(Archive) A History of Soundtrack Loving
*Reposted from my former blog*
As a young child I always found myself tapping along to musical numbers, so much so that often you could find me theatrically singing and dancing to ridiculous songs such as 'I Feel Pretty' in my bedroom. At such a young age the idea of scores rarely crossed my mind, I may have realised that there even music to accompany the bittersweet scenes only once or twice. This seems so alien to me, now I look back, since I currently find it hard to not rant about a particular score from a particular film that was particularly bad.
However I did listen to one spectacular piece more than intended which I'm sure you've all heard of, 'Ecstasy of Gold' by the wonderful Ennio Morricone. That one track was what my father used to play constantly in the car, and if we were travelling to Scotland from England, we would probably hear it a good ten times due to the abundance of tracks on his mix CD's. The gorgeous melody produced by the master of western film's music often made me gaze out the glassy pane for three minutes imagining myself facing off against a humongous guy with only one bullet in my gun.
It wasn't until I watched a film with a hideously obvious soundtrack when I revealed my interest. The movie was 'Hanna' with music done by the Chemical Brothers. A somewhat trippy soundtrack for a film filled with eccentric cinematography, it only seemed fitting. After listening to it by itself, and subsequently purchasing the devilish tunes, I suddenly found myself paying attention to film music intently. As I already owned a few soundtracks, namely Disney, Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting and The Beach, not to mention my brother's random selection of bad soundtracks. I already had quite the head start and definitely plenty to keep my MP3 player full.
I don't know about you but '...To Die For' by Hans Zimmer from the Lion King has always been one of my favourite pieces, for its pure sense of anticipation, fear and sadness.
Now my friends will know that since my enlightenment I frequently pester them about scores, we may be watching a movie but granted I will interrupt it to whine or rave about a particular cue. Oh, and I never forget to guess the composer before the end and then most likely be right. Then when we walk out the cinema and everyone is saying 'the story was great', 'the camera work was artistic'; I'll be hovering behind them ready to abruptly interject a sort review on the music. The chance of me liking a film with an lacklustre score is pretty slim, essentially proving how much they mean to the overall experience. Don't get me wrong, I can still admit it's a good film otherwise.
Slowly over time I started downloading and avidly collecting scores, a small collection at that - due to my cheap skate nature. My first additions were all the John Williams and Alexandre Desplat 'Harry Potter' scores, which provided an obvious expansion to my stash. If you were to look through my phone to peer in to the music that I will often listen too, besides from RnB and Soul, you are likely to find a ginormous amount of movie soundtracks, roughly 80% from recent calculations. It makes me the worst person to put on music at a party; I find it hard to believe you can rock out to excerpts from Gravity.
Last year served as the confirmation that I really was crazy. At the end of the twelve months we came to that point, the Oscar scrounger period. Gravity was released, Frozen, Captain Philips, 12 Years a Slave, The Counselor, Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena, The Book Thief and many, many more. This wave of films crushed me, revealing my absolute commitment to the scores. I listened to every new release before seeing the film. And when the Oscars did come around, I actually paid attention. I was begging, because the nominations weren't all that and the only one I thought worthy of a prize was Gravity. If you can't tell I love Gravity. I adore it's special effects, the atmosphere, Sandra Bullock and most of all Steven Price's rendition of space. He didn't fall in to the obvious symphony space odyssey bubble, he jumped out and went 'no, it has to be fitting and epic, and scary' and he did just that. He created something different yet still musically beautiful. I remember coming out of the screening of it at our small local cinema just speechless, because that is what music should do. I still listen to the melodies and the white noise of that music and shivers still run down my spine.
The past five months have been nothing but hectic, exams, deadlines, stress, stress, worry. Through that time I had little space to be able watch new films or find new scores, yet all through the weeks I was listening to the melodies 24/7, they calmed me down. They provide a means of listening that requires little thought, if you wish not to think and plenty of thought, if you wish to analyse. That was the asset that helped me concentrate on studying and block out the irritating sound of clattering pots from the kitchen as my Mum desperately tries to put everything back where it came from. Hopefully I passed the exams, and if I didn't I still spent a month straight listening to scores so it's win-win.
You're probably wondering what I wish to do in life. Honestly, I have very little idea. There's a path that I am following and there a paths that lead off in case of failure. I am heading towards being in the animation sector, artistically yet my love of geology holds possibilities of being a geologist or volcanologist. Then my adoration of stage grasps my attention with the idea of acting, lighting design, set design, costume design. But what about music? I sing, I play guitar, I have a passion for scores, and I would be thrilled to be a composer. Then there's so much more. I'm not someone who knows where they will go, they know what they like and dislike but that's it. The way I see it I am an extremely adaptable person, who honestly could go anywhere and be happy, but is there something that will make me ecstatic for a lifetime - I don't know. Maybe my calling is to the compositional land.
Scores have been, and hopefully always will be, a significant part of my un-matured life and sharing it with people is what I pride myself in more than anything, there's a sense of purpose that accompanies the passion. It has given me a deepened heart and a widened brain with plenty more space to fill for the wondrous art of film scoring.
