Is it possible to write the Best Film Score Of All Time in the 2020s?

[gkgyver 1,647]

Is it possible in this environment?
 

All time.

Better than everything. Is it possible to write a score challenging for this title?
 

PS: „Everybody likes different things“ argument is bullshit and doesn’t count. People not into Star Wars still acknowledge the mastery of the music.

 

Discuss. Yell at each other. Fight. Let there be blood.

[Unlucky Bastard 8,479]

You all suck!

[Bellosh 3,811]

E.T. came out in 1982.

 

Nothing in the future will ever top it.

 

Whether its the 2020s, 3020s, so on and so on.

[Sunshine Reger 3,572]

No chance.

[John Dutton 7,207]

If by 2020s you mean 1989, then yes

[Not Mr. Big 4,719]

Possible yes.  Likely no

[TheUlyssesian 2,538]

With the gutter trash that directors want today, yeah no.

 

I think once Williams, JNH, Elfman and Silvestri croak, you might as well write off traditional film scoring.

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

There are no movies well-suited for great scores nowadays. No audience who wants those kinds of movies. As a lover of old film music I even prefer 90s/00s-like cerebral films, although some of my absolute favorite film/score combos are Star Wars, Homeward Bound, The Lion King, The Time Machine '02, maybe Jurassic Park, so for me its a toss up, but for others, I don't think they have that market on their mind.

 

As a writer of adventure music, I would need a very good partnership. It seems impractical right now.

[HunterTech 1,161]

No, because a "best film score of all time" was never was gonna exist to begin with. Sure, there's the legitimate question of how much exceptional music we'll actually see within this decade, but the amount of conflict over what's the best film score of each prior year is something no one can agree on as is. So what the hell is the point of arguing over a span of years that has barely even started? Especially since I can already tell that a sizable chunk of people here are likely gonna dismiss or be unaware of the many efforts that'll release anyway (the prevailing attitudes of this thread currently aren't proving me wrong so far), so how much of this comes from a genuine place honestly?

Besides, even if we get a healthy amount of great and interesting scores, we're living in times where what we can define a film score as is not what it would've been 10 years ago. Would a synth dominated score even be within the top 10 of everybody's lists? Or something that manages to use RCP tropes in a refreshing and more sophisticated manner? Is something low key the way to go? Or is something energetic and bombastic the answer? And would it be a work that particularly affected the masses strongly, or would it be something only a true music fan could appreciate? There's just too many parameters that would likely prevent the question from being an easy one to answer for a lot of people.

 

[Unlucky Bastard 8,479]

Another problem is so many film scores now don't even come out on CD. They're only available on the internet, so I never get to hear them.

[Mephariel 481]

10 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

Another problem is so many film scores now don't even come out on CD. They're only available on the internet, so I never get to hear them.

 

So why don't you start hearing them on the internet? What happens when CDs become extinct? You just stop being a fan of movie music?

 

As for the question: Yes because there will always be new GOAT standards as time goes by. 

 

If the question is, "Is it possible to write the best classically structural orchestral music today," the answer is probably unlikely. 

[bruce marshall 1,344]

HTTYD came pretty darn close.

 

[A24 4,512]

Would the best score of all time be loved by today's audiences?

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,455]

As long as Williams lives it's possible (but not very likely though)but if we have to count on the RCP guys or Göransson we're fucked up!

[Unlucky Bastard 8,479]

Is talent no longer in the human gene pool?

[Thor 8,101]

Quote

 Do you think it’s possible to write the best score of all time in the 2020s?

 

I don't see why not. But it's not something we'd be able to assess untill the 2030s at the earliest. Probably later than that too. Acquring 'classic' status, and especially 'best film score of all time', takes time.

[TheUlyssesian 2,538]

42 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

Is talent no longer in the human gene pool?

 

It is fading away, like the tail bone.

[Unlucky Bastard 8,479]

2030s? Fuck that's like 50 years from now

[Score 772]

In principle, it is possible. If the same question had been asked in a poll in 1971, about the 1970s, I doubt many people would have answered affirmatively, and even less would have anticipated who, among the working composers of the time, would have been able to deliver a score worthy of that title (*). Surprises are always around the corner! 

 

 

(*) I'm thinking of "The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing" (1973), of course.

[Unlucky Bastard 8,479]

Hey that Lalo Schifrin bloke is gonna be huge 

[crumbs 14,629]

So long as John Williams is writing film scores, it's possible.

[GerateWohl 4,926]

When I was recently listening to the time tunnel scores and two other Williams 60s scores I was thinking that probably in that period people might also have complained that the golden age of film scoring is over and the new composers are writing such primitive stuff unless it is work from still active golden age composers.

