Your Film Music Origin Story
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I’m curious:
Is there a particular YEAR you consider your big MONUMENT year (or ‘watershed year’ or whatever you want to call it), i.e. a year when you fired on all cylinders, when you found your OWN musical identity in things, away from children’s records or whatever the other kids listened to?
I think my year is 1990. I was 12 for most of it, but turned 13 in November. I’m guessing whatever year you turned 13 would be applicable to most of us. So much happening this year, I think, in terms of finding my own musical taste. And it’s not even film music. I mean, I was probably aware of it at the time (TWIN PEAKS etc.), but I was busier opening my ears to orchestral music via those LSO Plays Classic Rock albums, discovering oodles of electronic music and Jean Michel Jarre, latching on the prog rock that I inherited from my dad’s collection. Etc., etc.
No doubt the next 5-6 years were more powerful in terms of absorbing things – like a sponge, I was – but I think 1990 is the big monument year when it all started. Prior to that, it was children’s records first and then bits and bobs of whatever was popular in the 80s, or some of those old 50s and 60s rock’n’roll artists I dug (I sung Elvis’ “Love Me Tender” in front of parents during a show in 1988, for example, dressed in a yellow Hawaii shirt….).
I don’t remember it specifially as I always had no general compatible music taste. I was already into film scores the late 80s although it must have taken off around 1987/88 I think when I discovered that more is actually available than I knew. I was a bit older than you back then already 😉
I am born late 1974. I received my first pop album in 1985, bought my first pop album in 1987, and probably got interested in film music in 1990.
My first film music album was a present by my parents. John Williams’ The Empire Strikes Back. I became 10 in 1980.
Then from my godmother I got a complete recording of Tchaikowsky’s Nutcracker, Claudio Abbado and The London Symphony Orchestra.
The next album I got was on my wish The Black Hole by John Barry.The first time then when I went to the record store I wanted to by the double album of Superman
But the seller convinced my parents to buy Superman II which was on sale. He said it was the same music but cheaper. Ok. Advantage was, I could buy a second album, Laurence Rosenthal’s Clash of the Titans. The next two were Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T.
My first pop albums I got 1983, the first Nena album, Grrman band. Then next Human’s Lib, Howard Jones, then Night and Day, Joe Jackson.Fun fact: If I remember correctly, the first film music CD I baught was a rebuy of The Empire Strikes Back, too. The same Single disk album that I got with 10 years.
Another fun fact: Of course I would have bought Star Wars, too as soon as possible. But the Star Wars double album was actually not available for quite some time.
Years later I found it in a store. The cover was a little damaged, but I didn’t care and got it immediately. Could even be that I got it after Return of the Jedi. But there I am not sure.A discussion on FSM, about what you got into first – films or music – made me wax nostalgic again.
I think every single person on the planet was exposed to music first, from your mother singing you to sleep with lullabies. In fact, we’ve probably interacted with music before we have any memory of ourselves. Like a toddler jumping up and down to a beat-filled tune. So music definitely came first for me, although I have very few, if any, memories of the 70s.
Then came television – Barne-TV (Children’s TV), as we call it. It’s institutionalized over here, at a time in the early 80s when we only had one TV channel in Norway. Maybe with a splattering of children’s programmes on radio. But rather than radio, I preferred listening to our 3-4 children’s records over and over again, to my parents’ dismay.
I can’t say for certain what my first film experience was, but I have a fleeting memory of a scene….the scary Katla the Dragon scene in Astrid Lindgren’s BRØDRENE LØVEHJERTE (THE BROTHERS LIONHEART), the film version from 1977. This was probably adapted to series format on TV in….let’s say 1981 or 1982, when I was four or five years old. But it still qualifies as a film.
I have no idea what my first cinema experience was, but it was no doubt in the first half of the 80s. Possibly some old Tarzan film with Johnny Weissmüller, some animated thing, whatever. After that, it becomes easier to track.
