What happened to memorable theme songs such as those? Do they still exist and I just haven’t noticed? It’s certainly possible they don’t strike the same chord, so to speak, as they did when I was young. Of course, it’s also not lost on me that John Williams was the composer for three out of four of those I mentioned, so perhaps it’s just that he no longer creating songs as memorable as he once did?
All I know is that I miss it. I always loved hearing one of those themes kick into gear during specific scenes of a movie; it conveyed an energy–an emotion–that a simple score doesn’t.
Am I off base? Or are movie themes just not as memorable as they used to be, if they even exist? And what favorite themes of yours did I miss?
I think Howard Shore’s LOTR music is memorable, as are Danny Elfman’s themes for Spider-Man and Men In Black (plus all his scores for Tim Burton), to name a few from the past decade.
All of the movies listed in this thread have had multiple sequels, all of which have theme music which is just a variant on the main theme from the original movie. Since Williams is responsible for several of the originals, he’s responsible for the sound tracks for a bunch of movies: he is the six-hundred pound gorilla cranking out the movie themes of our lives. Elfman’s done a bunch of good stuff, but not too much recently; Bruce Broughton did several successful themes (Silverado, for one), but really, if you’re looking at theme music, you’re looking at Williams, and some people are starting to consider him something of a hack composer because his stuff all ends up sounding the same; and, unless you’re creating a huge, bombastic movie to match his soundtrack, you’re just not going to hire him to write for you anyway. The only big movies made since 2000 that would have had big scores would have been the Batman movies (which probably borrow from Elfman), or the Bourne movies, which, again, just carry forward the same themes from movie to movie.
Pirates of the Caribbean has a memorable soundtrack. And a lot of the melodies in Lord of the Rings stick with you, if you listen a few times. But I agree, strong themes are not common in movie music much anymore.
I don’t know about movies; they still seem to have strong themes. What I lament is the loss of TV show theme songs. Victims to the need for another minute of advertising revenue, I fear.
Seriously, though, when was the last time you saw, well, anything that started with something you could sing along to using actual words?
I can think of one TV show (“The Big Bang Theory”) that kind of slips in on a technicality, another (“House”) that uses an actual song with all the singing removed, and I’m willing to spot the Universe a few I’ve missed because I spend more time arguing nonsense online than watching it on TV. When it comes to movies, I’m down to decades-old Bond films.
I don’t think it’s just pedantry; I think it’s a useful distinction, and my first reaction to the OP was “Hey, those aren’t songs.” Theme songs are like… well, the various James Bond theme songs may be the best-known examples. In fact, Back To the Future arguably has a theme song: the Huey Lewis song “Back In Time.”
Everyone here is posting about the theme tunes to Hollywood blockbusters, but to many Brits the theme tune to “Get Carter”, A British gangster film from 1971 about a London gangster who goes up north to Newcastle to find out who killed his brother, is totally memorable.
Different from many in this thread, because its non orchestral.
Gawd I hate to say this but the TV series Friends has a song. I am so embarrased. Don’t hate me. Oh, and of course MASH and China Beach (damn that lady was smokin). I guess all those are “old” though.
Are they still making new episodes of Monk? Because that certainly qualifies and I forgot it above.
MASH* is kind of in the same spot House is in, in that they took a real song and removed the lyrics to make a theme tune. It’s also quite old at this point.
