Did brilliant soundtracks become fewer after the 80's?

Phony Scott

I did post this in another thread but decided it was open to a bigger debate.

I've finally done it! I've bookended my collection of soundtracks of my youth.

James Horner's '48hrs' was a soundtrack I thought would never see the light of day. I've been waiting to buy this soundtrack since 1990! Yes, that bloody long! Suffice to say my soundtrack collection is probably longer than my DVD and Bluray collection.

Now that I have every soundtrack which effected my youth in someway, I don't know where to go from here.

Soundtracks haven't done much for me in the last twenty or so years, sure there are some soundtracks which are brilliant, an example being the LOTR trilogy, but they are few and far between.

Soundtracks haven't been truly great since the 80's, that's not to say there wasn't a hell of a lot of repetition.

James Horner's early work is so similar, it isn't even funny. 'Wolfen,' 'Star Trek 3,' and 'Aliens' all have moments which sound virtually identical to each other. '48 hrs' is also hugely similar to 'Commando' and nearly every other cop movie of the 80's for that matter.

Am I looking at the 80's with rose tinted glasses or is there a consensus that brilliant soundtracks became fewer and farer between after the 80's?

GarH

I love the soundtracks to Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill.
Both are Tarantino movies. I believe he spends a lot of time researching music to go with his movies.
These are only 2 examples of films. But I fint a lot of newer (1990s - 2000s) television shows have brilliant soundtracks.

Duggy747

Some great gems were from the 90's / 00s. Though, during the early 2000's action films took on this lazy electronic rock soundtrack to just fill the noise, probably in relation to the Matrix's soundtrack.

Recent soundtracks that comes to mind is Transformers 1 & The Dark Knight, obvious selections I suppose but both have a majority of good compositions to them.

I do love trawling through Youtube picking out selective tunes from otherwise medicore soundtracks. The latest has been trailer soundtracks from the likes of X-ray Dog, Two Steps From Hell, Audiomachine, etc.

Sad Professor

In case anyone starts wondering where their post went: I'll remind everyone that listing is against the charter. Posts containing boring lists and no discussion will be deleted.

nervous_twitch

I can't really comment on how the soundtracks of today compare to those of the 80s, as I wasnt around then, but I think there's been a wealth of fantastic OST's over the last decade; if anything, I find they're improving. Maybe its your taste in music that doesnt quite fit?

marienbad

There have always been great soundtracks and there always will be. And this applies to every decade. Some of the best work I find is usually ouside the Hollywood mainstream where a successful ''sound'' can become de rigueur such as the Beverly Hills Cop greatest hits collection in the 80's and now we have all the LOTR rip-offs , which is in itself a rip-off on the Rozsa/Tiomkin/Korngold of the 40's and 50's and they are all rip off of Brahms. (As an aside I dont think any orchestral composer every wrote as many ''tunes'' and was as ripped off as much as Brahms. Leonard Bernstein would have been lost without him) .

Nobody ever seems to look to European cinema anymore for soundtracks but it is some of the most original stuff out there . The great Ennio still banging away. The French lot- Bruno Coulais and Jean Claude-Petit. Gabriel Yared outstanding on The English Patient and The Lives of Others
and wrote a brilliant original score for Troy (available if you search around) which was rejected for James Horner's magnificent score, which was composed in less than a month.

And then there is Joscelyn Pook and that extraordinary music for Eyes Wide Shut in 1999 and still as different and original as ever in her latest score to the Julio Medem film Room In Rome

Ah, so much to listen to and so little time

patch

Two that spring to mind from recent years are the bourne identity and 28 days later.
Both are excellent and ripped off to a huge degree.
While I love to hear the key pieces of music from both, it really detracts from the movie experience to be reminded every time of the origional.