I don’t remember what I saw first but for sure some children’s programs like SEASMSTREET and some animation stuff like ES WAR EINMAL DER MENSCH (l était une fois… l’Homme was the original French title according to Wikipedia). My parents were not really cinema vistors but one of my first cinema memories is that I saw WATERSHIP DOWN with them.
My parents were not really cinema vistors but one of my first cinema memories is that I saw WATERSHIP DOWN with them.
Wow! I probably would have been traumatised by this one. My son saw it with twelve and said himself, this wasn’t a kids movie.
I think, my first movie experience might have been Bambi with 2 or 3. I just remember some rough images and noises from it but nothing about the story. Haven’t watched it since.
I think he meant AT twelve.
Embarassingly, I’ve never seen WATERSHIP DOWN. But I adore the Mike Batt/Art Garfunkel song “Bright Eyes”. Was a karaoke stalwart for many years, when I did those things.
Wow! I probably would have been traumatised by this one. My son saw it with twelve and said himself, this wasn’t a kids movie.
It might have been a mistake of my parents mistaking tis for a children’s movie 😉 And of course it is pretty dark at times and I do remember that. I was 7 or 8 at the time but I was not traumatized… I think at least;-). Wikipedia says it was for 6 or older which indeed did surprise me.
Embarassingly, I’ve never seen WATERSHIP DOWN.
Rather watch the rougher old version as that has more character than more slick 3D computer animatted the mini series on Netflix.
I think, my first movie experience might have been Bambi with 2 or 3.
Of course how could I not name Disney movies! Surely I saw Bambi, Robin Hood, Snow White, The Rescuers and others as a child as well.
BRØDRENE LØVEHJERTE (THE BROTHERS LIONHEART), the film version from 1977.
I saw that saw that as a child as well – not much memory in detail since I never saw it scine then – but I am sure I saw a mini series version of it.
Yes, that’s probably what I saw as well. Many of the Astrid Lindgren films were turned into 2- or 3-part series for television. Just basically separating the running time into TV-friendly segments. But it still qualifies. It’s not a TV series. It’s a film chopped up. And it is – to my recollection – the very first film memory I have.
I inherited much of my musical taste from my father (which is probably true for a lot of people, but now I’m nearing 50 and it still largely holds – I still love listening to the sort of music that he listened to) but film music is the big exception. He had no interest in that.
Ironically my love of film music originated in my love of the films – like most people of my generation I grew up with Star Wars and Star Trek films etc and recorded end credits pieces off the tv onto tape and played them incessantly. We were not financially well-off when I was growing up and buying albums was a luxury very rarely afforded – it was only when I went to university and became very reckless with money that I started buying a lot of albums. This was helped by the bizarre coincidence that when I went to university and met my new neighbours in the student accommodation, one of them was Tom Daish, who was a great big film music fan. Our mutual amazement that having never met another human being who had heard of Jerry Goldsmith or James Horner and then having two of these people living in neighbouring rooms was quite something.
My use of “ironically” in the previous paragraph is because as I got more into it, the films themselves were of no particular relevance to my enjoyment of the albums. I know a lot of people still think of the albums as some sort of musical souvenir of a film they like – this is evident from the commentary whenever one of the record labels inadvertently use a different take of a piece compared with the one in the film, or whatever – I like film music because of its musical qualities (who can say why, but it’s probably to do with the inherently dramatic nature of it, the musical storytelling) not because of the association with any particular film, even though that is what drew me in in the first place in my very young days.
Thanks for that, James, if you’re still around. I definitely relate to what you say about your father. I have the same background, in a way. In fact, I did a thread on FSM in 2024 about parents and film music. Instead of making a new thread about it here, I thought I’d just post it in this thread — parents are also very much part of our ‘origin story’:
“I realize this might be too personal for some, and I also realize some of you may have had problematic relationships to your parents, but it’s an interesting topic, I think.
I can start off:
Both of my parents are still around. My mother (71) is interested in music, but none of which I have latched on to. Her greatest idol is Cliff Richard, whom she met once. My father (74), on the other hand, is a different story. I don’t have the best relationship to him on a personal level, but there’s no doubt that he has influenced my musical taste greatly.
