a couple of years, then got back into it when I got my first CD player. The Star Wars Special Edition scores got me back in, and I've been going strong ever since.

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Nice imagery there, Steb. Agreed.

Cheers man ;)

Although, around the same time as being inspired by SW, etc, I was lucky enough to be exposed to all the great Universal and Hammer/Amicus movies and the wonderful music in them.

I know you're no stranger to these ;)

35267651.jpgtwmr.jpg

ttbod.jpgthtdb.jpg

Oh man. My Dad used to bring home the old Super 8mm reels of film exerpts from all the old Universal horrors. We'd watch 'em in the basement by projecting them on a bed sheet hung from the ceiling. That was 1970s home theater! :) Yeah, that was a huge influence. I would discover Hammer and Amicus much later, but yeah, all that old fashioned monster stuff is part of my DNA too.

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Oh man. My Dad used to bring home the old Super 8mm reels of film exerpts from all the old Universal horrors. We'd watch 'em in the basement by projecting them on a bed sheet hung from the ceiling. That was 1970s home theater! :) Yeah, that was a huge influence. I would discover Hammer and Amicus much later, but yeah, all that old fashioned monster stuff is part of my DNA too.

That's awesome man, I'm sure they are truly wonderful memories! ;)

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When I was a kid in Boarding School, about 9, they played movies in the common room on a TV, and I remember hearing the music from Total Recall, Cocoon, Star Trek: TMP and others.

I distinctly remember rewinding Cocoon countless times, to hear the music for the Dolphins swimming by a boat.

My first Soundtracks were a tape made from a Star Trek: The Motion Picture LP a friend's mum had, and a copy of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier on Cassette.

I remember starting my first CD collection with the Silva Screen At The Movies 3 compilation, and based on that getting the Southern Cross CD of Krull.

All of these items are lost to time now, but I have been collecting and listening to film scores pretty much since then.

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Star Wars ... Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Black Hole, Battlestar Galactica, ET ...

How could one not fall in love with film music (and John Williams' music specifically) when those are your childhood favorites?

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This topic does come up fairly often. Here is a similar thread I started 2 years ago for my 1,000th post:

http://jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16585

So you only had 1000 posts since joining six years prior but now you have some 7000 more? Stepping up the game. :angry:

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I was sort of away from the film score thing for a lot of my twenties then just kinda got back into it *shrug*

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