Does anyone else miss truly great soundtracks?

[Robert Maxwell]

As long as Michael Giaccino, Bear McCready and John Williams are on the job, I'm happy with the film score situation.

Nearly any score that has made it to the status of being somewhat publicly recognizeable is probably from prior to the year 2000. How many people (general populace, not us film geeks) could recognize the theme for Lost or nuG, but I bet they'd recognize (if not actually name) MASH, Star Trek (classic), A-Team, Knight Rider, etc (to use only tv themes).

Now you're talking TV themes, which is totally different from movie scores. TV in general has become a much narrower cultural phenomenon because audiences are becoming smaller and more specialized as the number of shows increases and allows them to target exactly the shows they like. My favorite theme of all time is on TV right now: Dexter. But only 2M people watch Dexter out of a population of 300M, so of course it isn't recognizable like the shows in the olden days when you had three networks and that's it. Mad Men also has a great theme, and a similarly tiny audience.

The two soundtracks I play the most (to the point of obsession, really) are SW: ESB and Dexter.

Mad Men's theme is wicked because RJD2 is awesome.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezt2A4Nlwqw[/yt]

 

[RandyS]

^James Horner definitely fits in that category.

As does John Williams. Movie soundtracks just aren't the same without these two. Now days it's all rock or rap shit.

 

[Canadave]

^James Horner definitely fits in that category.

As does John Williams. Movie soundtracks just aren't the same without these two. Now days it's all rock or rap shit.

Except Williams doesn't rip himself off to anywhere near the same degree that Horner does.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Epic Sci-Fi scores aren't dead - Here's one recent example: (from TV nonetheless)

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1zsRNnKHqU[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtcnt_VkvGU[/yt]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC9FZcBCvHw[/yt]

 

[Robert Maxwell]

No discussion of the Children of Dune soundtrack is complete without this:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7whegFR6Lz0[/yt]

 

[Hyperspace05]

Yeah but it's more of a 'song', that's why I did not include it.

 

[Greg Cox]

The recent SHERLOCK HOLMES movie had a great soundtrack, and, yeah, DEXTER has a great theme . . . .

ALIAS had a good music, too. Not to mention HERCULES and XENA.

(To name just a few of the albums I often listen to when writing.)

 

[Whofan]

Murray Gold's Doctor Who soundtrack had some problems when it started, IMO-but by season 3 he had really gotten the hang of it. I particuarly like "Strange creatures" "Master Vainglorious" and "Eleventh Doctor action theme" (from the new season).

 

[Nardpuncher]

No discussion of the Children of Dune soundtrack is complete without this:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7whegFR6Lz0[/yt]

I really can't stand that ululating female voice thing thats supposed to sound ancient and mysterious. I think any movie that has that is really going to date itself as being from the year 2000 to 2005.

 

[Myasishchev]

Stop and think, really, for a minute. Nearly any score that has made it to the status of being somewhat publicly recognizeable is probably from prior to the year 2000. How many people (general populace, not us film geeks) could recognize the theme for Lost or nuG, but I bet they'd recognize (if not actually name) MASH, Star Trek (classic), A-Team, Knight Rider, etc (to use only tv themes).

And the fundamental unfairness of comparing the artistic achievements of a ten year period to those of a fifty-plus year period?