Some time ago, there was video called The Marvel Symphonic Universe, regarding how terrible the music in the Marvel (MCU) is. It seemed to place the blame on an overreliance on temp scores, those little snippets of random music that a director uses to work with his editor to finalize the cut of the film. They become so enamored with these snippets that they insist their composer warp their music to match. I found this gentle counter opinion, A Theory of Film Music, which rightfully noted that temp scores have been around roughly since the dawn of sound in film. It suggests that the source material being drawn from is an ever shallowing puddle, and film music is seen more as musical landscape, a la Hans Zimmer, rather than melodies and themes.
Both of these led me to consider the problem from my own point of view, which from time to time I’ve mulled over. I find bits and pieces within each that I agree, but feel that both miss the main point.
That point is simple: The majority of film music sucks.
I do not know a great deal about music theory, I can barely remember what three-quarter time means (I studied piano and trumpet in my way younger days). But, and I suspect most others feel the same, I know what I like and I really, really like motion picture soundtracks, the original orchestral scores.
The very first album I ever bought was Yellow Submarine, the soundtrack to the Beatles' motion picture of the same name. Since that time, when I walked out of Tower Records in San Francisco after spending $1.99 plus tax, I've amassed thousands of soundtracks. My album collection is approaching 5,000 titles, yet I’d estimate that fully half that number are motion picture soundtracks.
That copy of Yellow Submarine is not a typical example of the soundtracks I like; Dimitri Tiomkin's score for The Thing From Another World is. While song collections have their place in the cinematic world, I'm not really talking about them. I'm talking about pure instrumentals, original music composed for a motion picture. My journey began with a double-bill I saw at the Castro, The Blue Max and Flight of the Phoenix, by Jerry Goldsmith and Frank DeVol respectively. It is not a coincidence that I recently acquired expanded or re-recorded versions of each.
Historically, the first, complete film score was composed by Max Steiner for 1936's King Kong. While Steiner and others had composed incidental music for a great many films, the score for King Kong was the first time you had an original composition that ran through the film from start to finish. Steiner's music (yes, it's in my collection, several versions, in fact) is wonderful.
It's the exception that proves the rule. Most movie music is forgettable. Why? Because most filmmakers just don't give a damn. They put in music to fill in gaps, make pauses in the film glide by easier, force an emotion they wish to impart, and generally because music is expected. It's blasphemy to say, but music is not entirely necessary in a film. I know that many a great filmmaker disagrees (e.g., Steven Spielberg), but the Coen Brothers demonstrated precisely what I'm saying with No Country for Old Men. There's not a note of music in that entire film until the ending credits roll (composed by their ever-faithful Carter Burwell), and it works perfectly.
To steal from the video complaining about MCU music, hum a few bars of the music from the last movie you saw. Can you? I often can’t, and I pay attention to the music. Most movie music is horrid, the tunes forgettable, because not only do most filmmakers not care, neither do most filmgoers.
As a result, it's the great scores that stand out. Everyone, from the filmmakers to the audience, recognizes it and feels it deep in their bones. So when people can hum and even parade to the stirring bars of John William's Indy March, it's precisely because it's such wonderful music, such a stellar exception to the rule of mehness.
Once you accept that most film scores suck, you’re not surprised, or even slightly dismayed, at the lack of quality music in the MCU. There are exceptions, but that you can hear the exceptions illustrates the problem.
I’m not overly fond of Alan Silvestri in general, but his Captain America: The First Avenger score is excellent, perhaps the only stand-out music in the MCU. Michael Giacchino turned in an excellent and outright quirky score for Doctor Strange, and Christophe Beck knocked it out of the ball park for Ant-Man (“Tales to Astonish” is simply fantastic).
Yes, Ludwig Goransson somehow won an Oscar for Black Panther, but seriously, that music was milquetoast at best. So you end up with three scores out of 27+ films. That’s around 11% and I’d wager that’s better than films in general, scores that you love from the films you see.
Which is a long-winded way of repeating that while the overwhelming majority of music in the MCU sucks, so does the overwhelming majority of music in films in general. So enjoy the few gems you find, they are few and far between.
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