by Paul Tonks
score -- n. / Pron. “skôr”
1. The notation of a musical work.
2. The written form of a composition for orchestral or vocal parts.
3. The music written for a film, play, or other viewed entertainment.
4. The resounding cheer of “high-fiving” Producers getting music that’s close enough to the Temp Track, without being sued.
There’s a tale I’ve wanted to tell ever since I started up the Column. The previous definition of “soundtrack” that sat atop this page until recently – that outlined some of it. Then in one of the early editions I went to town on what I thought of how the Austin Powers saga has been represented on album. Well, these past few weeks I’ve had a new audience to vent all my pent up dissatisfaction with how our soundtrack market has evolved. I’ve been running a course on Film Music here in the UK, and as I talk through various aspects of the industry’s history, I’m constantly reminded about how things have changed for the worse.
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The tale I want to tell begins ever so simply. With BATMAN. In the Summer of 1989, I just couldn’t understand why the Prince album was called the “Motion Picture Soundtrack.” At Amazon today, it’s more concisely listed as “Soundtrack.” I didn’t get it. I knew this new guy Danny Elfman had scored the film. I’d heard the rumours way back that Michael Jackson and Prince were going to provide wall-to-wall songs, but that ultimately only a couple of the 9 Prince-penned songs had ended up in the film. So was this a typo?
And then things went really crazy. From the Nineties, experiments with what the movie music buying public will pay for have become increasingly piss-taking.
I’ll happily clarify that I remain in favour of a director / composer making use of existing songs to perform a specific function in a movie. Your Tarantinos and your Lynches are consistently boxing clever with what they know a particular ditty will do for an audience. But the idea of selling a movie on the back of a music artist’s name, I just can’t my head around today any more than back in 1989.
But what this allowed license for was the far more lowly budgeted movies to attempt the same thing on a more limited scale. In other words, only pay a contemporarily popular artist for one song. That’ll sell to a large enough demographic, who won’t care that the rest of the album they’re paying for is made up of songs they may or may not like from artists who may or may not have been paid for something new. More likely it’s a compilation of cheaply acquired studio affiliated artists’ product.
Still with me? OK – here’s how I watched it happen…
In the Summer of 1993 I was very much looking forward to a couple of score albums: METEOR MAN and LEAP OF FAITH. “What?!!?” you ask. “Why?” Because in a few short years I’d become fascinated with the music of Cliff Eidelman after STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. Unfortunately, I hit a surprising snag for which I was totally unprepared. There were albums allright, but neither contained a note of Eidelman’s score. I vividly recall discovering these albums in a record store, turning the jewel cases over & all-but exclaiming “HUH?!” aloud. Remember folks, 10 years ago, this was in the Dark Times before the Internet meant an aficionado of all things movie-related could know all there was to know way in advance.
So off the top of this back-to-back let down, I started to join the dots of what was happening courtesy of the new CD Age, and began chronicling the disintegration of the word “soundtrack.” The first thing I was noticing was the delay of a score album, so as not to interfere with sales of a collection of songs. This happened to Elfman on BATMAN, and again the next year on DICK TRACY – for which there were three albums. (That continued for him with: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, MEN IN BLACK and SPIDER-MAN of course.) I observed this situation in the early Nineties on movies like PHILADELPHIA, TWISTER, THE MASK, THE CROW and many more.
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Graeme Revell continued to get it bad actually, with the next new breed of “Soundtrack Album,” which favours songs to the extent of seemingly begrudgingly sticking a solitary score track at the end. He had this with TANK GIRL, MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, STRANGE DAYS, and FROM DUCK TILL DAWN. This one-or-two-cues situation suddenly started happening for many composers, and is probably more offensive to film music collectors today than not getting a score album at all. Which is of course the logical progression of all this, per my discovery with Cliff Eidelman. Other titles that surprised by their absence into the Nineties were POINT BREAK, BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY, BARB WIRE (what?), SE7EN, and THE CABLE GUY.
Personally, I take issue the most with albums that alternate or go half and half between songs and score. Neither is doing the other any favours. To extend my explanation above, I’m again in favour of directors / composers who know what they’re doing with song placement. But it doesn’t matter how big the budget, or how big the movie, some movies’ scores just don’t belong jammed up against a bunch of songs. At the time, I certainly felt this way about FLIPPER, 12 MONKEYS, TRUE LIES, and JUDGE DREDD. Since nothing’s changed, I feel very strongly about it today.
The folks attending my lectures have picked up parts of this feeling about the state of the soundtrack market. I’ve been asked why it’s like it is many times over the years. A simple answer is: “money.” I can’t say that what we have today came exclusively from the money machine that drove BATMAN in 1989. But its only slightly coincidental timing with the advent of the CD Age, really does define a clear period of market trend-setting.
My tale is told. Now go enjoy either of your albums for TOMB RAIDER 2 or DAREDEVIL, your combination of song and score on CALENDAR GIRLS or THE MATRIX RELOADED, and your non-existent score albums for BAD BOYS II or CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE!
REVIEWS:
BERNARD HERRMANN: THE CBS YEARS – VOL. 1 – Bernard Herrmann, Prometheus PCD 152
I must confess that this is an album that’s only going to appeal to real Herrmann enthusiasts. Which is why I’m reviewing it here! Lean and dour, this is economic TV scoring from half a century ago that certainly appeals to my ear. But being fair-minded, I could well appreciate the repetition, long bouts without joy and general Herrmannesque brooding to be a turn off to others. As an archival release, this is to be congratulated for the effort involved in bringing to album. Personally, I will treasure it.
MATCHSTICK MEN – Hans Zimmer, Varèse Sarabande VSD-6515
Ordinarily, scanning an album’s cue listing to see 6 source songs strewn in between score cuts (see above!), and that 6 of those cues pinch from Nino Rota’s LA DOLCE VITA – well, I’d be sceptical. But Hans Zimmer paired with Ridley Scott for the sixth time means I’m a little more open than that. And deservedly so. This is likely to be the most I’ll want to re-play something of Zimmer’s since THIN RED LINE. Until “Pygmies!”, two thirds of the way in, this is consistently melodic and whimsically engaging stuff. With this cue you get the first whiff of Zimmer’s identifiable style – but even that doesn’t dash it. If you think Rota (or early Elfman in PEE WEE mode, if you haven’t discovered Rota!), meets CATCH ME IF YOU CAN – you get some idea of the fun of this disc.
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