2000 is going down in history as one of the worst film years on record. No one took any chances (except for a few films yet to be seen in most markets). When the top possibility for Best Actress this previous year is Julia Roberts, you know that this past movie year is in trouble.

Film scores were no exception. I heard very little I liked or wanted to put out top dollar for a CD. I did a little survey of my collection and came up with the following purchase statistics from the year 2000:

Total number of film score CD's purchased in 2000 - 58

Total number of year 2000 film score CD's purchased - 8

Total number of film score CD's from year 2000 movies for which I paid full price - 4

Total number of film score CD's from year 2000 movies which I purchased used - 4

Total number of film score CD's from prior years purchased - 50

Total number of film score CD's from prior year's movies for which I paid full price - 29

Total number of film score CD's from prior year's movies which I purchased used - 21

These statistics are very telling. First, the fact that less than 15% of my purchasing came from the current year, and less than 7% of my purchasing was worthy of my paying full price.

Then the fact that nearly 87% of my purchasing came from prior years films (some were 1999 releases, holdover purchases in early 2000).

Just what were the full price 2000 purchases?
Chicken Run
U-571 (No choice, a promo release, had to pay full price for it)
Godzilla: 2000 (While a "full price" purchase, I only picked it up because it was on sale at Meijer for $10.00)
Hollow Man (Ignored this one until I read a favorable review in FSM)

So, the best film score of 2000 was Chicken Run? Hmmm...that's kind of sad. Granted, I enjoyed the film and the music, but there were many more scores out there that should have just been better.

So what happened? Basically, this year took no chances whatsoever. Established composers seemed to be taking a paycheck, and new composers have yet to exercise any clout; good midlevel composers could not exercise their craft in any meaningful way in what has finally reached the pinnacle, a business/product driven Hollywood, where producers and studios and VP's in charge of action figure marketing didn't want anything new or different, they wanted sameness.

As far as prior years scores, this is where film scores really shone. The highlight of the year - FSM's own release of Omega Man, one that's been a long time in coming. Other high points included the complete Superman (more kudos’ to Nick Redman and company); the continuing series of releases from FSM; the folks at Prometheus for releasing some of Jerry Goldsmith's golden age TV and film scores; the gang at Varese for some nice work (most of the time) on re-recording older scores; Lalo Schifrin and his Aleph label for getting some of his older scores to us; and finally Chapter III which seems to have picked up the ball Turner/Rhino dropped several years ago.

As far as disappointments, I probably would (carefully) single out the complete (Decca) Jaws and expanded (Varese) Total Recall. However, I think these are more me than the scores themselves. I've just spent too many years listening to the original releases and haven't quite gotten used to the expanded CD's yet. On the other hand, Williams and Goldsmith could be right about opposing expanded releases of their scores.

As for the future, what will happen? I speculate that it doesn't look good. Granted, there will always be soundtracks to be released, but will the current boom in releasing older scores continue? I don't think so. The economy has allowed a lot of things to flourish over the past ten years that otherwise might have failed. With reports of the economy slowing, I suspect that this boom in film scores will falter and some labels will fail or will retrench, cutting their production schedules. This means that song scores and "inspired by" scores will probably continue (much to our chagrin), but the second score album and the boutique companies will dwindle. I hope I'm wrong.

1.Magnolia
2.American Beauty
3.Eyes Wide Shut
4.20 Dates
5.Sleepy Hollow
All 5 had excellent scores except "20 Date" which had no score.

IMHO, "Erin Brockovich" was complete garbage, and all Julia Roberts did was annoy me. The film was almost identical to A Civil Action. Newman's score wasn't too bad, but he's capable of much better.

Total number of Film Scores purchased this
year - 53

Total number of year 2000 film score CD's purchased - 10

Total number of film score CD's from year 2000 movies for which I paid full price - 7

Total number of film score CD's from year 2000 movies which I purchased used - 1

Total number of film score CD's from prior years purchased - 43

Total number of film score CD's from prior year's movies for which I paid for with a gift voucher - 3

Total number of film score CD's from prior year's movies which I purchased used - 39

I wouldn't say that this shows the quality of the CDs I bought, it was just luck that they had been pre-owned. I'd say, had I have had the money, I would have paid full price for up to 70% of the used CDs I bought this year.

While it hasn't arrived in the mail yet, the best discovery this year for me was Jon Brion's score for "Magnolia". This applies to the film aswell. Infact, I'll even throw in the Aimee Mann CD. Everything about this film captivated me and I'm also going to vote it as my best DVD purchase this year.

You may already know, but if not then I am not really a fan of John Williams, but the Decca re-release of "Jaws" is also something I feel is worthy of a mention. Likewise, I picked up "Jurassic Park" used, for $9.95 (RRP of a CD in Aus is $30 remember, which is how much I paid for "Jaws"), a CD I'd been searching for for a long time.
However, the CD I was most disappointed with was also a John Williams score. "JFK" which I found in mint condition for $6. Silvestri's "Eraser" was also a disappointment and just not to my liking. Parts of it are too similar to "Judge Dredd" which is IMO a much better score.
I can't comment on Total Recall Deluxe Edition, because it hasn't arrived yet either, though I will say that I obtained the original Total Recall CD this year and although I am not a Goldsmith fan, it too is now one of my favourites, so i hope the Deluxe Edition lives up to, for the most part, good reputation.

