[Fmpro] "What Happened To Original Movie Music?"

[James Ryan]

OK, now I'm with you.  You're right  No mention of score.  Here's a  
funny one for you along those lines.  Most of my income these days  
comes from scoring news packages.   I can't tell you how many times  
I've told that to people and the response is "News Music?  There's  
such a thing as News Music?"  These are people who watch my news shows  
every night, and the music doesn't even occur to them because there  
are no lyrics to catch their attention, in spite of it being played by  
a full, live symphony orchestra.  It's just a vibe to set up the  
excitement of hearing about how many people were murdered today!  It  
is virtually invisible (inaudible?) to them

On one occasion a few years back when I was deep in the CPA world of  
composing, a friend introduced me to his sixteen year old son, saying  
"James writes music for commercials."  His son responded with  
disarming honesty, "you mean somebody actually writes that shit?"

I sometimes think that for most people, unless we're talking about big  
instrumental hits like the Allman Brothers song "Jessica" or "Green  
Onions," or for sake of argument, Herb Alpert's "The Lonely Bull,"  
it's all just humming wallpaper on the walls of a room with much more  
interesting things than instrumental background to focus on.

I don't mean to be defeatist about all of this.  It is my opinion (not  
fact, just opinion) that generally speaking, the PROs and the press  
have a lot of company in their perception that song is more important  
than score, and at very least, more memorable.  It's probably a kind  
of unconscious prejudice that results from how music is mass packaged  
to us.  The radio rarely plays instrumental music except on the very  
few smooth jazz and classical stations, and when people hear  
instrumental music over the mass media delivery systems, it is usually  
the background to some visual or verbal action, camouflaging it's very  
existence.

What to do to change the perception of the masses?  I sure as hell  
don't know.  I'm just happy to be writing it, and even happier if my  
music creates the vibe that makes people feel what they're supposed to  
when they're watching what I scored.....even if they never knew I was  
there.  I will add that when I go to the movies with my kids, they  
always like to stay behind and read the credits to see who did the  
music.  I never trained them.  I just did it myself, and in noticing  
my interest, they got interested too.  I guess change comes one person  
at a time.

Cheers,
James



On Nov 27, 2007, at 8:59 PM, Mark Northam wrote:

> Hi James -
>
> I'll let Mark H. respond to your question to him, but what really  
> got me
> about this article is the fact that an article all about the declining
> "original movie music" does not mention score! Most songs are not  
> original
> movie music, they're generic songs dropped into a scene they work  
> well with.
> But they're hardly original to the film.
>
> It's as if this writer has blinders on - if it doesn't have lyrics,  
> it isn't
> music and isn't even worthy of mention, much less exposure and credit.
>
> Amazing.
>
> MN
>
>
> On 11/27/07 5:49 PM, "James Ryan" <jeryan at optonline.net> wrote:
>
>> I read the article.  What made your blood boil?  Based on what I hear
>> on the radio,  the Sirius/XM syndrome of fragmenting music into VERY
>> specific genres and playlists, it kind of rang true to me.
>
> ---------------------------------
> Mark Northam, CEO
> Global Media Development Group
>
> http://www.RoyaltyWeek.com - The Business of Music Royalties Worldwide
>
> 1-800-774-3700 ext. 702 / 310-645-9000 ext. 702
> http://www.gmdgroup.com
> Yahoo/Skype: marknortham  /  AIM: mnortham
>
>
>
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