Does your interest in film scores wane if the cadence of specialty label releases you are interested in slows down?

[1977 1,743]

4 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Have you tried selling nationally?

Yes, many times. People here don't buy physical media anymore. Even if they did, soundtracks are not on anyone's radar here.

[Jay 37,287]

20 hours ago, Smeltington said:

Jay, what you're saying makes a lot of sense in terms of discussion on this board. When there's not much coming out, there's a lot less activity here. This is also true when there's not much JW news.

 

My interest in film scores doesn't depend on new expansions or even new OSTs, though. Williams' output, along with some of my favorite scores by other composers, is always fascinating because it's so complex, there's so much to discover with every new listen. It's accessible on the surface, yet it has untold depths.

 

On top of that, I'll never fully get to know every release I own, because it adds up to so many hours of music. So that plus the complexity of the music will keep me listening to film scores probably for the rest of my life.

 

Well said!

 

20 hours ago, Smeltington said:

The only thing I can think of that might slow me down is if I ever learn to appreciate classical music enough to shift my focus, although I'm sure I'll still love JW no matter what.

 

Meh, classical music ain't all its cracked up to be IMO.  Film music for life!

 

19 hours ago, Ollie said:

I’ve slowed my collecting down quite a bit. 
 

The specialty labels releasing fewer scores, most of the stuff I’ve really wanted has been released and my lack of interest in a majority of current film scores are the main reasons.

 

I feel like I buy less score albums in general in recent years, but my amount of time listening to film music in general hasn't changed.  I guess a combination of listening to stuff I already bought but hadn't spent much (or any) time with yet + streaming new (to me) music to see what else I might want to buy

 

19 hours ago, Ollie said:

Plus I’m on the other side of 50 and while I’m far from having the largest collection, I more CDs than the average person and just don’t feel like collecting that much. 

 

Do you think you will ever actively sell your physical collection off to younger fans of the hobby or keep it as-is your entire life?

 

19 hours ago, Ollie said:

I've passed on some Williams like the Land of the Giants, Lost in Space and Time Tunnel, because I have the GNP releases and the LIS 40th Anniversary set. 

 

Those were hard for me to invest in because I genuinely have very little interest in checking out the non-Williams components of those releases, which is a huge portion.  I did pick up Land of the Giants on one of their % off sales and do regret missing out on Lost In Space.  I will support them and buy Time Tunnel the next time they release something I want to buy but I really hope they do a Williams-only release from all this Irwin TV work.

 

19 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

I have certainly lost most interest in current film music, with most of the composers I admire being either dead or retired or occupied elsewhere, and most of the new things I'm aware of being either not good, or nice enough but just not very interesting musically. But my general interest in the eras I'm… interested in is mostly unaffected by release trends. For the collector (addict?) side of me, the fix of a highly anticipated new release certainly has *some* significance, but mostly it just means that I get to rediscover a score I've deliberately put aside for months (or years) in hope of an expansion. Plus with bundling several releases into one order and then waiting for several more weeks for it to arrive, I get most of the new stuff weeks or months after most folks here anyway (I only got War of the Worlds two weeks ago).

 

Do you feel less compelled to come here and write about a release you recently got if it in months-old and you feel the discussion of it has waned, or do you think you'd write about them just as much if you got one right after it came out?

 

19 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

But in between releases, there's always time to rediscover old favourites, dig out half forgotten scores again, or (all to often) just repeat the evergreens over and over again. And on a long term scale, my interest in any genre (Williams, or Goldsmith, or Golden Age film music, or film music in general, or orchestral music in general, or non-orchestral music) comes and goes, sometimes for weeks or months.

 

When I was in my 20s, I had huge period of time when I didn't listen to film scores at all - this happened more than once (I think a new WIlliams-scored movie coming out would bring me back only for it to wane again).  But then sometime in my 30s I fell in love with the hobby again and have never stopped regularly listening to film music since.

 

19 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

As for discussions on this board, it's certainly an aspect that when a new release is announced, most peoples' interests converge on that same score, so naturally there'll be more agitated discussion than during normal day to day business with everyone focusing on something different.

 

Yea, and on top of that, it seems like every release always gets 3-4x more discussion BEFORE it gets released than after - and the ones that get the most discussions after seem to be the ones that are perceived to have some flaw or something "wrong" with it!