Anyway, top of my list for the year:

Thirteen Days
Dinosaur
Unbreakable
Gladiator (not all that original, but enjoyable to listen to on its own)

1) Unbreakable
2) Chicken Run
3) Legend of Bagger Vance
4) Dinosaur
5) X-men

It was a bad year for movies too...

Dan (UK)

quote:

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Originally posted by Greg Bryant:
As we enter the new year (and new decade and new century and new millennium)(yes, I am subscribing to the Gregorian calendar - what else can I do?), it's time to assess the state of film scores in the year 2000. And what a woeful state it was.

2000 is going down in history as one of the worst film years on record. No one took any chances (except for a few films yet to be seen in most markets). When the top possibility for Best Actress this previous year is Julia Roberts, you know that this past movie year is in trouble.

Film scores were no exception. I heard very little I liked or wanted to put out top dollar for a CD. I did a little survey of my collection and came up with the following purchase statistics from the year 2000:

Total number of film score CD's purchased in 2000 - 58

Total number of year 2000 film score CD's purchased - 8

Total number of film score CD's from year 2000 movies for which I paid full price - 4

Total number of film score CD's from year 2000 movies which I purchased used - 4

Total number of film score CD's from prior years purchased - 50

Total number of film score CD's from prior year's movies for which I paid full price - 29

Total number of film score CD's from prior year's movies which I purchased used - 21

These statistics are very telling. First, the fact that less than 15% of my purchasing came from the current year, and less than 7% of my purchasing was worthy of my paying full price.

Then the fact that nearly 87% of my purchasing came from prior years films (some were 1999 releases, holdover purchases in early 2000).

Just what were the full price 2000 purchases?
Chicken Run
U-571 (No choice, a promo release, had to pay full price for it)
Godzilla: 2000 (While a "full price" purchase, I only picked it up because it was on sale at Meijer for $10.00)
Hollow Man (Ignored this one until I read a favorable review in FSM)

So, the best film score of 2000 was Chicken Run? Hmmm...that's kind of sad. Granted, I enjoyed the film and the music, but there were many more scores out there that should have just been better.

So what happened? Basically, this year took no chances whatsoever. Established composers seemed to be taking a paycheck, and new composers have yet to exercise any clout; good midlevel composers could not exercise their craft in any meaningful way in what has finally reached the pinnacle, a business/product driven Hollywood, where producers and studios and VP's in charge of action figure marketing didn't want anything new or different, they wanted sameness.

As far as prior years scores, this is where film scores really shone. The highlight of the year - FSM's own release of Omega Man, one that's been a long time in coming. Other high points included the complete Superman (more kudos’ to Nick Redman and company); the continuing series of releases from FSM; the folks at Prometheus for releasing some of Jerry Goldsmith's golden age TV and film scores; the gang at Varese for some nice work (most of the time) on re-recording older scores; Lalo Schifrin and his Aleph label for getting some of his older scores to us; and finally Chapter III which seems to have picked up the ball Turner/Rhino dropped several years ago.

As far as disappointments, I probably would (carefully) single out the complete (Decca) Jaws and expanded (Varese) Total Recall. However, I think these are more me than the scores themselves. I've just spent too many years listening to the original releases and haven't quite gotten used to the expanded CD's yet. On the other hand, Williams and Goldsmith could be right about opposing expanded releases of their scores.

As for the future, what will happen? I speculate that it doesn't look good. Granted, there will always be soundtracks to be released, but will the current boom in releasing older scores continue? I don't think so. The economy has allowed a lot of things to flourish over the past ten years that otherwise might have failed. With reports of the economy slowing, I suspect that this boom in film scores will falter and some labels will fail or will retrench, cutting their production schedules. This means that song scores and "inspired by" scores will probably continue (much to our chagrin), but the second score album and the boutique companies will dwindle. I hope I'm wrong.

[Message edited by Greg Bryant on 01-03-2001]

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I take it you never listend to Christopher Gordon's On the Beach.

Nothing much to brag about, but here goes:

Soundtracks obtained in 2000 : 30

Soundtracks of 2000 : 6

Soundtracks purchased : 17

Soundtracks not purchased (trades, etc.) : 13

I am actually missing out on some "great" or at least scores which received favorable reviews which mainly due to geographical reasons. They are:

1. Chicken Run (it was released late November 2000 here, only watched in on December)
2. Hollow Man (Varese CDs usually come late or never at all)
3. Total Recall Expanded (Same reason as above)
4. Mission to Mars (undecided, haven't watched the movie myself)

Soundtracks of 2000:
1. Gladiator
2. Dinosaur
3. M:I-2
4. Titan A.E.
5. The Patriot
6. X-Men