I was born in 1977. As a tiny kid in the early 80s, I could overhear him play his classical records, and hated most of it. But in the mid 80s, when I was 7-8 years old, he gave me a bunch of cassettes that he had taped off of friends’ LPs. They became my first serious forray into music beyond children’s records. There was prog rock, jazz, pop, everything, really, but mostly from the 60s and 70s. They became my first passion. From those, I found my own favourites – Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Manfred Mann’s Earthband, Jethro Tull, The Alan Parsons Project, you name it.
Simultaneously, I discovered (on my own) electronic music and Jean Michel Jarre in the late 80s, plus those “LSO Plays Classic Rock” albums. Being attuned to long instrumental passages in these things (electronic music and prog rock), and getting used to the orchestral music I hated as a tiny kid, the pathway to film music and soundtracks wasn’t very long. I latched on to that ca. 1990, through the holy threesome of TWIN PEAKS, THE ABYSS and JURASSIC PARK. So via some roads, my dad is responsible for me being here on FSM in the first place.
He’s still a music buff (mostly classical and jazz, occasionally some rock), and also a HiFi buff with a High End system. He cleans his LPs (thousands of them) and plays them constantly, much to my mother’s dismay. I was never really able to influence him back; to get him into film music. Despite several attempts. But he’s open to it.
Anyways, that was my parent/music story, told as briefly as I could. I’d love to hear yours, if you want to share.”
My mother (71) is interested in music, but none of which I have latched on to. Her greatest idol is Cliff Richard, whom she met once.
Funny, he was one of my mother’s favorite, too. She didn’t meet him thouhg 😉
Cool coincidende, Malte, but not altogether uncommon for that generation. Funny story, though. She was in Oslo with some friends for a concert of his, probably about 20 years ago or so. The day after the concert, she had a day to herself and stood outside the hotel where Cliff stayed. He came out with some bodyguards/entourage and entered a car, but none of the bodyguards seemed to care as my mom knocked on the window, he opened the door and she exchanged a few pleasantries with him. It’s very typical of her — she always manages to sneak her way into various VIP circles somehow. I don’t know how.
No one has any stories to share regarding your parents or perhaps siblings? Nothing, music-taste-wise, inherited from them, or situations where YOU have managed to influence THEM back?
A thread on FSM (by Zooba, of all people, once every hundred threads he does, there’s a worthwhile one) about what your first John Williams soundtrack was. It made me think. I think it must be JURASSIC PARK. Before I could save up enough allowance money to buy it on CD, a friend of mine bought it instead, so I copied it to cassette from him, and played that cassette to death until I succumbed and bought a CD of my own, some time in the late 90s.
But that doesn’t really count, since it was a copy, does it? Nor do possible single tracks I had on mixed tapes and compilations. On CD, it might very well be the compilation FILMWORKS (which has since left my collection, annoyingly), but that can’t be it. Too late. 1995. It must be something earlier. The Arista STAR WARS box? That was probably 1995 too. If not, it could possibly be CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, in 1993/94, which I got via mail order.
But this proves again how difficult it is to remember “firsts”, at least for me. Which is why origin stories like these are difficult to make.
U.S. TV from the 1960s/70s was my gateway:
Twilight Zone
Outer Limits
Star Trek
Lost in Space
Dark ShadowsAlso, 1960s spy series and ’70s urban crime dramas.
I remember some “firsts” quite well. The first soundtrack album I ever heard was STAR WARS, that was the first film score I listened to on its own, followed by STAR TREK – THE MOTION PICTURE. These were albums I copied from a friend and listened up and down and these two film scores kickstarted me to get my own music collection.
I know the first full “Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” album I ever bought was THE BLACK HOLE by John Barry, followed by JAWS 2 by John Williams and POLTERGEIST by Jerry Goldsmith.I remember some “firsts” quite well.
I barely remember the first time I had….uhm, intimate relations with a member of the opposite sex. Which is the no. 1 “first” that everyone remembers.
So as I said earlier in the thread, I’m constantly amazed by the ease by which many of you, or people posting on other boards, remember such things in vivid details.
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