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Why has film music hit rock bottom?


Salacius

  

28 members have voted

  1. 1. Is it because:

    • Hans Zimmer has ruined film music?
      10
    • Hans Zimmer has completely obliterated the values of film music?
      11
    • 99% of new (and old) composers are forced to write like Hans Zimmer (who has utterly destroyed film music)?
      26


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I sense a bias...

You don't say! :)

For the record, I think film music is more vibrant and versatile than ever, even if you limit it only to mainstream Hollywood output.

Oh, and Zimmer rules!!

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Ignoring the Zimmer connection, I think it's simply directors and producers wanting crowd-pleasing music (i.e electronic, no themes, plenty of boom)

Ridley Scott decided to have no synths in Robin Hood, and what Streitenfeld gave us IMO was an excellent, old-fashioned thematic score.

We need more directors with backbone.

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Ignoring the Zimmer connection, I think it's simply directors and producers wanting crowd-pleasing music (i.e electronic, no themes, plenty of boom)

Ridley Scott decided to have no synths in Robin Hood, and what Streitenfeld gave us IMO was an excellent, old-fashioned thematic score.

We need more directors with backbone.

Yeah, but it was also Scott who had Zimmer compose Gladiator, perhaps the most influential score of the noughties. It even had an affect on Williams.

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There's one influential producer you have all missed, that has an effect on film music even more than Hans Zimmer:

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER!

It has been his driving rock simplistic tastes that has a much bigger impact than Hans Zimmer alone.

Hans Zimmer can write other styles than his action styles, listen to his romantic comedy scores and his early 1990s work.

Plus, who says film music has hit rock bottom, remember, it could always get worse...

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While Zimmer shares some of the responsibility, today's audiences, producers and directors all share the blame as well.

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I'm wondering whether "Zimmer" argument is really worth anything at this point. His approach is new and modern and he's actually trying to do something. I'm not talking whether he's a trained composer or not. It's not like Giacchino and people like that offer anything worthwhile to change things, except for the occasional nostalgic homages. That's way way too little. So you could just as well blame them too.

Karol

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Well it's a combination of his style, which I find rather generic at times, and the fact his stable of composers tend to not stray too far from the barn when it comes to composing.

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Dicussed before.

1) Lack of quality movies to write music for

2) Lack of classically trained composers

3) Lack of demand for quality, but higher demand for effectiveness these days.

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Dicussed before.

2) Lack of classically trained composers

Elfman isn't classically trained; by that logic, has he contributed too?

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I voted for all three as well. Never have cared for Zimmer's writing style. The fact too he got a star on Hollywood before even John Williams (or Goldsmith for that fact) is horrifying at best.

While Williams may not be my favorite composer I'd take any score from him over Zimmer any day.

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last option, since unlike moderators who can apparently vote for all 3, I can only pick one option

I'm not a moderator and I was able to vote for all 3.

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So instead of appreciating that films get any instrumental score at all, instead of just songs or pure electronic noise, we bash the one man who seems to be the most popular with the studio execs who don't seem to "get" the concept of a good film score anymore. Huh.

Blame that guy, not the people who perpetuate the system. The folks who buy his albums, see his movies, and hire him. Huh.

If by "I'd take any score from [Williams] over Zimmer any day," that means I'd have to buy and listen to every Williams score before I could buy and listen to any Zimmer score, count me out.

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how?

I've got 3 tickboxes, not radio buttons.

Ignoring the Zimmer connection, I think it's simply directors and producers wanting crowd-pleasing music (i.e electronic, no themes, plenty of boom)

Ridley Scott decided to have no synths in Robin Hood, and what Streitenfeld gave us IMO was an excellent, old-fashioned thematic score.

We need more directors with backbone.

Yeah, but it was also Scott who had Zimmer compose Gladiator, perhaps the most influential score of the noughties. It even had an affect on Williams.

It's a decade apart, and Scott's scores have been getting gradually further from Zimmer's sound. Remember Kingdom of Heaven which definitely was not a RCP score.

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Dicussed before.

2) Lack of classically trained composers

Elfman isn't classically trained; by that logic, has he contributed too?

I didn't say, if a composer isn;t classically trained he can't be good. Please get your logic straight.

Classical training might select for a certain quality, at least increases the chance of presence of knowledge and skills as to how to use a symphonic orchestra to it's full potential.

Of course a good composer CAN come from anywhere.

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Dicussed before.

2) Lack of classically trained composers

Elfman isn't classically trained; by that logic, has he contributed too?

I didn't say, if a composer isn;t classically trained he can't be good. Please get your logic straight.