 

17 hours ago, Datameister said:

My own interest level definitely doesn't depend on what releases are currently happening. There are indeed fewer extant unreleased holy grails now, and I've lost some of my enthusiasm and excitement about new scores, thanks to the relatively anonymous styles in vogue. But I'm always listening to and often engaging creatively with scores I like. One thing that helps is that there are still lots of existing albums I've yet to experience, so even though my stylistic preferences are at odds with  current practices, I still get to enjoy music that's new for me.

 

I hear that!

 

14 hours ago, Bryant Burnette said:

Makes sense to me.  Most hobbies are habit-based, and if the habit isn't being fed, there's always a danger of it getting replaced by something else.  I rarely buy scores these days unless they are Williams, or some holy grail that gets released.  Not many of those left.

 

What are the biggest holy grails you are still waiting for?

 

2 hours ago, Chewy said:

As long as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Hook and tons of others are not properly expanded, there is no way my interest in film scores wanes.

 

Hear, hear!

 

2 hours ago, Chewy said:

And I also still believe there'll be great scores coming from composers like Desplat or Powell that I'll be looking forward to hearing.

 

Yea, I find every modern year always has potential for GREAT scores to come out.  It's just different than the 80s-90s when every year had LOTS of GREAT scores that came out.  It will never be like that ever again I don't think, but I can find just as much greatness in something new as something from back in the day, personally

 

1 hour ago, Koray Savas said:

Probably just shifting interests? I don’t know specifically. The draw and allure just isn’t there for me like it used to be 10 years ago. I still enjoy watching TV and film and playing games, and liking the music in the context of those mediums. Just don’t feel the need to explore the music on its own as much. 

 

I think a lot of people who get into film music around the same age you did drift away around the same age you have.  Some come back to it... some don't!

 

1 hour ago, Datameister said:

In my experience, it's a very common dynamic in these sorts of communities, no matter what the subject of interest is. No one critiques like a disappointed fan. I've seen far more extreme cases elsewhere.

 

In-freaking-deed...

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

19 minutes ago, Jay said:

Meh, classical music ain't all its cracked up to be IMO.  Film music for life!

 

[Jay 37,287]

On 4/16/2021 at 12:05 PM, Gurkensalat said:

You realize, that you will get answers in this thread only from people, whose interest has not waned so much that they do not visit this forum any more? :-)

 

I did realize that, yep!  Maybe not right when I made the thread, but shortly after that thought occurred to me.  I plan on bumping it up when a big Williams release draws people back.

 

Quote

I often buy a new expansion years after it got released (because only then I managed to properly listen to the expansions I bought before). That makes me independent from the release schedule. 

 

Has this plan ever backfired on your, IE, by the time you went to buy something, it was sold out / OOP?

 

 

 

1 minute ago, The Big Man said:

 

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've just never really enjoyed any classical music I've come across.  It's just not my cup of tea.  I like listening to film (and tv and video game) scores

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

But where do you think all that movie muzak came from? Maybe it's more the sense of urgency in film music that appeals to you, whereas classical stuff tends to be more attention demanding.

[Jay 37,287]

I respect classical music and have no problem with it existing or anyone else enjoying it, I just can't find much to enjoy in any I've ever tried to, at least so far.  I always planned on actively trying to listen to more of it eventually, but I have so many scores I still need to listen to that day seems to remain ever in the elusive future

[Marian Schedenig 8,173]

27 minutes ago, Jay said:

Do you feel less compelled to come here and write about a release you recently got if it in months-old and you feel the discussion of it has waned, or do you think you'd write about them just as much if you got one right after it came out?

 

Oh, certainly. In fact, I tend to drop out of these threads long before I ever get a new release, because I know I won't have it for weeks or months, so when the phase of 10+ pages of "ordered"/"shipped"/"arrived"/"opened"/"listened" starts, followed by posts about sound artefacts at second 42 of track 13, or tiny flubs in the 3d piccolo of the 4th alternate, I usually just stop - and when I finally get the release, there's 30 pages more to the thread, so I rarely bother catching up.

 

But then, I rarely post in-depth stuff anymore anyway, because I figure I've already said most of the relevant stuff I could contribute over the years, and for most of what remains there's usually at least some people who can (and probably have) already covered the same topic with more expertise. So catching up with pages upon pages of (after the fact) not very relevant posts about shipping status and first listening experiences and then not really have anything new to contribute is something I don't often bother with anymore.

 

In the end, I guess it's just a combination of having been around these topics for too long, having too much music to listen to to bother with getting every new release right away, and international shipping. Doesn't mean that I've lost interest in or stopped listening to film music, of course, except as mentioned a much reduced interest in most of the new stuff.