As a young child I always found myself tapping along to musical numbers, so much so that often you could find me theatrically singing and dancing to ridiculous songs such as 'I Feel Pretty' in my bedroom. At such a young age the idea of scores rarely crossed my mind, I may have realised that there even music to accompany the bittersweet scenes only once or twice. This seems so alien to me, now I look back, since I currently find it hard to not rant about a particular score from a particular film that was particularly bad.
However I did listen to one spectacular piece more than intended which I'm sure you've all heard of, 'Ecstasy of Gold' by the wonderful Ennio Morricone. That one track was what my father used to play constantly in the car, and if we were travelling to Scotland from England, we would probably hear it a good ten times due to the abundance of tracks on his mix CD's. The gorgeous melody produced by the master of western film's music often made me gaze out the glassy pane for three minutes imagining myself facing off against a humongous guy with only one bullet in my gun.
It wasn't until I watched a film with a hideously obvious soundtrack when I revealed my interest. The movie was 'Hanna' with music done by the Chemical Brothers. A somewhat trippy soundtrack for a film filled with eccentric cinematography, it only seemed fitting. After listening to it by itself, and subsequently purchasing the devilish tunes, I suddenly found myself paying attention to film music intently. As I already owned a few soundtracks, namely Disney, Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting and The Beach, not to mention my brother's random selection of bad soundtracks. I already had quite the head start and definitely plenty to keep my MP3 player full.
I don't know about you but '...To Die For' by Hans Zimmer from the Lion King has always been one of my favourite pieces, for its pure sense of anticipation, fear and sadness.
Now my friends will know that since my enlightenment I frequently pester them about scores, we may be watching a movie but granted I will interrupt it to whine or rave about a particular cue. Oh, and I never forget to guess the composer before the end and then most likely be right. Then when we walk out the cinema and everyone is saying 'the story was great', 'the camera work was artistic'; I'll be hovering behind them ready to abruptly interject a sort review on the music. The chance of me liking a film with an lacklustre score is pretty slim, essentially proving how much they mean to the overall experience. Don't get me wrong, I can still admit it's a good film otherwise.
Slowly over time I started downloading and avidly collecting scores, a small collection at that - due to my cheap skate nature. My first additions were all the John Williams and Alexandre Desplat 'Harry Potter' scores, which provided an obvious expansion to my stash. If you were to look through my phone to peer in to the music that I will often listen too, besides from RnB and Soul, you are likely to find a ginormous amount of movie soundtracks, roughly 80% from recent calculations. It makes me the worst person to put on music at a party; I find it hard to believe you can rock out to excerpts from Gravity.
Last year served as the confirmation that I really was crazy. At the end of the twelve months we came to that point, the Oscar scrounger period. Gravity was released, Frozen, Captain Philips, 12 Years a Slave, The Counselor, Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena, The Book Thief and many, many more. This wave of films crushed me, revealing my absolute commitment to the scores. I listened to every new release before seeing the film. And when the Oscars did come around, I actually paid attention. I was begging, because the nominations weren't all that and the only one I thought worthy of a prize was Gravity. If you can't tell I love Gravity. I adore it's special effects, the atmosphere, Sandra Bullock and most of all Steven Price's rendition of space. He didn't fall in to the obvious symphony space odyssey bubble, he jumped out and went 'no, it has to be fitting and epic, and scary' and he did just that. He created something different yet still musically beautiful. I remember coming out of the screening of it at our small local cinema just speechless, because that is what music should do. I still listen to the melodies and the white noise of that music and shivers still run down my spine.
The past five months have been nothing but hectic, exams, deadlines, stress, stress, worry. Through that time I had little space to be able watch new films or find new scores, yet all through the weeks I was listening to the melodies 24/7, they calmed me down. They provide a means of listening that requires little thought, if you wish not to think and plenty of thought, if you wish to analyse. That was the asset that helped me concentrate on studying and block out the irritating sound of clattering pots from the kitchen as my Mum desperately tries to put everything back where it came from. Hopefully I passed the exams, and if I didn't I still spent a month straight listening to scores so it's win-win.
You're probably wondering what I wish to do in life. Honestly, I have very little idea. There's a path that I am following and there a paths that lead off in case of failure. I am heading towards being in the animation sector, artistically yet my love of geology holds possibilities of being a geologist or volcanologist. Then my adoration of stage grasps my attention with the idea of acting, lighting design, set design, costume design. But what about music? I sing, I play guitar, I have a passion for scores, and I would be thrilled to be a composer. Then there's so much more. I'm not someone who knows where they will go, they know what they like and dislike but that's it. The way I see it I am an extremely adaptable person, who honestly could go anywhere and be happy, but is there something that will make me ecstatic for a lifetime - I don't know. Maybe my calling is to the compositional land.
Scores have been, and hopefully always will be, a significant part of my un-matured life and sharing it with people is what I pride myself in more than anything, there's a sense of purpose that accompanies the passion. It has given me a deepened heart and a widened brain with plenty more space to fill for the wondrous art of film scoring.
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