Classical training might select for a certain quality, at least increases the chance of presence of knowledge and skills as to how to use a symphonic orchestra to it's full potential.

Of course a good composer CAN come from anywhere.

Who says that you need a symphonic orchestra to score a film ;)

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True story. I just spent two hours listening to one of my lecturers waffle on about how to move forward we must listen to and do exactly as the great musicians did. Except that a lot of the great musicians didn't listen to their peers, and barely listened to anyone else. They were too busy playing and writing their own stuff...

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I don't understand how Zimmer, who is mostly known for bombastic, melodic, and easily identifiable music, is responsible for the fucking lifeless wallpaper music that abounds today.

Hey maybe there's a reason why we're losing this music battle..you idiots are charging in the wrong direction! :P

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I don't understand how Zimmer, who is mostly known for bombastic, melodic, and easily identifiable music, is responsible for the fucking lifeless wallpaper music that abounds today.

Hey maybe there's a reason why we're losing this music battle..you idiots are charging in the wrong direction! :P

As Trevor Jones said once in an interview "the respect for music as a creative part of the film is gone now".

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I don't understand how Zimmer, who is mostly known for bombastic, melodic, and easily identifiable music, is responsible for the fucking lifeless wallpaper music that abounds today.

Hey maybe there's a reason why we're losing this music battle..you idiots are charging in the wrong direction! :P

Two words: Rick freakin' Berman

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I don't understand how Zimmer, who is mostly known for bombastic, melodic, and easily identifiable music, is responsible for the fucking lifeless wallpaper music that abounds today.

Hey maybe there's a reason why we're losing this music battle..you idiots are charging in the wrong direction! :P

Because he writes lifeless generic sounding music and he's now sucked JNH into his void.

As I said earlier, he's not the only one to blame. But his style and stable of composers has contributed to it.

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You may see it as lifeless, but it's far from generic. His style was the first of its kind. It's only the composers who followed in his wake that made it sound generic.

Also, it's a little short-sighted of you to say that JNH was "sucked into" his void, as if the man is incapable of making decisions himself and was somehow duped into working with Zimmer.

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I don't understand how Zimmer, who is mostly known for bombastic, melodic, and easily identifiable music, is responsible for the fucking lifeless wallpaper music that abounds today.

Hey maybe there's a reason why we're losing this music battle..you idiots are charging in the wrong direction! :P

Because he writes lifeless generic sounding music and he's now sucked JNH into his void.

As I said earlier, he's not the only one to blame. But his style and stable of composers has contributed to it.

If you were aware of his works in the early 1990s, you might change your mind.

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Hans Zimmer is not really Hans Zimmer, but a black pillar of smoke. He is pure evil, and his only purpose is to destroy the film score world. He has recruited a team to accomplish this goal, and has the power to cloud men's hearts with the darkness he controls. James Newton Howard was such a victim, who no longer feels emotion. John Williams is our last saving grace, a cork that is preventing Zimmer from escaping Remote Control Productions and completely annihilating good film music across the globe. He desperately needs candidates to take his place as protector, since he can only last for so long. Michael Giacchino was brought to Los Angeles for this purpose. His destiny is to take out Zimmer, and free our music from dinosaur roars and mechanical clicks.

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Hans Zimmer is not really Hans Zimmer, but a black pillar of smoke. He is pure evil, and his only purpose is to destroy the film score world. He has recruited a team to accomplish this goal, and has the power to cloud men's hearts with the darkness he controls. James Newton Howard was such a victim, who no longer feels emotion. John Williams is our last saving grace, a cork that is preventing Zimmer from escaping Remote Control Productions and completely annihilating good film music across the globe. He desperately needs candidates to take his place as protector, since he can only last for so long. Michael Giacchino was brought to Los Angeles for this purpose. His destiny is to take out Zimmer, and free our music from dinosaur roars and mechanical clicks.

This isn't FernGully! :P

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I don't really think JNH was ever really that good in the first place.

Zimmer has written good work, but his popularity has certainly helped change the position of film scores in certain circles, and in a lot of ways, that is a very bad thing. Whoever said Bruickheimer was dead on. His shit factory did some real bad damage.

The worst thing Zimmer ever did was help unleash Steve Jablonsky on the world.

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I don't really think JNH was ever really that good in the first place.

Zimmer has written good work, but his popularity has certainly helped change the position of film scores in certain circles, and in a lot of ways, that is a very bad thing. Whoever said Bruickheimer was dead on. His shit factory did some real bad damage.

The worst thing Zimmer ever did was help unleash Steve Jablonsky on the world.

Listen to Steamboy, then come back.

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