If you had to choose one composer whose work you would never, ever, be able to listen to again, who would it be?

Gosh, I ask questions that I don't even know the answer to.

For me it would have to be John Powel.

George Michael????!!!!
Well...everyone deserves a fair chance.

perhaps you guys misunderstood me. I want to know which composers you are not very fond off. has nothing to do with bashing composers, that is not my style.

Scott

Howard Shore.

I haven't heard a score he's done that I liked enough to buy, so it really doesn't matter. I never DID listen to his music, I don't NOW, and I most likely never WILL.

I wish you well, Mr. Shore...I don't want you to die tragically or anything...I just don't care for your music. At least not so far.

Mark Isham.
ENNIO MORRICONE <-!!!!! (I love one of his songs, but I could live without it)
And.. I wanna say Elmer Bernstein, but it's simply the majority of his work that I don't care much for.. but there's one or two out there that I could not live without.

If there can be any summation drawn from what I've written above, it's that Howard Shore wasn't my favorite at first, either. He grows on you. Howard Shore is the Algae of film composers. The Game is another great moody score with some nice piano doodlings, and his recent score to Dogma was award-worthy (this, after I myself trashed the score upon its initial release!).

He really grows on you, man. Trust me (and Rocco).

Shaun

Yeah, Goldenthal could dissapear from my collection as well.

this from the man who loves Drop Zone.

I'd better shut up now,before I have a heart attack.I guess I should also prepare for the backlash from my statements.

Arthur B. Rubinstein never impressed me. As for James Horner -- he's one of the only composers I'll buy just out of reflex, if it's cheap enough ... but man, I've been burned a LOT of times by that guy, most recently by BICENTENNIAL MAN and FREEDOM SONG. ($7 and $4, respectively.)

Listening to BICENTENNIAL MAN in particular, what's beginning to dawn on me about Horner is that he really DOESN'T CARE. Maybe he never did, although the boldness and vibrancy of so much of his early writing bespoke such tremendous promise. EVERY kind of artist copies when they start out, it's not something that can even be helped, it's part of the learning process. Less than ten years into his career, though, Horner shaped up to be a genuine kleptomaniac (GLORY, one of my favorite listens, is crammed with the most arcane references imaginable -- he must have a hell of a record collection. If only I could tell you the story of how he came to pilfer the main title from OUTLAW JOSEY WALES in one cue ... that he did so is manifest, but how he THOUGHT to pick it is another tale altogether ... )

What's especially maddening about Horner is that nearly all his scores will have at least the germ of an interesting idea in them. But listening to BICENTENNIAL MAN, a film I still haven't seen (sorry Chris -- it never hit the four-dollar house so we'll have to wait for the video) -- the music struck me as being particularly insincere. I'm not sure how to communicate this. But take any given theme from KRULL and put it up against any given moment in BICENTENNIAL MAN or MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, and the difference is amazing and obvious. Even when Horner's stealing wholesale, from himself or from others, you can TELL when there's more conviction. And, post-TITANIC, there's increasingly little. Even TITANIC was relatively affectless.

I've noticed that Horner seems to have a particular affinity for the epic fantasy genre -- I think that's why he's taken so many animated assignments. Off the top of my head, I'd say that BALTO is the best score he's done in the past five or six years -- way more exciting and interesting than TITANIC. (and it only cost me $4!)

And Rocco. When you get the expanded ST:TMP boot take special note of the alternate "The Enterprise". Absolutely stunning.

You can get a CDR of the COMPLETE STTMP (all two discs of it) for LESS than the commercial release ...