Back in school, I saw actually a bit glad that I liked music nobody else listened to (except one classmate). Before discovering film music, I used to listen to stuff like Roxette, Guns'n'Roses etc., only that I always started listening to a popular band shortly before everybody else became completely out. So, at least film music had ever been out, and I didn't have to worry about that.

Lucky me.

Jeron

Matt

Them: What are you listening to?
Me: I'm listening to "Six Days, Seven Nights" by Randy Edelman.
Them: Huh?
Me: The orchestral composition [at this point, they're lost] for the film starring Harrison Ford....
Them: Ok. [End conversation]

* * *

A further dialogue, if any, would go like this--

Them: So, who sings on that?
Me: Nobody.
Them: Oh. [End Conversation]

* * *

Them: So, what else as he done?
Me: Kindergarten Cop, Dragonheart...
Them: Oh.
Me: The music in the 'Mulan' ads...
Them: Ohhhh. [Light bulb. End conversation.]

* * *
The alternative is the following--

Them: What are you listening to?
Me: Kid Rock.
Them: Cooool.
Me: ....

This answer is not recommended, only in the eventuality that it might lead to further discussion of the popular artist, or his work, both of which I know little, if anything.

Not that I wouldn't love to share my music with the rest of the "uninitiated"...however, I have become more discretionary of those whom I tell. Be certain that those who ask are ready for the answer.

When someone asks the same of me, I usualy reply a " soundtrack" or "score." They say what? I say like, Star Wars and John Williams stuff ya know? They go, Ahh, m kay, got ya. EVERYONE ALIVE understands when you say John Williams, so that usually works.

I really can't top that, but one time I was browsing the used bins at a local Circuit City and found 5 copies of "Dennis The Menace" for $8 a piece, so I bought the all for trading.

I walked up to the counter where the pimple-faced checkout KID, started to ring me up and the stopped at disc # 3 and said...
"Uhh......ya know you got like...umm..... five of..like the same cd's dude...."

I said "Yes, I know.... "

Him: "Ohh...okay. So....what...were you like in the movie or something?"

Me: Looking at him in my best you're-an-idiot way...
"No... I like the music"

Him: "Oh....so, then why not just buy one...."

Me: "Cause they're collectible"

Him: "Oh...who else would want this?"

Me: "Alot of people"

Him: "What kind of music is this anyhow?"

Me: "The instrumental stuff you hear (sometimes subconsciously) during key moments in the film"

Him: ".........."

Me: "Can you just ring me up?"

Him: "Uhh....sure dude....sorry...I just never saw anyone buy so much junk before..."

Me: "..........."

Honest. Pretty much word for word. It was a bad moment!

Also, when enquiring at a store if they "Have the score to __________"
they usually say "Yeah, it's on the rack on the top 25 soundtrack wall".
Me: "No, thats the soundtrack, I want the score"
Them: ".........."
Me: "The instrumental music"
Them: "Oh.....umm....they didn't make that"

Uh-huh........

Honest again. SO, now I usually do my shopping at another store where a friend of mine works, who knows my interests, and dosen't question them! Yay!

Or, I shop online.

I just don't wanna be bothered with the local idiots anymore!!!

I LOVE film music! It is GREAT music!
That's all that matters!

What other people think about it is utterly irrelevant...I cannot control what anyone else thinks. I am not responsible for what anyone else thinks.
When asked, I tell the curious that this is the greatest music I have ever experienced, and that I cannot get enough of it!

The scenario for me when I was still in high school on the bus, 2 years ago, was that I'd have to keep the volume markedly low to ensure that no one would pick up the 'questionable' music and thereby piss me off by asking what the heck i was listening to. The average busmate, of course, had on rap or top 40.

But, now I'm in college and I don't care anymore. Although, people are still disturbed at the cd collection. At first it's "Holy S***!" seeing the 160 cds in my drawer. then it's "What the ****?" when they start to read the titles.

That's about typical, I think.

Let me take this opportunity to relate two interesting conversations I had at the check-out counter, the first being at a used CD store and the second being at BestBuy...

The first, at the used place:
(I was buying M:I-2... I hadn't heard a note of it, but it was $5 so I figured it wouldn't hurt)
Clerk: Uh, you know this is the instrumental score...
Me: Yeah, I know.
Clerk: Sorry, it's just people try to return them all the time, and they're like 'this CD sucks!'...
Me: Mm-hm.
Clerk: (jokingly) And that's when I say, "You can't return the CD just because you're too stupid to buy the right one in the first place."

------------

The second, at BestBuy, where I am buying Mission to Mars:

Clerk #1: Is that all instrumental music?
Me: Yeah.
Clerk #1: (to clerk #2) See, why can't there be one good action movie with a song soundtrack. The Rock, score CD. Enemy of the State, score CD...
Clerk #2: What about the Matrix? That had a song and a score CD.
Clerk #1: Yeah, but in that case I wanted the score... ironically.

Clerk #1's final comment surprised me greatly.

I remember playing film music on a boom box in high school. A girl came up to me and said--"I didn't know you listened to that kind of music" (I presume she meant classical).

I had a friend in high school who was into films and film music as well (we ran films in 16mm in the auditorium after school--not too many people came but we showed a lot of neat stuff). Once we were discussing the merits of The VIPs over the more epic Rozsa and a different girl came up to us and asked what we were talking about (I guess saying things like 'I really like the Dutchess of Brighton' must've sounded like a secret foreign code). Well, we were a particularly arrogant twosome in those days and we just let her have it: "If you had any musical taste to begin with, you wouldn't look so puzzled when we talk about Herrmann and Rozsa and Korngold. Go get a life and don't come back here until you do." You see, we were our own in-crowd in high school with higher standards than anybody.

Actually, it was a relief to come to college and meet people who knew who classical composers were--a guy down the dorm hall from me played Havergal Brian (why didn't this guy go to our high school?!)--and I turned some folks onto film music while they introduced me to all sorts of things too.

Still every once in a while I do run into those moments. Buying a soundtrack a clerk asks is the film any good and I'll say I don't know I didn't see it. Or when buying a strange video and telling a clerk I'm only buying it for the music.

But you can't be classist about it. The guy who knows more about Japanese cinema than anyone else in my town isn't the Japanese Cinema prof, he's a cab driver! I probably know more about film music than anyone in town and I work in a hotel. Still, I don't expect the average clerk (or average person) to be too up on un-top 40 culture.

So what do you say when the clerk wonders why you'd listen to Goldsmith's Leviathan? Pick up your own copy sister, you might be surprised.