# Music makes most movies worse, not better **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 12, 2017, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987 "2017-03-12T09:32:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987/41 "2017-03-15T04:20:57Z")
I thought some of the music in _Groundhog Day_ was pretty helpful. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987/42 "2017-03-15T05:58:42Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > 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. I don’t disagree, however, if even period music thematically fits a scene, or even an overall movie, than the “dated” music doesn’t necessarily “date” the overall work in a bad way. IOWs, a '70s soundtrack for a 70s movie is appropriate, if the theme of the music matches the theme of the scene/movie. _American Hustle_ is probably my best, off-the-cuff example of where it works well. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987/43 "2017-03-15T06:30:08Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Sometimes you get _Ladyhawke_ which is (to me) unwatchable with that Alan Parson’s 80s synth soundtrack. Good lord. I suppose in the 80s it wasn’t as bad since it was at least contemporary to its time but now it’s pseudo-feudal Europe plus 80s electric keyboard playing. The music for \*Ladyhawke \*does not suck because it is “dated.” I saw it back in the day & remember loving everything about the film. Except the music. An excellent score (along with interesting art direction & some striking performances) can make me like a movie even if a script is incoherent. So it’s ore important to me than to the OP. And the music doesn’t have to be “correct”–it just should not suck. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987/44 "2017-03-15T13:16:49Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > IOWs, a '70s soundtrack for a 70s movie is appropriate, if the theme of the music matches the theme of the scene/movie. > > _American Hustle_ is probably my best, off-the-cuff example of where it works well. No argument, but _Goodfellas_ would have been my example. > [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > The music for \*Ladyhawke \*does not suck because it is “dated.” I saw it back in the day & remember loving everything about the film. Except the music. Oh, it was always pretty terrible. But now it’s not only terrible but also jarringly anachronistic making the film (to me) unwatchable. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987/45 "2017-03-15T13:50:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > We can all name examples of great movies with great music. But can the OP or anyone else name even a single great movie without music? If music were really, on the whole, detrimental, then there should be plenty of them. Aside from the opening “Swan Lake” and a bit of onstage music from _Die Meistersinger_, Tod Browning’s **Dracula** has no music. I think it’s all the more effective for it. For the past decade or so you could also buy it with a new score by Philip Glass. I don’t think it adds to it. In answer to the question above, **Paths of Glory** has no score, except for the soldiers singing at the end (a scene that’s not in the original novel that I just read a few months ago). It stuck out in my mind because Stanley Kubrick became pretty famous for his choices of music in his films later. Speaking of Kubrick, I think that the effect of **2001** would be severely diminished without the classical score he used, especially Richard Strauss’ _Also Sprach Zarathustra_ that opened it and the _Blue Danube_ during the spaceflight sequences. I just obtained a copy of a recording of the original score that Alex North wrote for the film (Kubrick had originally used pieces of classical music as “placeholders” during production – North’s score would be used later). With all due credit to North (who had written the music for _Spartacus_, among other films ), I think Kubrick made the right decision to go with the classical music – it’s infinitely more expressive and fitting for the scenes where it’s used. And the film would have been terrible with no music at all. Similarly, the original **Star Wars** profited immensely from John Williams’ score, as did **E.T.** and **Jurassic Park** and other films he’s scored. I’ve said before that I love James Horner’s score for **The Rocketeer** , which also adds immensely to the film. You can get the sense of The Rocketeer’s First Flight from the score alone, without the visuals. **Forbidden Planet** wouldn’t have been the same at all without Louis and Bebe Barron’s electronic “tonalities” (they weren’t members of the Hollywood musician’s union, so they couldn’t get credit for “music” as they ought to have), and I really can’t imagine any other score being appropriate for that. Scoreless films work when you want to build tension or a mood of stillness. Even if a film otyherwise has music, doing some scenes scoreless is a good choice. But I wouldn’t say that music ruins a film, by any means. It can certainly heighten the emotional effect of ac scene, without being so intrusive as to be bullying the audience into feeling one way to the exclusion of all others. I agree with many of the choices above – Max Steiner’s scores for King Kong, Son of KLong, She, and others add to the film. Franz Waxman used to claim tat the scores alone “rescued” many of the 1940s Universal horror films. I grew up on Bernard Hermann’s music (used in Ray Harryhausen, Alfred Hitchcock, and other films, including _The Day the Earth Stood Still_). Dmitri Tiompkin’s scores for **D.O.A.** and **The Guns of Navarone** certainly made those films (although I could’ve done with more restraint in DOA). John Williams’ scores for many films were indispensable, and I;ve loved many other composers. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987/46 "2017-03-26T19:01:19Z")
Perfect example of a generic 80s soundtrack: [Commando (James Horner)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_24YWy71RXo) It’s got everything - synthesizers, pan flutes, sweeping orchestral themes, even a Jamaican steel drum! Plus some dumb rock song that probably played during a “gear up” montage or over the ending credits. 90s had two types of soundtracks. Pop song mixes like Pulp Fiction or Singles. Or bombastic Hans Zimmer scores like [Crimson Tide](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGWgZH41CVY)or [The Rock](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZToNk6MR13M). ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987/47 "2017-03-26T19:19:33Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > I don’t know, half the fun of Highlander or Flash Gordon is the Queen music. (arguably the best part of FG…) > > Brian Beat me to it with Flash Gordon. I loved that movie, goofy as it was, and the Queen score was great! ---
**Author:** ![Avery\_Weisman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d78d45/32.png) [@Avery\_Weisman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avery_Weisman)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987/48 "2017-03-28T05:05:09Z")
I thought all the big war movies had great theme songs and scores. The songs for the Godfather series, well, they could have done better. My favorite John Williams score was for Jurassic Park but I admit the one for Jaws was the most compelling. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2017, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987/49 "2017-03-28T11:06:43Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > No argument, but _Goodfellas_ would have been my example. I considered _Goodfellas_ as an example, and rejected it; _Goodfellas_ spanned multiple decades, with the music changing to reflect the time period. While it did this quite well, it was still more of a “moving target” than I wanted as an example. I considered _Boogie Nights,_ too; while it only covered two decades, the music still “moved” with the time frame of the story. _American Hustle_ was a much more compact time frame, story-wise, and the music selection encapsulated a more specific “feel,” and, I thought, conveyed my point more clearly. YMMV. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-makes-most-movies-worse-not-better/781987.md?page=2)