Intrada Soundtrack Forum

3/1/2015

Been noticing something more lately that isn't a surprise to any film music buff, but for various reasons is now sticking out like a sore thumb. Songs for "End Credits". In fact, not just songs. Inappropriate songs. Songs that literally have nothing to do with the drama or romance that just happened prior. Especially drama. Here you just go through two hours of really impressive story-telling, you sometimes feel like you've just witnessed something profound even... and wham! The guys making the movie decide you don't need to reflect at all on the closing images and instead just smack you in the face with a loud, totally out-of-place song. Yeah, I understand the marketing needs. I understand that the world of merchandising rock music-become-hits long ago overtook the integrity of the picture's needs. But still, it's really getting bad. Not just bad but worse.

I remember that long end title from Superman back in the seventies. A movie music nut's dream-come-true. But it was the right music! It let you finish off that magnificent viewing experience with a bang. And back then there were so many similar endings, in all manner and form. Rocky with those unaccompanied strings wrapping emotionally with a secondary theme from the movie; Jaws closing with a moving variant of the "adventure" theme, the shark motif nowhere to be found; even that sort-of-lame Irwin Allen epic The Swarm bringing you out of the theater with some magnificent orchestral razzle dazzle. All of them felt just right. But today I find, in movie after movie, my mood following whatever dramatic image is still fading on the screen being hijacked by the intrusion of a typically loud song, often totally opposed to the mood the movie was eliciting. Will this change? Is it just a temporary marketing thing? Given how long it's lasted and also given that dynamic and sensitive film scoring has largely disappeared anyway, I guess I shouldn't hold my breath.