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Topic: What score got you into movie music?
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Andrew
Oscar® Winner
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What score origianlly got you into film music? I started when I bought Jurassic Park and JFK. I had noticed both of these scores on the film and liked them so much I decided to buy them...And now I have an ever growing number of scores...Andrew
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posted 06-01-2000 04:45 PM PT (US) ip
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Hector J. Guzman
Oscar® Winner
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It was SUPERMAN. This was the greatest movie and if you wanted to be "flying" like SUPERMAN, you had to hum fanfare. Then when I went to Universal Studios, I started watching STAR TREK and I liked the theme from ST:TNG, and I had this idea that that theme would appear in the STAR TREK TMP soundtrack, which was my first soundtrack I ever bought.NP. End Credits from PRESUMED INNOCENT by John Williams(Paul Bateman/City of Prague)
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posted 06-01-2000 05:08 PM PT (US) ip
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Jeron
Oscar® Winner
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Hey Andrew! This has been a topic before (many times, actually)... but it's still a good one. I got into film music when I was about 7 years old. If you've read my profile, you know that my sister who likes film music... but doesn't really ever listen to it, introduced me to Barry's "Out of Africa" and Rowland's "Man from Snowy River." Those two scores, including constant listening to classical music as a child (yes, my mother played it while pregnant... I was born liking this stuff), as well as the original Fantasia compilation all got me prepped and ready to go w/ film music. It's pretty much all I listen to, and gosh darn it - it's an expensive hobby to feed!  By the way... I'm 19 now. I've already got over 460 film score cds... and I'll probably not slow down anytime soon! Jeron
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posted 06-01-2000 05:21 PM PT (US) ip
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dantoris
Oscar® Winner
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The craze hit big-time in 1996 after I saw The Rock. I loved the music. It was the first time I had really heard and paid attention to a film's score. (At the time, I had no idea they were called "scores;" I only knew them as "soundtracks"). I had a few here and there from the years before, but The Rock was the first one I bought myself. The previous ones had been gifts and such, a couple from films whose music I didn't even remember (i.e. Men At Work).
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posted 06-01-2000 05:23 PM PT (US) ip
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Norman McCay
Oscar® Winner
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I second Hector's Superman opinion (even though it wasn't the film that got me into film music), Superman was THE MOVIE. The first half hour of the movie contained some of the most varied music ever, from the eternally inspiring main titles, to the first shots of Krypton, and Clark's departure from Lara and Jor-El, and to one of the BEST scenes of the movie, when Clark leaves Martha after Jonathan passed away....truly emotional scene. I believe that track was "Leaving Home," though I think that was edited and shortened on my version of the soundtrack...still haven't gotten the New Rerelease version yet. Don't ask why.As for dantoris' comments about The Rock...well, that's kind of funny, The Rock was the movie that I thought that really turned a lot of "mainstream" heads and attracted the attention of many non-film music listeners. Seriously. Many of my friends pointed out their liking for The Rock, and how that sparked the beginning of their film music "career" (if you call listening a career). Others would say Crimson Tide was a big influence....but Crimson Tide just doesn't keep my attention for its entirety like The Rock did. Crimson Tide had some great parts....but to me, The Rock was just packed with more memorable melodies all the way through. Another film that I know that started a lot of people off in film music has to be Star Wars: A New Hope. It's the UNDISPUTED king (in terms of soundtracks) of grabbing the most non-film music fans into film scores. Well....I shouldn't go so far to call it undisputed....but I think everyone would probably (hopefully) agree with me on that. The score that got me into film music was Forrest Gump. This was the FIRST EVER CD I had ever bought (I wasn't even really into music in general, can you believe that?), though I realized that I had bought the soundtrack compilation album instead of Silvestri's original score. That tells you something about the marketing strategy at most marquee-name retailers.... [This message has been edited by Norman McCay (edited 01 June 2000).]
