Like the beat, beat, beat of the tom-tom...

[storytimewithjoe]

While jammin' down to Cole Porter tunes, I think to myself about how much music has changed over the decades. It *used* to be that particular song-writers were sought for movies, or pop tunes. And then for quite a while, it didn't seem to matter who WROTE them, but who performed them. And nowadays, the big thing seems to be who PRODUCED or remixed the music.

My, how values change. Do we even HAVE Cole Porters any more? That is, do we have people who are sought after specifically to write that perfect score? Maybe David Byrne (of Simple Minds who composed the Oscar-winning soundtrack for the Last Emperor), or in more obvious ways, Danny Elfman - Tim Burton movies galore, the Simpsons, etc.

Thoughts?

Comments

[lijss.livejournal.com]

Don't forget John Williams for all of your big box office hits, but even he is started to get left by the wayside. It's a good thing he wrote pretty much all of the music for the blockbusters in the eighties and early nineties.

[aumtattoo.livejournal.com]

Most definitely. James Horner, Thomas Newman, John Williams... I could go on and on but, instead, will provide you with a nifty link to a list of some of the more prominent composers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_score

As someone who used to work in the film/tv industry I can tell you that there is most definitely an A list, etc. and that those composers are hard to get and expensive as hell. But SO worth it! :-)

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

Ashman and Menken. (They did The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.)

Now that Ashman's gone, Menken has been working with Tim Rice, who also worked with Andrew Lloyd Webber (I think on Phantom of the Opera).

Cole Porter often wrote for Broadway, and I think that's where you have to look for songwriters like that.

[tinne.livejournal.com]

Most of my "drawing music" consists of film scores: Horner, Barry, Williams, Goldsmith and Newman, etc. I even have some old Bernard Hermann from Hitchcock films, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and such.

BTW — not that you're showing your age or anything, young man, but that's David Byrne of Talking Heads who composed the score to Last Emperor, not from Simple Minds.

Ouch. ;-)