This usual 60s tv stuff is really not very exiting apart from the main titles. 

Of course there where good scores in the 60s, but not in the sense of classical music.

So, I guess these periods, 60s and today might even be comparable?

 

But then with Star Wars came the renaissence. Therefore, I think, such a renaissance can happen at any time.

But I am not the expert here.

Just a thought.

 

 

 

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,574]

Which score would it need to supersede in order to become the best score of all time then?! ;-)

[crumbs 14,629]

8 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Which score would it need to supersede in order to become the best score of all time then?! ;-)

 

Joker, according to the critics.

[bored 428]

It's possible, but it'll likely be a hidden gem is my guess. It won't be an instant hit/classic in this age, it won't be a mainstream blockbuster most likely either. My guess is an animated film that is known but not super well known, (like HTTYD which is the closest thing we have to Star Wars nowadays), or a movie that becomes mainstream seemingly out of nowhere like a LOTR or Star Wars that ends up producing the greatest film score of all time. 

 

I don't have high hopes for either outcome, especially after 2020 where the studios are now even less likely to take risks (unless the market collapses entirely), but it's certainly possible if not highly unlikely. 

[Naïve Old Fart 10,229]

Look at it this way: in 200 years time, when film music has changed beyond all recognition, and the likes of RCP have faded into myth, some one-note drone will be hailed as "the greatest score ever composed".

Every generation has its own ides of what is "great", and this generation is no exception. It's not only unavoidable, it's inevitable.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,455]

[Not Mr. Big 4,719]

I've changed my mind.  There's always the chance to have one really good film/score, it's just you don't really get them on a regular basis anymore.

[John Dutton 7,207]

It's possible?? Why don't you go find out! It's getting dark out there!

[Unlucky Bastard 8,479]

Imagine the creativity of the 2030s....

[Tom Guernsey 2,574]

Appreciate that this is asking a different question, but perhaps this would be better reframed as "is it possible to write a score in the 2020s that in 10/50/100 years would be included in a list of top 100 scores of all time?" While there would still be much debate over what would be included in such a list, if everyone here had to pick the top 100 scores since the beginning of cinema, I reckon we'd have a better chance of getting over 50 that a good majority could agree on and a core of probably a dozen that almost everyone would agree one.

[GerateWohl 4,926]

14 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Appreciate that this is asking a different question, but perhaps this would be better reframed as "is it possible to write a score in the 2020s that in 10/50/100 years would be included in a list of top 100 scores of all time?" While there would still be much debate over what would be included in such a list, if everyone here had to pick the top 100 scores since the beginning of cinema, I reckon we'd have a better chance of getting over 50 that a good majority could agree on and a core of probably a dozen that almost everyone would agree one.

Every one here could just provide his top 10 of all time and we could pile them up to a top hundred.

But maybe it is not really objective in a John Williams fan forum.

 

Anyway, I don't know what is the best score of all times, but I am sure, it is a John Williams score.

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

30 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Anyway, I don't know what is the best score of all times, but I am sure, it is a John Williams score.

 

Stepmom.

[TSMefford 1,525]

No and Yes, I think.

 

No, because "Best Film Score Of All Time" hasn't happened yet and won't ever truly happen, because (and I know you don't seem to want to hear this) it is entirely subjective. Sure, there are some things that can be technically and objectively flawless, but I don't think there's a single film score that literally everyone loves. And if you asked all of us what the Best Film Score of All Time is so far, then we'd all have different answers and debate about it endlessly.

 

I answered yes, because I honestly I feel like history repeats itself and things that fall out of fashion will always come back into fashion at some point. Vinyls managed to come back around, people make music today with cassette tapes and decks, etc. I think, if you're concerned about traditional orchestral scores, that there absolutely can be a film that would require one, and it could be a stellar score. It's possible, which was the question. So yes. But regardless, we could have some pretty stellar scores written in the next 9 years whether they're orchestral or not. That's a long time, so yeah it's certainly possible.

 

Do I think it's likely or will happen specifically in the next 9 years? Probably not, but it's possible. What the hell do I know?

 

 

[Datameister 2,230]

I would be shocked if my favorite score of all time is written this decade, but I suppose it's possible. Best score of all time? No way. Such a thing has never existed and never will.

[Jay 38,812]

A great piece of music could be written at any time, for any medium, regardless of whatever is going on anywhere in the world.

 

The ratio of music worth listening to among the entirety of music accessible to us, is simply way tinier now than it was when we were younger.