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posted 06-01-2000 05:36 PM PT (US) ip
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Crono/Kyp
Oscar® Winner
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TO this day I still can't remmeber what one it was. It was eather "Back to the Future" or "T2."--Kyp
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posted 06-01-2000 05:57 PM PT (US) ip
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Marian Schedenig
Oscar® Winner
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That's an old but great topic, but I don't want to repeat the full story at the moment (should make a text template of it so I can simply paste it when I need it). So, the short version:
Never cared for classical music, never even consciously thought about film music , although I sometimes whistled the main theme from Lord of the Rings and loved the sequence right before the Riders of Rohan appear at the end of the film. I also taped the end credits of Gremlins 2. Hm, pretty contradictionary, huh? Anyway, one day I looked into my father's CD shelf (full of classical CDs) and there I saw Gerhardt's Star Wars CD. I should add that I had never seen Star Wars at that time (I was 15 or 16). I have no idea at all why I decided to listen to the CD, but from that day on, I was hooked on classical and especially film music. And what's even weirder, my father didn't like the CD much (I doubt he's ever seen the movies, and he wouldn't like them). He just had heard the Imperial March on the radio once, and got the CD hoping that it contained it. It didn't, of course, but in the end I was introduced to film music by a CD that I shouldn't have cared for, and in fact shouldn't even have seen because my father shouldn't have bought it. So I guess I was just incredibly lucky.  I could add that for a long time, I hated Bernard Herrmann's music, and even Goldsmith. The score that made me like Goldsmith was The Great Train Robbery. I discovered that I remembered music from several movies I had seen earlier, when I didn't consciously notice the music. I knew that I loved LOTR (not bad for a child, liking that atonal score) and Jurassic Park, although we didn't have a working video recorder and I couldn't hear the scores again before buying the CDs. ...short version, yeah, of course... NP: The Omen: The Essential Jerry Goldsmith Film Music Collection
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posted 06-01-2000 06:04 PM PT (US) ip
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John C Winfrey
Oscar® Winner
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Andrew, it was a long time ago, but I noticed film music the first time in late '50s in old films on a TV station in Ft. Worth. It was the music of Korngold, Steiner, Salter and Skinner in those old movies. That got me interested and then I heard Rozsa's scores for Ben Hur, El Cid and King of Kings and liked all those. I played the heck out of the old El Cid MGM Lp on my aunt and uncle's great stereo(one of the best sounding back then). From there continuous until today and film music fan. Best, John.
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posted 06-01-2000 06:32 PM PT (US) ip
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JClark
Oscar® Winner
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From the time I was a kid until I went to college, I listened exclusively to classical music. In 1992, however, as a freshman in college, I asked a record store clerk (I was there to buy some Mozart, I believe) whether I could find the soundtrack to Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. I didn't even know who the composer was, nor can I remember why it was Henry V, and not Star Wars or Superman, that triggered that unbelievably beneficial impulse. Needless to say, this clerk was one of the smartest I've met (kudos to all such clerks who know their film scores), and he led me to my first soundtrack CD. From there it's been quite a slippery slope (see, e.g., my post on the What's New In Your Collection--June thread)!
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posted 06-01-2000 06:41 PM PT (US) ip
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James
Oscar® Winner
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Erich Kunzel cast the lure, but "Jurassic Park" reeled me in.
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posted 06-01-2000 06:48 PM PT (US) ip
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Rang
Oscar® Winner
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Horner's STAR TREK II, and Williams' STAR WARS, though there are many others that assisted along the way. My dad introduced my brother and I to film music, and while my brother no longer listens to film music albums that much, it's something that has persisted and grown into a fun hobby for me. It was something that was ingrained into my memory while growing up that resurfaced in the early 90s. The visual / music association really appeals to me, as does appreciating film music as music away from its intended medium.
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posted 06-01-2000 06:51 PM PT (US) ip
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JJH
Oscar® Winner
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Bravo James! My sentiments exactly about Kunzel. I have to say though, as far back as I can really remember, the earliest film music that sparks any kind of memory in me is CE3K, that famous 5-note motif. It's strange: I really thought I hadn't paid any kind of attention to film music, and then once I had started colecting, I started having all these flashbacks to childhood, remembering the MUSIC to certain films. I really has paid attention to the music. Anyone else have this sort of experience? or am I just plain weird? One of this is Star Trek II. I guess I was only about 7 or 8 when it came out. The score as heard in the film is forever burned into my memory. And I remember watching it at home, with the Reliant all in flames and Horner's smokin' horn parts to signify Khan.
and of course, the very first classical piece I'm aware of is Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
NP -- The Hi-Lo Country. grand theme. One day FSM will release this in it's entirety, in say 25 years...assuming it's not already complete (then I'd just feel stoopid)
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posted 06-01-2000 07:23 PM PT (US) ip
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Lee
Oscar® Winner
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I started paying attention to film music back in 1995 when I bought the 4 cd set to Star Wars but the one cd that grabbed my attention was Nine Months. I know what you're all thinking but it's true. It's a great little score and I can only wish someday that I can somehow receive a copy of the complete score. Thanks to Hans Zimmer, my cd collection now has grown to near 200 and I'm positive it won't stop there.NP- Once Upon a Time in America (SE)
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posted 06-01-2000 07:43 PM PT (US) ip
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SPOR2
Oscar® Winner
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Way back in '73 at an all night POTA drive-in marathon. By the time Battle came on the sun was rising and you could barely see the screen...but you could hear the music.