 

 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I just thought it was a given that film score fans would be more inquisitive and be more proactive in exploring where all that romanticism, expressionism, impressionism, barbarism, modernism, -ism, -ism, -ism, -asm, etc. all came from and how it developed over the last few hundred years. I can only conclude that the contextualisation of "the movies" plays a big role in the film music fan's psyche (no shit, I guess).

[Marian Schedenig 8,173]

39 minutes ago, Jay said:

When I was in my 20s, I had huge period of time when I didn't listen to film scores at all - this happened more than once (I think a new WIlliams-scored movie coming out would bring me back only for it to wane again).  But then sometime in my 30s I fell in love with the hobby again and have never stopped regularly listening to film music since.

 

Before the sequel trilogy came out, I went months (probably even a couple of years) without listening to much Williams, except for new releases right after getting them, and the odd score once in a while (usually not one of the blockbuster ones). It actually felt like I'd just lost interest (not respect or admiration, mind you) in Williams vs. for example Goldsmith, who I couldn't get out of my playlist. TFA was just the thing I needed to revive my Williams listening.

[Jay 37,287]

Nice

[mrbellamy 6,272]

On 18/04/2021 at 9:43 AM, The Big Man said:

I just thought it was a given that film score fans would be more inquisitive and be more proactive in exploring where all that romanticism, expressionism, impressionism, barbarism, modernism, -ism, -ism, -ism, -asm, etc. all came from and how it developed over the last few hundred years. I can only conclude that the contextualisation of "the movies" plays a big role in the film music fan's psyche (no shit, I guess).

 

I will say even as someone who loves classical music, besides growing up learning to play an instrument in the school band and orchestra which was a big factor, the stuff that does resonate with me most still often has some story or programmatic side to it, ballets and tone poems and things. Nutcracker, Petrushka, Symphonie Fantastique, Pictures at an Exhibition. I can appreciate a great symphony or any music for its own sake and I always find the history of music and its evolution interesting, but there is something a little extra personal about music that evokes specific imagery in my head. Even with film scores, sometimes the real pleasure is the music making me imagine a version of the movie I'd rather see.

 

Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel's orchestration, obviously) is the one I always feel like any film score fan should be able to get into, it plays by so many of the same rules as the big John Williams scores...a great memorable theme that starts big and ends bigger with different variations in between, and lots of setpieces for different "scenes," each with their own character and themes, huge variety in tone, all of them only running a few minutes but each leading into each other. It basically plays like an OST and at 40 minutes runs about as long. The movement order reads like a fantasy score tracklist - The Gnome, The Old Castle, Baba Yaga & The Hut on Chicken's Legs.

 

This LSO recording has always felt like home to me as a movie soundtrack nerd.

 

Anyway, I don't follow the specialty releases even though I am very pro archiving these things C&C in pristine quality and putting them out there for all to enjoy. My interest in film scores really just depends on whether or not I have favorite composers who are putting out new things I like. Sometimes someone like Thomas Newman or Desplat or JNH will hit a nice run but then will come out with a few things in a row that loses my interest again until their next good one. I've definitely had my periods digging into other composers and looking back through the decades too, but ever since Williams came back with Tintin and War Horse and joining this forum, I've probably been more of a John Williams fan than a soundtrack fan overall. But I would say aside from Williams being more productive, the thing that has kept my interest most alive is checking out whatever gets recommended on here (I was a real Goldsmith noob pre-JWFan) and also discovering the world of leaked conductors scores floating around the internet. 

[Gurkensalat 336]

3 hours ago, Jay said:

 

I did realize that, yep!  Maybe not right when I made the thread, but shortly after that thought occurred to me.  I plan on bumping it up when a big Williams release draws people back.

 

 

Has this plan ever backfired on your, IE, by the time you went to buy something, it was sold out / OOP?

 

 

 

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've just never really enjoyed any classical music I've come across.  It's just not my cup of tea.  I like listening to film (and tv and video game) scores

 

In recent years no, that has not backfired on me, since all major Williams releases I was interested in were available long enough. If something I want nears OOP stage, I tend to buy it earlier, of course. A least partially thanks to your availability thread I was never surprised when some title was OOP. In the beginning of my collecting days it happened e.g. with Spacecamp, but this got available again. Until then I had my old cassette recording from the 80s to tend me over.