Mickeroo

OP, you mean the soundtracks(like pulp fiction etc) or the original scores?

johnny_ultimate

Must say I don't buy into the the old 'they don't make 'em like they used to' side of things (not suggesting that's what you're saying OP ). For me, there are always good films, and by extent, good soundtracks. Saw True Grit today which has one of the lushest, most gorgeous OSTs I've heard in a while (already listening through it on youtube). From mainstream stuff like the inspired Tron: Legacy soundtrack to more offbeat stuff (Brothers Bloom was a personal highlight last year for me) there's always amazing soundtracks out there IMO

Phony Scott

Don’t get me wrong, I still think there are great sound tracks out there, I don’t know every soundtrack released (how could I?), but take last year, I could only find one OST which I could honestly say I thought was a brilliant piece and that was ‘Inception’. It hit me on a gut level as it played out in the film when I first watched it. After the film, I bought it straight away and enjoyed it ever since.

I know this will sound massively snobbish, but if a soundtrack doesn’t stand out to me on a purely superficial level immediately, I dismiss it.

My problem is that I feel you can pick quite a few soundtracks for each year in the 80’s that were outstanding, you can even pick some brilliant soundtracks from awful movies (Omen 3: The Final Conflict) which are superb, but also the entire soundtrack is consistently memorable.

Take ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ I’d say the entire album is near perfect, whereas something like ‘The Dark Knight’ or ’28 Days Later’ I can only pick out one track at best, namely ‘Why So Serious’ in TDK or ‘In the House, In a heartbeat’ on 28 days Later, in the latter case a piece which was brilliantly used again and again for 28 weeks later.

Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill are top soundtracks, but I’m thinking more along the lines of original scores rather than compilation soundtracks, though again, they are superb.

@ Marienbad, I have to admit complete ignorance to what your saying and have to take you by your word on European soundtracks. My taste in music sounds different to yours by quite a stretch and you’d probably hate mine. I do have the soundtrack to Eyes Wide Shut and I find it a very challenging listen to my nerves.

Added: I'm not saying that as Johnny_ultimate put it 'they don't make 'em like they used to', there are still great soundtracks out there, I'm getting more at the amount of great soundtracks in any given year and the number of great tracks on an individual soundtrack as opposed to just one or two. I hope this is a bit clearer?

HavingCrack

I thought the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire suited the film perfectly. Paper Planes playing as the kids ride up and down and the planes, Jai Ho for the finale etc.

It won an Oscar for best score if I remember correctly?

krudler

My favourite score of 2010 hands down was How To Train Your Dragon, if you have any interest in movie scores and havent heard it, do , its fantastic.

Phony Scott

krudler wrote: »

My favourite score of 2010 hands down was How To Train Your Dragon, if you have any interest in movie scores and havent heard it, do , its fantastic.

Actually, that did hit me on a gut level at the cinema, but I never checked it out later on. Must do so. What brought this up in the first place was the piece of music used in 'Super 8'. It's from 'Cocoon', but suits the trailer perfectly. I wish they could return to soundtracks like that. It feels as if we haven't had a sense of magic in cinema in a long time. Maybe twenty years!

johnny_ultimate

Phony Scott wrote: »

I'm getting more at the amount of great soundtracks in any given year and the number of great tracks on an individual soundtrack as opposed to just one or two.

I'd disagree with your first point, but sort of agree on the second. A lot of scores - most of the ones I've mentioned already actually, and the Dark Knight as you've pointed out - are often based around one 'core' composition, with a number of variations on it. Like True Grit's score (sorry for bringing it up again, but once again stuck in my head!) is largely based on the following hymn / composition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBPEbl9gVx0

Instrumental variations on this pop up throughout the film. A few of the rest are short compositions that yeah probably aren't as compelling to listen to on their own. Same with the Dark Knight - only one or two of the themes are ones I'd revisit on their own terms. And yet, even the incidental pieces work in context. It raises the question of what we expect from scores. There are some scores that work in context in the film itself, but I wouldn't listen to on their own. And yet they aren't necessarily designed to be listened to on their own. Like David Lynch films tend to have extremely atmospheric 'noise' soundtracks, but I'm not necessarily going to listen to them outside of the film itself. I don't necessarily think soundtracks have to stand alone, but of course it is nice when they do.

