What kind of people collect film scores obsessively?

[Bayesian 1,363]

I guess what I'm really asking is, for each new release from La-La Land or Intrada or Quartet or what-have-you, if you could look at a list of the first thousand people who purchased it, you'd likely see the same names appear over and over. Who are these people? How many of them are involved in the film industry, for example? Or are musicians? Or politicians? Or Fortune 500 C-suite executives? Or college-educated? Or female? Or eBay sellers looking to create (then capitalize on) market scarcity?

 

Certainly, most of those attributes we'd never know just from looking at names and addresses, but it would be neat to peek at such lists. "Oh look, here's Stephen King. And Elon Musk! And the guy who runs the Tour de France. And over here is the chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill... who knew they were all such Williams fans?"

[Jay 37,351]

I don't think there is a large of people that buy all (or close to all) of these specialty label titles.

 

I think people like what they like, and some scores have a wide appear to numerous differen groups of fans, but for the most part each score has a unique set of fans, and there might be venn diagram esque overlap circles of other scors by the same composer or other scores of a similar style or era.... but I don't think there's as many people as you might think that just literally buy everyone unheard.

[Bayesian 1,363]

Yeah, you’re right. Maybe I should have said every release from a given composer. Those lists would surely be more consistent, name-wise. 

[Bespin 8,480]

Serial discographists.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I used to buy all the JW releases until I realized it was a strange sort of addiction and I didn't even listen to many of them. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

There were a couple of folks at FSM who purchased EVERYTHING.

Worse, they posted " ordered" and " received"!😒

[gkgyver 1,645]

 

Who ARE you people? 

[Bayesian 1,363]

15 minutes ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

I used to buy all the JW releases until I realized it was a strange sort of addiction and I didn't even listen to many of them. 

I began feeling that way about classical discs a few years ago. Part of me wanted to hold onto the idea of “buy it now, you’ll be happy you did 20 years from now,” but I couldn’t justify the costs. I rarely buy any new classical now. But If it’s JW and DE, I will get it, even if not right away. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

1 hour ago, Bayesian said:

Who are these people?

 

@crocodile?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

5 hours ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

I used to buy all the JW releases until I realized it was a strange sort of addiction and I didn't even listen to many of them. 

 

I found eventually that there's only a small circle of scores I keep returning to, and there's no point in obsessively pursuing each and every one of these things that's destined for the landfill as soon as I'm dead anyway.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Right.

That's why I call myself " a connoisseur, not a.collector".

It's why I have traded away so many Goldsmith scores many consider classics.

I keep what I.LISTEN to.😍

[mrbellamy 6,278]

23 hours ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

I used to buy all the JW releases until I realized it was a strange sort of addiction and I didn't even listen to many of them. 

 

I have a shelf that is just DVDs and Blurays that I haven't seen and bought because of good used deals over the years, and I hardly ever get around to them. Meanwhile I just watched Saving Private Ryan again for like the tenth time. Oh well.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

This kind:

 

[Datameister 2,042]

It would certainly be interesting. My guess would be that there are relatively few customers who only ever buy one such album, and relatively few who just buy almost everything indiscriminately. And I suspect that the vast majority of purchases are by people who would describe themselves as film score/soundtrack fans. I can imagine some of the most high-profile titles gaining some traction in larger circles of movie fans - stuff like the Harry Potter and Jurassic Park box sets. But I know huge fans of those franchises who have no awareness of these whatsoever.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

I think I'm one of the few fans who really dislikes almost all Golden Age scores ( except Herrmann who really isn't in  the stable).

 

[A24 4,331]

Herrmann was ahead of his time ... until the '70s came and he was deemed just another old skooler. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

20 minutes ago, AC1 said:

Herrmann was ahead of his time ... until the '70s came and he was deemed just another old skooler. 

Not by the young generation of directors😊

[Richard Penna 3,686]

With many score releases (and general music releases) being digital-only now, I'm finding I deliberate far less over whether to buy something when I either discover a new album, or see a film and like what I hear. As long as I can listen through it on Spotify and find something engaging about it.

 

Certainly, before I stream a film, I look into whether there's a score release and where I could potentially buy a download. In that sense, to some extent a digital OST concept album sort of becomes a collectible from the film.

 

Filmmusicreporter.com is becoming a resource I check every few days for any new albums that might be interesting.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

See I could never do that. Most films have scores so anonymous, it'd never occur to me to ever seek out whether it had a release. The last time I did that was when I watched Scent of a Woman because I liked the score enough.

[Richard Penna 3,686]

Part of me is merely curious about whether a score has a release, even if I don't like the score. I find it interesting to see what gets a release and what doesn't.

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

27 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

Part of me is merely curious about whether a score has a release, even if I don't like the score. I find it interesting to see what gets a release and what doesn't.

 

Nowadays it's usually the bad things that get a release, while the good stuff is overlooked.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

4 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Nowadays it's usually the bad things that get a release, while the good stuff is overlooked.

 

Often the good stuff is held to ransom by the big corporates.

[Ollie 1,059]

I have favorite composers that I buy almost everything that is released.  There was a period where I wanted to support the labels so I gambled on releases I wasn’t familiar with or couldn’t recall from the movies.

 

 

[Thor 7,495]

On 08/04/2021 at 9:30 PM, Bayesian said:

I guess what I'm really asking is, for each new release from La-La Land or Intrada or Quartet or what-have-you, if you could look at a list of the first thousand people who purchased it, you'd likely see the same names appear over and over. Who are these people? How many of them are involved in the film industry, for example? Or are musicians? Or politicians? Or Fortune 500 C-suite executives? Or college-educated? Or female? Or eBay sellers looking to create (then capitalize on) market scarcity?

 

I'd love to see a quantitative overview of such things, but I doubt it's going to happen.

 

I've spent most of my adult life trying to understand the psychology of these people, but I only think I've come so far.

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

16 minutes ago, Thor said:

I've spent most of my adult life trying to understand the psychology of these people, but I only think I've come so far.

 

Wait, I didn't know you had a degree in psychiatry. Tell us more about your research. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

JS, do you know the difference between psychology, and psychiatry?

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

Yes, but I thought it sounded funnier like this.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

You’re one of us Thor, whether you’ll admit it or not

[Thor 7,495]

13 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

You’re one of us Thor, whether you’ll admit it or not

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

15 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

You’re one of us Thor, whether you’ll admit it or not

[Disco Stu 15,495]

What kind of people post on message boards about film scores obsessively?

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

The worst kind.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,516]

Oi!

[Omen II 1,235]

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

The worst kind.

Posting Counters of the Worst Kind.

 

👽

[Jurassic Shark 12,066]

Know thyself.

[JTN 2,006]

Rich people.