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posted 06-01-2000 07:58 PM PT (US) ip
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charben
Oscar® Winner
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Star Wars, hands down. I was in the 4th grade at the time, and that was my first real exposure to film music. It was my first soundtrack purchase (after begging and pleading with parents, of course...). After SW, I grabbed any and all John Williams I could, then moved on to Goldsmith and Horner after I saw ST:TMP and STII respectively.Chris Harben
Atlantic Beach, FL
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posted 06-01-2000 08:50 PM PT (US) ip
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sabbey
Oscar® Winner
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For me it was the Star Wars Trilogy. Not a very original answer huh? Actually between it, the Back to the Future, Star Trek and Indiana Jones films I pretty much started this passion. There were other films as well. Though those were the main ones I remember. I also noticed that originally it was only portions of the scores I liked. And over time I started to like more and more. Funny, it was once I started listening to a more variety of scores around 1995 that I could listen to practically any score. Personally speaking, I can't remember what the first score I bought was, though I am pretty sure it was one of the Star Wars scores. However it was not until I bought the soundtrack to Batman around 1991 or 1992 that I really started to collect soundtracks. Some of which were songtracks. Just glad the longer I was collecting the more scores I was ending up with compared to the compilation discs. Regards,
Sean Robert Abbey [This message has been edited by sabbey (edited 01 June 2000).]
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posted 06-01-2000 09:18 PM PT (US) ip
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Lou Goldberg
Oscar® Winner
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I can't say just one score got me into film music. It was a product of bit by bit becoming aware of music and movies from listening to the radio, watching TV, or spending afternoons at a theater. Horror movies. The Kaper-Jurman or Kalmar-Ruby tunes in Marx Brothers movies. Bit by bit these all made me aware. Somewhere around the age of 11, I saw Citizen Kane & North By Northwest and suddenly there was film music! The next year I was gifted with a turntable, my first album was the Leroy Holmes Citizen Kane LP and the rest is history. Jaws, Black Sunday, Sisters, Obsession, and all the rest of the 70s scores as well as more and more classics on TV or projected.
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posted 06-02-2000 02:56 AM PT (US) ip
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Camillu
Oscar® Winner
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Growing up in Korea, my Dad bought this rickety little tape which was film themes by the LSO.The first one on the tape was - Flying I loved it, as well as the Star Wars main theme and the Chariots of Fire main theme, which were on side two. I also grew up hearing Out of Africa which my Mum loved. But I only got seriously into buying score when the special editions came out and I bought Return of the Jedi. ET followed as well as Braveheart and (strangely) Truman Show. I recently found a CD version of that old tape that started it off. The Flying theme is actually arranged by John Beal and made faster than Williams' version, and I prefer it actually. I think it's got more of a flying feel. I also got Out of Africa on CD coz I grew to love it. I guess it's flying and Out of Africa that made me grow to prefer sweeping themes played by strings. Over and out. NP - Legend of 1900 (sweeping themes played by strings ;-)
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posted 06-02-2000 04:00 AM PT (US) ip
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HAL 2000
Oscar® Winner
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I got started in 75. My first soundtrack? Space:1999 year one. My first Willaims soundtrack? Jaws. My first Goldsmith soundtrack? The Omen.
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posted 06-02-2000 06:42 AM PT (US) ip
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Pete M
Oscar® Winner
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It'd be a mix of Star Wars, & Superman, which my Dad used to show on his Super 8 projector every Christmas, & Gremlins 2, which was the first CD I ever bought.
np Leftism - Leftfield
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posted 06-02-2000 06:56 AM PT (US) ip
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Exarkun
Oscar® Winner
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Believe it or not, it was Transformers: The Movie Ehehhe...
10 years after the movie was released, i finally got my hands on the score YUMMY
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posted 06-02-2000 07:03 AM PT (US) ip
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SEBULBA
Oscar® Winner
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The one that got me was Star Wars. I was 10 years old at the time. Been collecting ever since.
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posted 06-02-2000 07:39 AM PT (US) ip
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Andre Lux
unregistered
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"Star Wars", "Superman" and "Star Trek - The Motion Picture".A good start, no?
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posted 06-02-2000 07:48 AM PT (US) ip
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Marc Flake
Oscar® Winner
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My mom bought the "Dr. Zhivago" album right after she saw the movie. I was too young to be allowed to see it, but I loved the music.Marc
NP: Dinosaur
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posted 06-02-2000 09:01 AM PT (US) ip
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Marian Schedenig
Oscar® Winner
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quote:
Originally posted by JJH:
It's strange: I really thought I hadn't paid any kind of attention to film music, and then once I had started colecting, I started having all these flashbacks to childhood, remembering the MUSIC to certain films. I really has paid attention to the music. Anyone else have this sort of experience? or am I just plain weird?
