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Your favorite soundtrack?
- Thread starter Dinosound
- Start date
Original soundtrack: Ugetsu (other favorites include Taxi Driver, A Streetcar Named Desire, Rashomon, The Godfather, Hayao Miyazaki films, and others.)
Existing music: In The Mood For Love and Happy Together (also Amadeus and A Clockwork Orange)
Musical: Top Hat
Soundtracks That I Love That People Think Are Cheesey: A Better Tomorrow and The Mission (Johnnie To film)
Soundtracks That I Love To Hate: Most Hong Kong films featuring mediocre Teresa Teng wannabe Cantopop singers.
Best use of no music at all: What Time Is It There?
Best use of forgettable music: Pretty much any Ozu film (he's my favorite director even though he never cared for the strong use of music in films)
Existing music: In The Mood For Love and Happy Together (also Amadeus and A Clockwork Orange)
Musical: Top Hat
Soundtracks That I Love That People Think Are Cheesey: A Better Tomorrow and The Mission (Johnnie To film)
Soundtracks That I Love To Hate: Most Hong Kong films featuring mediocre Teresa Teng wannabe Cantopop singers.
Best use of no music at all: What Time Is It There?
Best use of forgettable music: Pretty much any Ozu film (he's my favorite director even though he never cared for the strong use of music in films)
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Some really good related threads - "Favourite Composers" here:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=51377
"Who is your favorite film composer" here:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=16842
"Favorite Film Scores/Song" here:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=25203
It's no matter that I'm a director or a fan, I like a certain kind of music. I've listened to soundtracks my whole life. I like pulsing electronics (Giorgio Moroder's CAT PEOPLE) and big, pounding strings and brass (John Williams' JAWS, STAR WARS). In fact, I even like them together, like my old, little demo here.
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=51377
"Who is your favorite film composer" here:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=16842
"Favorite Film Scores/Song" here:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=25203
It's no matter that I'm a director or a fan, I like a certain kind of music. I've listened to soundtracks my whole life. I like pulsing electronics (Giorgio Moroder's CAT PEOPLE) and big, pounding strings and brass (John Williams' JAWS, STAR WARS). In fact, I even like them together, like my old, little demo here.
If you want to be technical about it what you really want to know is favorite score. The soundtrack includes the dialog, Foley and sound effects.
Donnie Darko, Django Unchained, and Drive. All of which are some of my favorite movies.
Lately I've been into Cliff Martinez's work - Drive & Solaris especially. John Murphy's Adiago in D Minor is a favorite too, from the Sunshine & Kick-Ass soundtracks, as well as his work on 28 days/weeks later & Miami Vice.
And of course, Tangerine Dream's opening theme for the classic show "Street Hawk"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCItnKrXvMM
And of course, Tangerine Dream's opening theme for the classic show "Street Hawk"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCItnKrXvMM
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Calling albums/CDs of films "Soundtrack Albums" is a holdover from when albums were released of movie musicals. Quite often there was dialog mixed in with the score/songs, so they truly were from the soundtrack rather than just the score.
There are lots of holdover terms - we still dial a number on our phones, even though it's been quite a long time since rotary phones have disappeared from our homes. I'll bet a substantial majority of the people on this forum have never even used a rotary phone.
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Damn youngins not knowing what a rotary phone is!
Actually when i moved into my last place and saw the phone jack in the wall I thought to myself.. that doesn't look like the right size for ethernet. .what the hell is this plug.
Took me a minute to remember
Actually when i moved into my last place and saw the phone jack in the wall I thought to myself.. that doesn't look like the right size for ethernet. .what the hell is this plug.
Took me a minute to remember
Interesting. I have a couple hundred records/CDs labeled "soundtrack," so that's what I call them and probably always will.
A more recent terminology development, is that two versions of music are released. Much to my chagrin, is the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack or Music from the Motion Picture - meaning a compilation of songs, usually not recorded for the movie, but makes for an additional sales revenue for the producers or studio. More irritating is the occasional album of songs that aren't really heard in the movie.
Then there is the music recorded for the movie, usually referred to as the Original Motion Picture Score or Score.
I can never get enough of Conan the Barbarian soundtrack by Basil Pouledouris. One of my all-time faves, ever. He also did the soundtrack to Starship Troopers, but I don't believe a full album was ever released of that. Never been able to find one to buy, in any event. I love the guy's sound. 
Not so much a composer thing, but Sucker Punch had a soundtrack filled with covers of great songs. Even if you think the movie blows (which it doesn't
), the album itself is awesome.