 

About classical music: I personally come from the classical world, playing violin and so, and only discovered JW as an extension of late romantic music like Richard Strauß oder The Planets. So I am surprised when somebody loves orchestral symphonic film music, but has no connection to this similar kind of classical music. Just an observation, I know that your remark was an answer to a different post.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Well, my interest in This thread has sure waned with these endless replies😝

[bollemanneke 3,337]

My interest in film scores has absolutely nothing to do with what the specialty labels put out or not. I mostly watch movies that they can't tackle anyway.

[Bryant Burnette 654]

14 hours ago, Jay said:

What are the biggest holy grails you are still waiting for?

 

Any unreleased (or badly-in-need-of-expansion) Williams scores, naturally, but I'm also a huge James Bond fan and a huger Stephen King fan, so anything from those sides of the street are always going to get me open up the wallet.  Beyond that, probably my biggest one would Conan the Destroyer in complete form.  I'll almost certainly jump on Willow when and if that gets announced, too.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Pop music was always number one for me.

But, around the.mid-nineties I lost interest and film scores became dominant.

[Ollie 1,059]

On 4/18/2021 at 9:24 AM, Jay said:

 

 

 

 

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've just never really enjoyed any classical music I've come across.  It's just not my cup of tea.  I like listening to film (and tv and video game) scores

 

Don’t feel bad, I find most classical music uninteresting as well

 

 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

And that I just don't get, because they're pretty much the same.

[Ollie 1,059]

On 4/18/2021 at 9:02 AM, Jay said:

 

 

 

Do you think you will ever actively sell your physical collection off to younger fans of the hobby or keep it as-is your entire life?

 

 

 

That’s going to depend on how well I age and if I go before my wife. 😄 My son will probably call dibs on my Godzilla / Japanese Monster CDs.

 

I have 3 grandkids and perhaps they may become filmscore fans. 

[Datameister 2,037]

1 hour ago, The Big Man said:

And that I just don't get, because they're pretty much the same.

 

They're really not. Film scores often use the same instruments and they certainly build off of the pioneering work of lower-case-classical composers before them, but the dramatic sensibilities can be really different. The differences are less stark with ballets, operas, and programmatic works, but even then, it's pretty rare to hear a film score I could mistake for classical music or vice versa. The goals and constraints are just really different.

 

Some of my favorite orchestral composers from outside the film score world are Stravinsky, Bartok, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Bach, and Tchaikovsky. Not coincidentally, Williams has studied and drawn inspiration from all of them, and not coincidentally, a lot of my favorite works involve an external story. I may not even know or care what that story is, but I can feel it in the way the music is written. It's a quality I like. It's one reason I can listen to and deeply enjoy a score for a film I've never seen, too. But there's a lot of brilliantly written classical music that leaves me a little cold.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Ehhh right. I still think there's an irrational aversion to classical music in film score circles because it has that "me grandma listened to that crap on her gramophone" factor to it.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Film Music, that ghetto, is Classical Music for people with lower attention spans.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

If it doesn't have that modern fast and urgent movie musikky sound, film score fans aren't interested.

[Datameister 2,037]

4 hours ago, The Big Man said:

Ehhh right. I still think there's an irrational aversion to classical music in film score circles because it has that "me grandma listened to that crap on her gramophone" factor to it.

 

I'm sure that's a factor for at least some folks. I would never expect anyone's taste in music to be rational, though.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

It seems film score fans are mostly just a bunch of modern pop culture geeks, with a twist. I dunno, maybe folks will learn to expand their horizons and find their explorers' bug, but I guess the older they get, the more they stubbornly cling to familiarity.

[Thor 7,465]

For me, it's been the other way around. I'm exploring more now than I've ever done before. No doubt helped by the greater availability than in the 90s and 2000s.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

You're an aberration. The wider film scoring online culture is different.

[Thor 7,465]

Yes, I've noticed that it's not only a matter of going back to the familiar for a lot of people, but honing in - in extreme detail - on that familiar material. All the tiny little details of STAR WARS music that people go on about, for example, like moths to a light. It's like a micro-cosmos all onto itself.

[GerateWohl 4,336]

7 hours ago, The Big Man said:

Ehhh right. I still think there's an irrational aversion to classical music in film score circles because it has that "me grandma listened to that crap on her gramophone" factor to it.

As a child I used to think, that old people listen to classical music. Then I found out that old people usually just listen to blunt pop hits of their generation or even worse to what some radio stations consider to be an appropriate modern cheaply produced techno version of that music.