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. Obviously, film music really works subconsiously, and does it so well that you can remember it after YEARS even if you never consciously noticed it. NP: The Omen: The Essential Jerry Goldsmith Film Music Collection, as performed by Nic Raine (and Paul Bateman) conducting the City of Prague Philharmonic, with the Crouch End Festival Chorus directed by David Temple *GASP*
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posted 06-02-2000 09:32 AM PT (US) ip
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debi
Oscar® Winner
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Very early Goldsmith TV scores, actually. So SOME of you are making me feel very old. 19…talk about a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I can barely remember back that far. ;-)I wonder how many people DON'T have Star Wars in their collection?
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posted 06-02-2000 09:37 AM PT (US) ip
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Thor
Oscar® Winner
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This again.Well, I have actually done what Marian wants to do above - Since this is such a recurring topic, I have made a text version of my "story" and printed in on my homepage "Celluloid Tunes". If you are interested in reading it (it's very short), you can go to my site, click on "Speaking of which" and then "An example of gradual musical development". There it is - complete with a picture of myself and all! If you don't want to read it, the score that got me into film music was RETURN OF THE JEDI, but as late as 1986.
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posted 06-02-2000 09:55 AM PT (US) ip
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robin4
Oscar® Winner
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Mostly Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but also The Rocketeer.
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posted 06-02-2000 02:17 PM PT (US) ip
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Graham Watt
Oscar® Winner
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Difficult one. I used to tape the main titles off all the horror films that were on TV when I was wee (microphone up to the telly, parents being patient in the background), so I had lots of things by James Bernard, Les Baxter etc before I even realized that they were people.Perhaps I started really being hooked when I refused to leave the cinema before the end titles of Earthquake and The Towering Inferno had finished. And I took note of the composer's name. I hear he's quite famous now. Williams was amongst the first in my LP collection (Jaws), along with Herrmann compilations from films with special effects by Ray Harryhausen.
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posted 06-02-2000 02:22 PM PT (US) ip
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sabbey
Oscar® Winner
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quote:
Originally posted by Lou Goldberg:I can't say just one score got me into film music. It was a product of bit by bit becoming aware of music and movies from listening to the radio, watching TV, or spending afternoons at a theater.
Actually I would assume that to be the case for most. In my case, It is sort of the same. Even though the ones I mentioned earlier are the ones that I really enjoyed and were the first I noticed, even before I was an fan of music. It was an slow process these last 10-12 years to get where I am now. And that is addicted to film music. Regards,
Sean Robert Abbey [This message has been edited by sabbey (edited 02 June 2000).]
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posted 06-02-2000 05:08 PM PT (US) ip
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sabbey
Oscar® Winner
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quote:
Originally posted by Exarkun:Believe it or not, it was Transformers: The Movie Ehehhe...
10 years after the movie was released, i finally got my hands on the score YUMMY
I believe it! I too am an big fan of that score. It was not the first score I noticed. Though it definitely is one of, if not my favorite scores. The expanded score is very good. Hopefully it will get an regular release. Regards,
Sean Robert Abbey
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posted 06-02-2000 05:17 PM PT (US) ip
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Mark Olivarez
Oscar® Winner
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Back in 1976 at the tender age of 8 1/2 I bought John Barry's KING KONG thinking there would be dialogue and sound efeects on the album. Then STAR WARS came and we were stationed in Germany so the only music we had was Meco's version because the soundtrack wasn't available overseas. When my grandmother came to visit us from Canada I had her buy the Star Wars soundtrack and boy what a thrill it was to hear the opening fanfare with a real orchestra. That same year CE3K came out and I noticed a guy named John Williams who did SW also did CE3K. Well I bought that record too (Barry's Abduction used to scare the hell outta me at that age) and the rest is history. My first CD was STAR WARS and STAR TREK IV.
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posted 06-02-2000 09:44 PM PT (US) ip
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Gae
Oscar® Winner
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I bought "Jaws" at age 10 with my own pocket money....(only £1.99 back in 1975!!) followed this with Star Wars and 25 years later still collecting soundtracks and classical. Cant be bothered writing any more as its in my profile and been posted several times before......always a good topic though I suppose!! Gae NP Sleepy Hollow
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posted 06-03-2000 10:22 AM PT (US) ip
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Nicolai P. Zwar
Oscar® Winner
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I started listening to music (and film music) early on... I had the great luck that my father was a) a die hard classical music fan and b) a film freak.