Not so much a composer thing, but Sucker Punch had a soundtrack filled with covers of great songs. Even if you think the movie blows (which it doesn't
If you read the film credits you will probably find them there as well. It is not unusual for a film to license a song that gets cut in the final edit. After all, what's a $50,000 licensing fee when your budget is $50,000,000?
It's also not unusual for you not to really notice incidental music - on the radio, elevator music, etc. A song may be so buried in the mix that you do not consciously hear it.
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Well.....
I really like it! ROBOCOP, as well.
Well I'll be. Awesome to know. Gonna have to resolve to get it now, now that I've seen it!
Any chance you could magically summon a copy of the soundtrack to the newer Battlestar Galactica? The closest I've been able to find is a single track on a generic scifi music collection.
For historical reasons (as Alcove explained) the public call the musical score a "soundtrack", so products aimed at the public use that same terminology. However, particularly as a filmmaker, there's an obvious problem with using this incorrect terminology; if you're going to call the musical score the "soundtrack", what are you going to call the soundtrack?
To be honest, the whole thing is a bit annoying because it's ALL marketing! You're complaining about the "Music from the Motion Picture" label but actually the "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" label is misleading because you're not actually getting the *Original* Motion Picture Soundtrack (even if we ignore the incorrect use of the term "Soundtrack"). The original score for the movie would have been a 5.1 mix and optimised for a theatrical sound system, a CD is of course 2.0 stereo and a consumer format. So what you're actually getting is a remixed and re-mastered stereo recording optimised for consumer playback, NOT the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack! "Music from the Motion Picture" therefore implies not only a different mix/master but also a different musical arrangement. Of course, the ultimate goal is always more revenue but that's usually not the entire story. The original score was designed for the movie, to aid the storytelling by working with the picture and other elements of the soundtrack. On a "CD Soundtrack" there are no other elements and the music has to stand on it's own as a viable composition. This goes to the heart of the difference between a music composer and a film score composer and is one of the reasons why the film score composer is often contracted to re-structure and re-arrange the film score to make it a more viable stand-alone music composition.
To be honest, in my experience it is unusual to spend significant sums licensing music which ultimately gets cut. I'm sure it happens on occasion but then usually the credit would also be cut, to avoid confusion over royalty payments. The vast majority of the time only a very small amount of the track/cue may have been used and/or it's buried in the mix, either/both of which means that most of the audience wouldn't recognise it, as you described.
G
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If we're talking scores, there's a ton that I love. My top three have always been Tangerine Dream's Legend, Goblin's Susperia and Danny Elfman's Edward Scissorhands. Or rather, those are the three that made me want to make film music...I think Elfman has surpassed that a few times (the Big Fish was amazing). Kamen's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is another favorite (and the first album I bought with my own money!) James Newton Howard's Signs doesn't get enough cred though his Hunger Games scores have been amazing too. And, of course, Howard Shore's Tolkien work is inspiring, and Williams' Star Wars and Indiana Jones were pretty much the music of my childhood. Vangelis' Blade Runner...I could go on forever!
As far as collections of songs used in the movie, The Crow takes the cake for me (Hideaway was another good choice for 90s goth/industrial). Can't go wrong with Grosse Point Blank or Donnie Darko for throwbacks (or The Breakfast Club for being a part of the era). I also have a soft spot for most Kevin Smith soundtracks (Mallrats features one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands - Belly's "Broken") and going a bit more old-school, The Wicker Man soundtrack really got me interested in traditional folk music. Once again, I could go on and on....
You and I agree on that film, though I accept that many people don't.
As far as collections of songs used in the movie, The Crow takes the cake for me (Hideaway was another good choice for 90s goth/industrial). Can't go wrong with Grosse Point Blank or Donnie Darko for throwbacks (or The Breakfast Club for being a part of the era). I also have a soft spot for most Kevin Smith soundtracks (Mallrats features one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands - Belly's "Broken") and going a bit more old-school, The Wicker Man soundtrack really got me interested in traditional folk music. Once again, I could go on and on....
Not so much a composer thing, but Sucker Punch had a soundtrack filled with covers of great songs. Even if you think the movie blows (which it doesn't), the album itself is awesome.
You and I agree on that film, though I accept that many people don't.
Some of my favorites are Morricone's , especially Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The Lord of the Rings, Cloud Atlas, and Goodbye Lenin! also spring to mind.
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