Music makes most movies worse, not better

Cafe Society
1

Preemptive strike!: Movie musicals, concert films, and other music-focused movies are not relevant to this discussion.

I just saw a horrible 70s TV movie: Murder on Flight 502 (1975).

You know what made this movie extra-sucky? The 70s movie music horns droning every goddamn second of the thing. Bwah-bwoon-BAH-bannnhhhhHHHHHH!

One of my favorite movies is The Passionate Plumber (1932). Buster Keaton is sorely underrated as a talkie actor. But you know what makes this movie extra-great? There’s a brief bit of music at the opening and closing credits–and that’s it! No screeching 30s violins as one hears in most movies of the period. Just dialog–breathing room.

Don’t get me wrong, good movie music is great. I think John Williams’ music for the Star Wars original trilogy is splendid. Good music needn’t be orthodox or a high-falutin’ composition, either. Street Trash (1987) has an odd electronic score that totally works, while Psychomania (1973) has an instrumental rock score that made great music for my friend and me on a recent road trip.

But most movie music is crap. It adds nothing while distracting from what could be good.

Nothing dates a film like bad music. It’s weird how this works, but it’s true. If you’re watching, say, a noir film from the 50s, it’s interesting to watch what people are wearing, what the city looked like at the time, and so on. That doesn’t date the movie–it’s 100% authentic period detail from the period itself. Yet the music is period detail (of a sort) that, unless excellent (and it isn’t), does date the movie. Of course, movies can be dated in other ways, have flaws that seem particularly of their time, but mediocre music tends to date otherwise good movies.

I do think movie music has gotten better, on average, over time. Here’s how I’d break things down:

1920s-1950s: Most is true garbage, often stock music was used. Only a tiny number of soundtracks, mostly in big blockbusters, are outstanding in some way. Even stuff that seemed good then is going to sound dated and boring now (Ben Hur soundtrack, anyone?)

1960s-1970s: Most is still bad, but the highs get higher as genuinely talented movie composers like Mancini and Williams become prominent.

1980s: You have the rise of soundtracks based on pop songs, which tend to work better. Some OK “New Wave” soundtracks appear. Some of the best stuff appears in lower-budget movies. Movie music on the whole, however, becomes less obtrusive, less noticeable. One of the better eras for movie music.

1990s-present: Like the 80s but with fewer highs. Mostly just boring, not excellent. Most tropes are extremely worn out. Innovation is minimal.

Thoughts?

2

It’s subjective, of course, but having been in an endless loop on the now defunct BBC messageboards about exactly this issue in relation to TV documentaries and their (in my view) inappropriate and excessive use of noodly library music, I can sympathise with your point of view.

For the most part, I’ve assumed cinema movies are produced with rather more care about the choice of music (and there have been some great scores over the years, to the point now that the best will turn up as distinct concert pieces in the lighter end of the classical canon). But thinking about it some more, it occurs to me that this has been a potential issue since the days of live musicians playing alongside silent movies. There’s a reason why a corny violin playing “Hearts and Flowers” is considered such a cliché that mimicking it is used to send up someone’s implausible sob story.

3

Absence of Malice is a fantastic movie with a great cast. The incredibly dated score ruins it.

4

I think with the OP is trying to say is that choice of Music can date a movie to a particular area. I’m guessing that sometimes this could be a good thing.

5

Try watching Frankenstein (1931, no score) back-to-back with The Bride of Frankenstein (1935, fantastic Franz Waxman score complete with themes and Wagnerian leitmotifs). You’re welcome!

6

I thought “Chungking Express” had a lot of rather odd, in-your-face music choices in it, which to me were more distracting than useful. That picture was always on my very very short list, and I was somewhat flattered when I heard Tarantino say that was the best picture he ever saw.

7

Or any Hollywood film with a Bernard Hermann score, particularly Citizen Kane, The Devil & Danl Webster, The Day the Earth Stood Still (theramin!),and Hitchcock’s Vertigo, North by Northwest (fandango!??? But it works!!), and Psycho.. I would argue that a great score is more of a benefit to a great movie than a bad score is a detriment.

Erich Korngold was a successful and acclaimed opera composer in Europe before running away from the Third Reich to California, where he became a successful and acclaimed movie composer. A lot more people enjoyed his score for The Adventures of Robin Hood than for Die tote Stadt.

8

I disagree with some of the OP’s specifics, particularly his timeline; scores based on pop songs started in the 1960s with movies like The Graduate. And Ben-Hur “dated and boring”? Miklos Rozsa never wrote a boring note in his life, although I much prefer his noir scores like Brute Force and The Asphalt Jungle.