[Jay 37,287]

I didn't grow up listening to any classical music - neither of my parents were into it at all, it was never on at the house.  My parents were born in 1950 so were in college from 68-72 and that's the era that informed their musical tastes; I grew up hearing a lot of Oldies and Classic Rock.  My dad's vinyl collection was a lot of Beatles, Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac, Moody Blues, etc, and I remember the contemporary 80s stuff from the radio in my childhood too.

 

None of my friends in school ever listened to or talked about classical music either.  Even my friends were in band, I remember them talking about playing Jurassic Park and stuff more than any classical names.

 

As I got into film scores I very quickly learned that it stemmed from a classical background, and I've certainly heard lots of classical music in my life because it appears in so many films and shows and often random tracks show up on soundtrack albums too.

 

But none of it has ever made me stand up and go "wow, I want to hear more of that".  I can hear some of it and admire the craftmanship, or have a "oh wow, that bit from that score is totally just emulating this piece that this guy composed a long time ago first" and stuff, but it doesn't make me want to go out and start buying classical music and informing myself about all of it, or even stream it for free just to learn about it.  I have a lot of film scores I haven't heard yet that I am more interested in listening to.

[Fabulin 3,510]

On 4/18/2021 at 4:28 PM, The Big Man said:

But where do you think all that movie muzak came from? Maybe it's more the sense of urgency in film music that appeals to you, whereas classical stuff tends to be more attention demanding.

Urgency? Like here?

3:13 how can they be jamming us...

3:20 break off the attack, the shield is still up

3:23 I get no reading...

3:26 pull up, all craft pull up

3:36 green group, stay close to...

3:44 it's a trap

 

 

To me the chief difference between classical and recent film scores is that in the former you have musicians of Williams' caliber.

[Datameister 2,037]

5 hours ago, Thor said:

Yes, I've noticed that it's not only a matter of going back to the familiar for a lot of people, but honing in - in extreme detail - on that familiar material. All the tiny little details of STAR WARS music that people go on about, for example, like moths to a light. It's like a micro-cosmos all onto itself.

 

You can do both, y'know. In the last few weeks, I've taken first listens to three unfamiliar scores to films I've never seen, and I've studied the inner workings of some scores I've loved for decades.

 

What really puzzles me is the way so many people look down on others' musical tastes and listening habits. Williams fans shit on Zimmer fans. Classical fans shit on film score fans. Traditional jazz fans shit on bebop fans. Musical fans shit on rap fans. Classic rock fans shit on modern pop fans. Everyone shits on country fans. It all seems like such a waste of energy to me.

[Jay 37,287]

Just now, Datameister said:

In the last few weeks, I've taken first listens to three unfamiliar scores to films I've never seen, and I've studied the inner workings of some scores I've loved for decades.

 

I do this literally every week of my life

 

Just now, Datameister said:

What really puzzles me is the way so many people look down on others' musical tastes and listening habits. Williams fans shit on Zimmer fans. Classical fans shit on film score fans. Traditional jazz fans shit on bebop fans. Musical fans shit on rap fans. Classic rock fans shit on modern pop fans. Everyone shits on country fans. It all seems like such a waste of energy to me.

 

I agree with Datameister.  I think it's great that every human on earth has different tastes and listening habits.  I don't see the point in looking down on others for enjoying what they enjoy when its different from what you enjoy.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

5 hours ago, Datameister said:

 

You can do both, y'know. In the last few weeks, I've taken first listens to three unfamiliar scores to films I've never seen, and I've studied the inner workings of some scores I've loved for decades.

 

What really puzzles me is the way so many people look down on others' musical tastes and listening habits. Williams fans shit on Zimmer fans. Classical fans shit on film score fans. Traditional jazz fans shit on bebop fans. Musical fans shit on rap fans. Classic rock fans shit on modern pop fans. Everyone shits on country fans. It all seems like such a waste of energy to me.

 

Shitting on people is a really filthy fetish, as your Freudian slip reveals a bit about you!

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Well some music is indefensible....like, heavy metal!😅

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Aww don't you like Megadeth?

[bruce marshall 1,315]

That's Thor's SECOND favorite band!😜😝😛

[Thor 7,465]

6 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

That's Thor's SECOND favorite band!😜😝😛

 

Ha! 

 

Megadeth is too much 'deth' for me. But Rammstein is certainly one of my favourite bands of all time.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I like Rust In Peace. Very good performances and great sound quality on the original master.