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Do non Score-Listeners judge Scores that much differently?


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And HOW differently?

Came across this random thread on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/.../flat/199195987 asking which was the Best Nominated score of 2011.

The responses were such

8 votes for Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

3 votes for The Artist

2 votes for Hugo

2 votes for War Horse

2 votes for Tintin

Those who rank, rank the 2 Williams mostly the lowest. If the option was Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, that would be undoubtedly be No. 1 as would Social Network be for a similar poll conducted for 2010. They think Social Network is one of the greatest scores ever written. Other constant favorites are Drive and Black Swan.

My response can only be WTF?!?!?

Surely people are not deaf? I know for a fact that outside the soundtrack-listening niche, the two Reznor-Fincher scores are considered cutting edge and a brilliant innovation of film music. I personally think judging purely by compositional value, such scores are irredeemable failures.

Even cinephiles seem to have no idea what great film music is. Do you think we who listen to film scores are literally removed from the norm and living in another universe, figuratively? Like there are oceans between the way of appreciating things concerning this particular genre of music.

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Well, non-listeners don't like orchestral music in films because they can't relate to it, contrary to what we believe in.

At some point it'll change.

Karol

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I have wondered about how the uninitiated, as I will call them, listen to music, versus how we listen to music. I think as far as orchestral music goes, part of it is to look for and enjoy the subtleties. People I know who don't listen to orchestral music, and I'm sure this is generalizing, seem most interested in having something to play in the background, rather than to actually focus on the music. Maybe that's what they expect out of film scores, and, in that case, ambient scores like Drive, The Social Network, or Dragon Tattoo really fit the bill. The don't pull attention away from what you're doing. While it's orchestral, TTSS does seem in its own way just to fall to background noise the same way, not really pulling my attention.

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John Williams's obdurate fidelity to dated cinematic sensibilities is charming but ultimately self-defeating. Modern audiences are rejecting the hysterical orchestral melodrama and ostentatious symphonic fireworks that dominate his tin-eared approach to scoring. Such methods have been superseded by a more sophisticated style that jettisons histrionics, embraces subtlety, and luxuriates in gritty verisimilitude. Whereas conventional orchestral music distractingly hails and gesticulates from afar, ambient music presents, almost imperceptibly, as if a whisper or a nudge, insinuating itself into the very interstices of perception and consciousness.

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John Williams's obdurate fidelity to dated cinematic sensibilities is charming but ultimately self-defeating. Modern audiences are rejecting the hysterical orchestral melodrama and ostentatious symphonic fireworks that dominate his tin-eared approach to scoring. Such methods have been superseded by a more sophisticated style that jettisons histrionics, embraces subtlety, and luxuriates in gritty verisimilitude. Whereas conventional orchestral music distractingly hails and gesticulates from afar, ambient music presents, almost imperceptibly, as if a whisper or a nudge, insinuating itself into the very interstices of perception and consciousness.

:lol:
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I don't know if 17 people are accurate representations of the entire non-soundtrack community..

I would argue the same thing.

In general, I'm not surprised that scores by artists with a previous rock/pop/electronica association is more popular than something traditional and orchestral. That just goes with the territory.

That being said, I think we should be careful to not drive a wedge between 'us' as some secret society with all the right answers and 'them' as a dumb crowd who don't know their own best. Taste is taste, and picks will invariably reflect that, despite the level of exposure or knowledge. Personally, I'm just as fascinated and interested in stuff like DRAGOON TATOO, SOCIAL NETWORK etc. as I am orchestral music. I thought DRIVE was the best score last year, for example, even moreso than Williams' WAR HORSE and TINTIN.

So that's another thing one should be careful with right there -- that you don't have to be a rock/pop/electronica hater just because you also like orchestral film music. It's actually possible to like both WAR HORSE and SOCIAL NETWORK at the same time -- even as a hardcore soundtrack fan!

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And it's also possible to see how the awesome War Horse blasts off the speakers while Social Network is just standing there except for the hilarious Grieg quote.

Sure. Just goes to show that we're as eclectic a group as any, with many different preferences among us.

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Regardless of who likes what kind of music, keep in mind that many people out there in the worldwide web will vote for a score based solely on how they liked/disliked the film. They may think the score to a particular movie was the best score of all time, meanwhile they couldn't hum a bar of it to save their life. (No matter whether it was Reznor or Williams.) But hey, the CGI was just kick-ass...so the music must have been awesome too, right? :shakehead:

I like to think that they are above that sort of pettiness, but sometimes I wonder if some of the Academy voters don't vote the same way.

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