But yes, I do agree that a number of scores are based around one core composition, and ultimately that's the one (or two) track you'll return to numerous times. Whether this is good or bad, well that's certainly up for debate!

Phony Scott

It's total guesswork at the end of the day. Which was the first point again? I must have made a dozen!

jaykhunter

I have about 100 soundtracks and but even though most of them are from the 80s and 90s; I have a fair few from the 00s. Just over the last year, I've gotten a few OSTs - Hot Tub Time Machine, Star Trek, Scott Pilgrim, The Social Network, Tron, Inception -- so there's plenty of good stuff still knocking about. The Tron Legacy soundtrack is really great; I'm so impressed by it. Reminds me of Chemical Bros Fight Club OST; but I think Tron Legacy is better, it's quick striking, very epic. And I'll admit it's only the 2nd time I've gotten a soundtrack without having seen the film first (the first being the next film i mention)...

I dunno if it counts but Star Wars Ep III OST is my favourite of all time, it contains almost everything from the other 5 films and excellent tracks unique to itself. Matrix, LOTR etc is from 2000s so I've still got faith in current OSTs. I think there's so many conventions and hooks, and only so many notes and timings, things are bound to sound similar. But it doesn't mean some amazing stuff doesn't still come out

e_e

2 words: Joe Hisaishi

johnny_ultimate

Phony Scott wrote: »

It's total guesswork at the end of the day. Which was the first point again? I must have made a dozen!

Sorry, just referring to the sentence I quoted about less good soundtracks in a year Still think there's a good few excellent soundtracks every year. Will any of them ever be as iconic as say Star Wars or Indiana Jones? Possibly not, but there have been tonnes that have worked wonderfully on their own merits. And we still have a good few fantastic composers - from Joe Hisashi mentioned above to Clint Mansell - putting out consistently inventive stuff.

tman

jaykhunter wrote: »

The Tron Legacy soundtrack is really great; I'm so impressed by it. Reminds me of Chemical Bros Fight Club OST; but I think Tron Legacy is better, it's quick striking, very epic.

Kind of an anal post, but the Fight Club score was done by the dust brothers. The chemical brothers originally used that name, but had to give it up as someone was already using it... (hence the title of "exit planet dust")
The Tron Legacy score was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the thread title... "epic" actually sums it up nicely for once (such a mis/overused word)
It's almost Vangelis-esque in places, but as much as I love the score I can't be arsed with watching the film itself...

Cicero

I hate the way record companies issue CD's that appear to be a soundtrack with the wording in small letters ... "Music inspired by the film......."...so misleading as none of the tracks are actually in the film but the film name and picture are all over the CD case.

edolan

Films such as Pulp Fiction, The Dark knight, The Departed, The Last Of The Mohicans and The Rock all have brilliant soundtracks.

I have to say I'd add Clint Mansell's scoring of Sahara. The "Ironclad" theme was an excellent piece of bombastic orchestra, far above the standard of the movie itself. A real, real pity a decent adventure movie franchise didn't come out of that (but then again Clive Cussler isn't a great starting point for anything good.)

FFS even if you read Sahara the book, there's no explanation what the Ironclad is doing in Africa anyway!!!

Also a fan of Hans Zimmer's work on many movies. Sherlock Holmes, The aforementioned Batman movies, If I could edit I'd come back and put in more.

krudler

Deleted User wrote: »

I have to say I'd add Clint Mansell's scoring of Sahara. The "Ironclad" theme was an excellent piece of bombastic orchestra, far above the standard of the movie itself. A real, real pity a decent adventure movie franchise didn't come out of that (but then again Clive Cussler isn't a great starting point for anything good.)

