Modern Scoring Sucks
Marc Shaiman used to write film scores, and he was great at it. Fantastic! He is an intensely talented musician who is now working on Broadway.
He is the kind of musician films would benefit from, and have. So why did he choose to leave? Why does he feel fortunate to be on Broadway?
Here’s why: Whatch this video and follow the lyrics.
“They Just Want the Beat”
Music and lyric by Marc Shaiman
(sung to the tune of “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray)
You can’t write a melody, ’cause today they just want groove.
If today a guy wrote “Laura,” all the suits would disapprove.
And if Max Steiner wrote them “Tara’s Theme,”
All the good notes they’d remove!‘Cause the temp scores just go round and round,
All they want is a synth and a ghosty sound.
If you write “Lara’s Theme” then you won’t stay ’round today,
‘Cause they just want the beat!Everytime I hear drums and drone,
It seems Hans Zimmer’s given birth to yet another clone.
When you get hired for a score, it seems you’re not alone today.‘Cause they just want the…
Motion of the ocean but without a theme.
And yet it seems to get a score like that, you need a team!
If Hank Mancini were around,
I think he’d cry and scream “Oy vey!”
‘Cause they just want the beat!Pretty soon they won’t care if you died,
‘Cause in the future I bet every score is CGI’d,
‘Cause every film is just a comic or an Xbox ride today.‘Cause you can’t stop the…
Prequels and the sequels that just leave me bored.
Or should I pluck a few Gustavo licks to win an award?
Bring me a bottle and a joint; I’ll be at Betty Ford! Olé!‘Cause they just want the beat!
‘Cause they just want the beat!
‘Cause they just want the beat!
The film scores of today, will they become classics like the ones he refers to in this song? Let us foster good music in our film scores by hiring good musicians and encouraging good writing.
But I guess it also comes down to good musical education and tastes. As Dr. Shinichi Suzuki said “children do not now quality naturally, they need to be shown.” (I am paraphrasing.)
Which means that people will like crap if they don’t know any better, and to know better you have to be around it a while.
So seek out quality, folks, listen to film scores, classic music that influenced them and whatever else, but don’t be content with crap. It will affect your film.
Mr Mayrand, I think that you summarized in such clear words what a humongous number of artists feel about the goings of the film music art today… I couldn’t help but say thank you!
I believe it might have to do with the multimedia revolution. Nowadays, everyone can buy cheap sample libraries in their basement and improvise themselves as “composers”… Everyone can make their own movies with all those consumer non-linear editing packages. The shift is toward the self-style artistry, as we can see with the popularity of the YouTube sites, which, let’s face it, can be a big ego relief for the masses (and occasionally hides a few gems, of course).
It might be that this world is not in shortage of good, artistic composers. It might rather be that now, for 1 candidate with a true potential as a composer, we have 1000 others using cheap harmony sequences, and who compensate for their shortcomings by using bigger than life drums (Quantum Leap StormDrum 2 lib anyone?), and bigger than life synthesized 100 horns sections.
Now, if we pair this with the fact that for 1000 wannabe film directors who wish to break in the business after having fiddled with their homemade non-linear editing package, we might have only 1 who is not musically challenged and who can distinguish art from generic washed unimaginative sounds… And only 1 who will make it into the celebrity spheres. So the odds that a brillant composer be paired with an equally brillant film director who is also versed in the art of music AND who can convince the big dogs that his/her art will be accessible to the masses, are - to euphemize the situation - probably quite slim.
Maybe there are a lot more Jerry Goldsmith, or John Williams, or Ennio Morricone in this world than we think. But in order for them to have succeeded, they needed more than talent, but rather an incredibly unlikely combination of lucky circumstances…
But let’s not despair, perhaps with time the very shallowness of what is going on in the industry today will fatigue the ears of the masses, and then it will then be the return of genuine art.
Or perhaps all those Zimmer clones will ultimately be replaced by composing artificial neural nets. The studios will finally realize that to obtain this kind of sound there is no need for human expertise. Or better: Zimmer-style composing will be implemented in a conventional way in computers because the style is simplistic enough that no fancy programming will be needed. The technology is indeed there, and it is only a matter of time before someone decides to implement this idea. Who knows what will happen when such a machine will be created…
Or perhaps Europe or Asia will become the next cultural hub, leaving the US behind reminiscing about their past and how they descended into decadence, like all other large empires that emerged and then submerged into historical oblivion.
But let’s not despair. We never know what the future reserves for us…
I wish that you continue making great music, and that you will contribute to the revival of this art form!
Sincerely yours,
Epichorns
Thank you for your comment.
I share your thoughts exactly. I too feel that sample libraries have played a role in diminishing the quality of so-called composers.
The quality of film music has regressed compared to what was composed 50 years ago.
I am afraid that the lack of musical education (and taste) means that a lot of people who now get hired just don’t know any better. Which is very sad.
And it’s not just with counterpoint and orchestration, something as apparently simple as melody (which isn’t really simple) is also much less common than it used to be when composers knew what they were doing.
But regardless, I have hope, and I personally continue to follow in the footsteps of these great composers of old as I work in this medium I love: film.