But I agree with the general point that a score can really make a film seem dated. My one knock on Alex North’s Spartacus, a score I generally love, is its unmistakable 1960s sheen. Planet of the Apes, on the other hand, still feels very modern, and that’s largely because of Jerry Goldsmith’s timeless score.

9

The 1970s version of The Great Gatsby (the one with Robert Redford). Great use of 1920s period music at the beginning and end: haunting montage with photos of Daisy and “What’ll I Do?” in the opening and a satirical “Ain’t We Got Fun” at the closing credits. In between, scene after scene is spoiled by overloud, goopy soap-opera music.

10

This! It’s almost tautological! Nearly anything will work in a movie…if you do it right.

Unsteadicam? Soft focus? Mixed-up chronological order of scenes? Modern black-and-white? Extreme gore and violence? Extreme sentimentalism?

All of these can be brilliant…or crap.

FWIW, I love a good score! The soundtrack from The Last of the Mohicans is a joy to listen to, simply as music, or in the film itself, highlighting scenes. It adds greatly to the overall quality of the movie.

11

I think the more accurate gripe to make, would be how many potentially good films have been ruined or disfigured by non-artists having input to their final presentation. Most of the more egregious examples of bad soundtracks, are due to the producers trying to save money on the sound.

Minor note, which someone else at least touched on, and which fits what I’m trying to suggest: 99% of the music we hear attached to what were originally silent films, weren’t chosen by anyone who made the film. I understand that some few, were sent to theaters along with written compositions for the theaters’ mini orchestras to play, but since it was difficult to arrange for quality musicians at reasonable prices (not to mention seating space), that was never particularly functional.

12

Is this a bit like the loss of the IMDb message boards? What happened?

Indeed!

13

Well, I’m saying that

  1. Most movie music sucks and doesn’t help the film.

  2. I’d rather just hear the dialog and whatnot than hear bad music.

  3. Good movie music is, with few exceptions, of its time and not ahead of its time, so yes, it ends up being “period detail” in the period. Period detail in this sense is interesting. If you see bad 70s fashions in a 70s movie, that doesn’t really hurt the movie. But bad 70s movie music in a 70s movie does hurt the movie and dates it.

14

I might not disagree with you. A great movie is one that has passed over many hurdles, such as script, direction, acting, and so on. The score is one more, and when it works, it’s great. That is, it’s worth it to take the risk and add one more great thing to the other great things to achieve super-greatness.

And this may or may not be compatible with my notion that most movie music takes the movie down a bit instead of raising it up.

I guess another fair question to answer is whether certain movies need music to fit their genre and seem entertaining in the first place. Does a 90s action movie require music? Would it seems odd and unfun if it had zilch in place of its mediocre action movie musical tropes? Probably.

15

The film Into the Wild is such a joy to watch for the visuals, almost independent of the storyline, and then the music is like an entirely new dimension added in. Just sit back, watch, listen and enjoy!

I would say something similar about The Piano or Out of Africa. The scene on the beach in that first film where the daughter* is dancing while the mother plays the piano is some of the best filmmaking I’ve ever seen.

*Who knew she would grow up to be Sookie on True Blood!

16

What I’m getting from the OP is that great movies have great music and that bad movies have bad music, but in turn, great movies tend to have great budgets and the opposite also tends to be true.
When I read the OP the first thing I thought of was Blow, one of my favorite movies mostly because* of the music. However, it’s a period piece and I do love classic rock (and the music fit the movie perfectly).
As for film noir, check out The Third Man. (By the way, the answer is ‘zither’, when someone watches The Third Man and they start to ask a question, the answer is ‘it’s a zither’).

17

The importance of music is not what you notice, but the music you don’t notice. Music enhances the action and mood.

The most obvious example I’ve seen to prove this was the Doctor Who episode “Remembrance of the Daleks.” For some reason, the tape our PBS station showed was missing the music track for the second half of it, and it was just plain dull, even the action scenes. With music, it was voted the best episode of that season in the UK.

18

Yeah…Hermann, Korngold, Waxman, Steiner, et al didn’t come cheap.

Thanks for bringing up The Third Man! Anton Karas’s zither score was the cherry on top of that scrumptious sundae. Also the chocolate sprinkles.

19

The Birds is a fine example (music to my ears) of next to no soundtrack.

20

Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon is an example: beautiful to look at, wonderful to listen to…and a total drip to follow. Brilliant cinematography; a score to die for…and one of the stupidest damn movies ever made.

(And…even so…it’s better than the book!)