So as a kid, I grew up not only watching lots of great old classics like CASSABLANCA, GONE WITH THE WIND, etc, but also conciously noting the music. Some of it I really liked, but did not know that anybody could actually BUY the music written for a film. So I started to tape movies from television, which allowed me to hear the music away from the images, too. If I would have to draw a line and name that one single score that I conscientiously noted and that made me appreciate the art of film scoring I would have to say: Dimitri Tiomkin's HIGH NOON.
It was a process, of course, but HIGH NOON may well have been the "seminal" turning point.
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posted 06-03-2000 10:32 AM PT (US) ip
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Cenzo
Oscar® Winner
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The soundtrack that started me buying sountracks was Aladdin, but the first score album I got that started a continuous wave of score buying was Batman Forever.
Cenzo
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posted 06-03-2000 10:48 AM PT (US) ip
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Patrick
Oscar® Winner
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The soundtracks to Giant and The Gunfight at the OK Corral (which goes to prove that I am older than dirt)
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posted 06-03-2000 01:46 PM PT (US) ip
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joan hue
Oscar® Winner
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I can barely remember. I think I first noticed music in Ben Hur and Ten Commandments.Welcome to the Board, Patrick. NP Watching video Haunting with sad score by Debbie Wiseman
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posted 06-03-2000 01:55 PM PT (US) ip
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Patrick
Oscar® Winner
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I liked Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments too. Thank you for the welcome Joan Hue
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posted 06-03-2000 02:04 PM PT (US) ip
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Stefan
Oscar® Nominee
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I remember taping a lot of themes from TV- shows and movies with my little mono tape recorder before I bought my first LP. And that LP was "FOR YOUR EYES ONLY". I only really wanted the James Bond theme, and was kind of disappointed when it didn't include a full-blown version of it. One week later I loved it.My devotion to scores really started when I went to the movies and watched "Gremlins". Yes, the "Gremlin Rag" made me stay through the entire end credits and the next day I bought the album without any hesitation. It is still my all time favorite and started a collection of many many many LP's and CD's of scores. My friends asked me: What's wrong with you? Why listen to this noise, it doesn't make any sense (when I ordered the Star Wars double LP in high school and my class mates heard it). Well, a long time ago people thought the earth was flat, meaning their brains were narrow without knowing it. Today they call it "**** for brains". Of course people don't have to like me playing "Backdraft" at a party at full blast 'cause it's not on the top 40 list and never were, therefore it's not acceptable at the party curcuit. Ever tried playing "The 13. Warrior" at a party? One or two think it's great (movie freaks), the rest point a gun at you and demand Brittney Spears and "Ooops, I did it again...". Yeah, you did it again, you made a total arse out of yourself. AGAIN. People are so NOT open- minded, they need to be told by a TV commercial or an ad in a magazine what to like. You know it, how many people you know REALLY love movie scores (except here at Moviemusic). They don't know ****, except Limp Biscuit singing the theme from MI2. They will never know the name Lalo Schifrin, they will remember Limp Biscuit. And you know what, it's okay. For some twisted reason I was annoyed when "Titanic" sold so many albums. Idiots. They didn't listen to Horner at all. All they wanted was the memory of the movie and that crap song that followed. The score was great, but Horner didn't buy his new car because of that. And that's sad. What score would turn me into a score freak TODAY? Hmmm. I don't know. My 80ies scores that I bought made a mark, Star Trek II (my second) and Temple of Doom (my third) made such an impression on me (because I was young?). So I read, people today gets excited because of Zimmer. The Rock. Some fine melodies with action. Crimson Tide. Don't get me wrong, I own over 40 Zimmer CD's and love them all. But I'm never excited anymore, like when I was 15 and went to the movies and watched (and listened to) Legend, Cocoon, Gremlins, Goonies etc. Scores today rarely get me excited. Episode One was okay, but come on, compared to the other ones? The thing is, if I ever was young today (as I once were), I doubt I ever had found an interest in movie scores. There is just too few good ones today, and too many bad ones. But that's okay. 'Cause I'm saving a lot of money now. NP: The Insider
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posted 06-03-2000 07:34 PM PT (US) ip
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Lou Goldberg
Oscar® Winner
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JJH/Marian--I've had that experience! I was flipping channels and came across ancient Saturday morning cartoon fare I swear I hadn't seen since 1970 and I knew the score by heart. I know cartoon tracks get reused a lot so it could have been drummed into my head from a lot of sources, but I really hadn't watched this in 30 years and the music was still there in my head.
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posted 06-03-2000 08:46 PM PT (US) ip
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