FFS even if you read Sahara the book, there's no explanation what the Ironclad is doing in Africa anyway!!!

Also a fan of Hans Zimmer's work on many movies. Sherlock Holmes, The aforementioned Batman movies, If I could edit I'd come back and put in more.

LOVE the Sahara score, its very Bond-esque with big brassy parts and really bombastic cues. the boat chase sequence is brilliant

errr, ignore the fact its in spanish its the only clip i could find :pac:, its about 1min 45 into it when it gets really good.

krudler

Anyone who's into Hans Zimmer should check out his score for Modern Warfare 2, games are getting just as good as blockbuster movies with scores these days, this is one of my favourite tracks, its awesome to play the level where this is blaring out of the speakers as explosions and guns are going off everywhere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrnuIl7sYuQ

and Steve Jablonsky, who scored the Transformers movies, did the score for Gears of War 2, this is particularly epic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFzcHvk-bJ4

Antar Bolaeisk

Great scores, like great films, happen only a few times a year and a believe the feeling that there were more great scores in the past is just a result of all the years so long ago blurring into one whereas the distance between the here and now seems greater.

In saying that, I can't remember the last film I went to that had a truly great score.

Outkast_IRE

I thought the "up" soundtrack was excellent , plenty of great compositions there

slave1

Well I was an impressionable age just once so Star Wars belongs on a different plane and now it is been excellently sampled in many 'video' games it is more than ever in my head, especially the main themes, Akakin/Vader/Yoda...

Of recent times LOTR's sweeping themes were just fantasitic and mood setting.

Outside that my mind immediately goes to Blade Runner and The Big Blue.
BR because it just captures 'the future' in music, don't know how it just does.
BB similar, it just creates a feeling of being under water (Third Dive in particular) like no other piece of music.

Everything else (score wise) pales in comparison.

Oh, afterthought slightly off topic but original music to Lost the TV series was on another planet, good man Mike

ReacherCreature

krudler wrote: »

Anyone who's into Hans Zimmer should check out his score for Modern Warfare 2, games are getting just as good as blockbuster movies with scores these days, this is one of my favourite tracks, its awesome to play the level where this is blaring out of the speakers as explosions and guns are going off everywhere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrnuIl7sYuQ

and Steve Jablonsky, who scored the Transformers movies, did the score for Gears of War 2, this is particularly epic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFzcHvk-bJ4

I think Hans Zimmer has done an immense amount for the popularisation of the soundtrack genre. His work on MW2 is great. Themes of Invasion, on Estate, Cliffhanger, the end credits etc. are terrific. Great score and terrific composer. For MW, Stephen Barton done a great job. Sean Murray's work on Black Ops IMO was rubbish.

Huge +1 on Jablonsky. I reckon the Transformers score is one of my favourites. He took a step down on Transformers 2 but it's still decent.

krudler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlcUwUwjLrs

Friggin love this track, awesome score for an awesome tv show.

e_e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33SJ7Q_P54Q

I can't think of a pre-1980 score that was this transportative to me.

dubdaymo

Did brilliant soundtracks become fewer after the 80's?

If I'm honest I have to say yes in terms of the word "brilliant". They are few and far between nowadays.

Having said that I think a bit of qualification may be required here. Prior to the end of the 80's or thereabouts on leaving the cinema in the case of, maybe, 90% of films my feeling would have been, yeh, I'd like to have that one in my LP/CD collection (not that I could afford them all:)). Over the past 20 years I'd probably say that percentage has gone as low as 5% but the funny thing is that in that period, although the scores may not have been "brilliant", I have often left the cinema having actually enjoyed the score but with no desire whatsoever to buy the CD. Probably the best example of that was the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I thought the score was great fun for the movie that was in it (call me sad if you like ) but not for listening to on its own.

Since we're posting videos I actually prefer listening to this arrangement via youtube than listening to the track itself....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtrsX4Xus4g