[Thor Joachim Haga]

Oh, there’s definitely LOTS of class and sophistication in ‘easy listening’ when it’s by guys like Mancini or Williams. Same as there is in ‘New Age’ — a term that was used for a lot of music I loved as a teen, but which was looked down upon by my grunge-loving, hip hop-obsessed contemporaries in the 90s. Enya, for example, was and is a massive favourite (have all her albums!), but I had to keep that to myself back then, LOL!

Mark Knopfler is an interesting case to me.

I was a big Dire Straits fan as a kid (another band that was not terribly “hip” among my contemporaries, especially not in high school), and that meant I also had to seek out Knopfler’s solo work. That included his film music, so I picked up the SCREENPLAYING compilation in the 90s. Weirdly, I had this prejudice against film composers with a pop/rock background, wherein I felt they didn’t have the dramatic chops needed. So I both kinda liked what I heard on that CD, but also not due to that snobbish attitude (which was also highly hypocritical, because I was a massive Elfman fan).

Anyways, all of that is gone now, and I can truly appreciate Knopfler’s film work. No prejudice, no fear of being “uncool”, it’s all good stuff. Both the solo albums and the film scores (LOCAL HERO, THE PRINCESS BRIDE, CAL etc.).