Film Music as Gateway Into Genres You Didn’t Like?
- This topic has 16 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 3 weeks, 4 days ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Has film music ever served as a gateway into any genres that you historically didn’t care for?
I can think of two genres:
I never cared for progressive rock, but because of its use in ’70s horror, e.g., Goblin, I have been much more open to it.
Similarly, I always hated country music, but because so many ’70s “New Hollywood” auteur films begin with a truck stop or a desolate western highway, accompanied by country music, I now have a different association.
Film music for sure increased my tolerance for folk music in general. And certain flavors of world music.
And it definitely widened the door for dissonant music for me. But that’s not really a genre.
And film music made me listen to much more jazz, than I would have done otherwise.
Actually I didn’t like classical in general due to school music and film music made me checkout more if it. For example I would probably not have checked out out Bartok or Stravinsky if I hadn’t always read about the influences in Goldsmith’s music.
Good question… could well be… like you said, country music probably.
I admit before diving into film scores “completely” I even had a country phase. Especially because of a Johnny Cash Best of Double LP of my father.
What an intriguing question.
The short answer is….YES!
Some examples, though:
I was never into New Wave, Ska and that kind of stuff while growing up. But as I became a Danny Elfman fan, I inevitably had to collect the Oingo Boingo albums, which in turn led to a greater appreciation of those genres in general (Madness, New Order, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads etc.).
I was never a big jazz fan, but through the prism of film music (primarily John Williams — both his scores and his studio albums as pianist), I opened up a LOT more. Also Mancini, Schifrin, Bernstein and others. I still don’t have a very impressive collection of non-film music jazz that isn’t related to film composers, but the tolerance level is considerably greater than it was. Especially loungey stuff like exotica and erotica.
I hated classical music as a kid (maybe because my dad played it all the time), but while I credit the “London Symphony Orchestra Plays Classic Rock” albums as my gateway into orchestral music, film music opened my eyes and ears to classical music and its various sub periods — like when film composers did pastiche of baroque idioms. No doubt film music opened me to CONTEMPORARY, modernistic concert music. I would never be able to appreciate guys like Penderecki, Ligeti, Stockhausen etc. if it weren’t for Goldsmith, Goldenthal, Corigliano etc. I remember sampling a CD my dad owned of the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg, Webern, Berg) in the early 90s, before I had been properly exposed to those film composers, and absolutely HATED every second of it. But then when I tried it again years later, I found plenty to decipher and enjoy.
I still don’t like country music, unless it’s gravelly and genuine, like Johnny Cash. But my tolerance level has increased due to various down-and-dirty Americana scores. Again, Williams plays a big part – and also his studio albums (his four albums with Frankie Laine, for example, made me appreciate western, which is slightly different than country…but still close enough).
Probably lots more. I’ll think about it.
Soundtracks also did a great job introducing me to minimal music.
Oh, yes, I think KOYANNISQUATSI was responsible for that as well. Although you could say some elements I knew without knowing from Tangerine Dream for example.
I never really cared that much for Tangerine Dream in my early childhood and teenage days, too many sequencers. And while I sampled Riley, Reich, Nyman and Glass in the 90s (again on some of my dad’s CDs, I believe), they did nothing for me. Barely THE PIANO. In the 90s, I wasn’t keen on EDM either — although I curiously partook in some raves (it was more the events than the music).
It was only in the early 2000s that something changed. First, I rediscovered EDM artists for their musical value (house, trance and psytrance, primarily) with lots of minimalist/repetitive structures. Then I rediscovered Nyman and Preisner (and Kilar, somewhat). Then Williams’ John Adams-ian A.I. Then it was through “post-minimalist romantic” scores, by the likes of Richter, Korzeniowski, Marianelli, in the mid 2000s, that something clicked with me. From there, I went back and re-appreciated the hardcore minimalist pioneers. So I think it was a joint effort from EDM and film scores that I FINALLY was able to appreciate minimalism.
I discovered them in the mid/late 80s witn best ofs like the 2CD “Dream Sequence” a bit before I finally and totally was hooked with film scores learning what is out there if you know where.
For me it’s more IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) than EDM though. EDM for me is stuff like David Guetta and Kygo, that I’m not very fond of. IDM is the great 90s stuff from labels like R&S, Warp, Apollo and Eye Q.
But this is another discussion.
When I look back, I had early on a real and deep interest in both film and in music (and therefore in film + music = film music), so so “film music” was an intersection where both of these interests merge. So no question I discovered more new and new types of music through movies, but it’s hard to determine the scope and influence film music had and was/is responsible for me exploring certain other types of music, but there is no question that it’s there, and it is probably considerable.
My liking for classical/concert hall music was already blossoming thanks to a wide selection of LPs from the local library in my mid-teens, but Previn’s Rollerball really blasted the door open with his Shostakovich selections.
I never enjoyed ANY rap or hip hop music until I heard Desplat’s Nid de Guêpes, the French-language rap track from which I thought was fantastic. It didn’t lead to a fondness for any other rap.
I think the only genre that really qualifies for this would be jazz, in the respective hands of Legrand, Mancini, Morricone, Barry, Schifrin and later, Komeda. And others, I imagine, which currently escape me.
Heh! Thankfully, I was already a believer by the time I saw Sly pretending to know what a goalkeeper does.
What Escape to Victory DID open my eyes to was how much another composer’s music could be used in a soundtrack without any credit whatsoever. I want to believe that Conti had nothing to do with that aspect.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.