From the excellent YouTube channel Every Frame A Painting, here is a video that flags up a very real issue with many modern blockbusters - with particular attention paid to the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Can you recall any pieces of music from the scores for the MCU flicks?
This is well worth a watch.
However, in the video Mad Max: Fury Road is referenced, and I would disagree on that point. I thought the soundtrack to that film really stood out and that particular track referenced in the video stood out most of all. I still recall it a year or so after seeing the movie for the first time. The rest of the examples? You cannot argue with them...
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Let's think of a recent example - Ant-Man - can I recall any single piece of the score? Honestly, no. What I do recall fondly are the needle drops - the use of "Escape" from the soundtrack to Coffy, for instance, of the moment when The Cure's "Plainsong" boosts the helicopter suitcase punch-up. When it comes to needle drops, the MCU is in rude health - Guardians of the Galaxy chief among them. When it comes to scores, though? Like too many blockbusters, so it seems, they fade into the ether.
But this video does flag up a worrying issue - an endless cycle of rinse & repeat - the musical version of 'churnalism', if you will. An ever-decreasing level of quality. It's not impossible to make memorable music - Hans Zimmer has been doing it for years (think of the Dark Knight trilogy, or Inception, or Black Hawk Down, or Interstellar). The best music sticks in your mind and adds to the scene, rather than just lurk unrecognised in the background. The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies both feature impressive and memorable scores - to be distinct is best. The big budget flicks don't have anything to lose from trying to be different with their scores - so why do they so often shy away from having fun and creating something new for our ears?
Fortunately, this isn't the case across all movies. ROB's soundtrack for the 2013 remake of Maniac was superb - in fact, I heard it several times before I watched the movie. Same goes for Jeff Grace's score for Cold In July, or the music made by Disasterpeace that flows through It Follows. Sure, these are all examples of the 'synth wave' movement that has become particularly popular in recent years - oftentimes influenced by John Carpenters phenomenal soundtracks from his best work in the 1970s and 1980s - but it illustrates the power of a good film score. Hopefully the blockbusters will have a change of direction soon...
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