[Edmilson 8,520]

Film music is mostly crap in the 2020s, and will get worse on the following years.

 

Young people who like scores like Joker, The Social Network, Jackie, etc., will grow up to make their own movies, and then will choose a drone score for it, since this is what they've been accostumed to like. Just like current day filmmakers were inspired by Star Wars, Raiders, E.T., etc., the next generation will be inspired by Zimmer clones, Hildur, R&R, etc.

 

So yeah, it will only get worse.

[Richard Penna 4,019]

It's absolutely possible that a movie comes along where the director wants a type of score that appeals to a lot of people, has the right material, hires a composer who has the right inspiration, and where the movie does well to an extent where it gets noticed.

 

The score from such a collaboration could easily enter the realm of 'great' scores - despite all the generic rubbish composed these days. However, to argue that there is, or will ever be, such a thing as the 'best film score of all time', I think is idealistic rubbish, pursued by someone who wants to think that their favourite score is above all others.

[GerateWohl 4,926]

Maybe Indiana Jones 5 will be the best score ever written.

[Mephariel 481]

19 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Film music is mostly crap in the 2020s, and will get worse on the following years.

 

Young people who like scores like Joker, The Social Network, Jackie, etc., will grow up to make their own movies, and then will choose a drone score for it, since this is what they've been accostumed to like. Just like current day filmmakers were inspired by Star Wars, Raiders, E.T., etc., the next generation will be inspired by Zimmer clones, Hildur, R&R, etc.

 

So yeah, it will only get worse.

 

But that is only because film music fans are very classically inclined so a lot of film music fans have very specific standards. I think it is like asking, do you think the greatest song of all time will be sung in the next 10 years? A country fan is not going to agree with a rock fan that a rock song is the greatest.

[bruce marshall 1,344]

" Film music is mostly crap in the 2020s, and will get worse on the following years"

 

 

 

Blah...blah....blah...

Whine...whine ....whine....

Everything sucks today.

 All.you do is wallow in negativity.

 

Talk about a person with a " shitty life"!

 

And you call me a "troll"?

 

[GerateWohl 4,926]

Star Wars inspired many kids, including me, to listen to classical music. For sure that will not happen with nowadays film music. But maybe it inspires some kids to play around with music apps.

[bruce marshall 1,344]

4 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

I've changed my mind.  There's always the chance to have one really good film/score, it's just you don't really get them on a regular basis anymore.

Yeah but....

Look at the quality of television programs and music we get now.

We got fantastic film scores in the Seventies but tv was drek.

Look at bright side.

It's not that hard.😊

 

[Naïve Old Fart 10,229]

If someone went back in time, to the 1930s, and played composers such as Korngold, and Steiner, a piece of music that was more like a chamber piece, with a lot of dissonant, screeching strings, they would have laughed in your face. Fast forward to 2021, and PSYCHO is (quite rightly so) considered to be among the greatest film scores ever written.

It can happen. It probably won't, but it can.

[bruce marshall 1,344]

The question should be compose a " classic score".

After watching HTTYD, I imediately called it an

" instant classic".

And I was right!

Some score take time to be acknowledged as " great"

 

[Edmilson 8,520]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

Maybe Indiana Jones 5 will be the best score ever written.

I'll be satisfied if it is the best score from the next year though. 

[Marian Schedenig 8,803]

10 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Which score would it need to supersede in order to become the best score of all time then?! ;-)

 

All that come before it, and all that come after it.

 

Criteria aside (how do you assess what the "best" film score is?) - unless the end of all time is in sight, or you can conclusively show why it is practically impossible for someone to come along and write a score that is better than what came before it, you cannot judge a "best of all time". For all we know, a future civilisation may reinvent films in an Utopian society where commercial considerations don't get in the way of art, and clone a Williams-Goldsmith hybrid who proceeds to write the best score of the then foreseeable future.

[bruce marshall 1,344]

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

If someone went back in time, to the 1930s, and played composers such as Korngold, and Steiner, a piece of music that was more like a chamber piece, with a lot of dissonant, screeching strings, they would have laughed in your face. Fast forward to 2021, and PSYCHO is (quite rightly so) considered to be among the greatest film scores ever written.

It can happen. It probably won't, but it can.

Imagine playing them BLADE RUNNER!

[Archive Collection 218]

It’s too early to know, only time will tell. No-one in the 1950s would have expected Herrmann’s Vertigo to be considered “the best” of all time. Same goes for Williams’ Star Wars in 1977. Recognition as being “the best” is something that develops over time, so it’s not easy to predict.

[bruce marshall 1,344]

THIN RED LINE took awhile to recognized as a classic also.