James Horner composing music for a soundtrack to a movie.[/caption]You know I will be honest with you and say that one of the biggest contributions that the music industry has given to the world of film, rather it be on the big screen or on the small screen is the, 'Soundtrack'!
You might be asking yourself though... Well what about, 'Musicals'? Well the truth is, is that there are some great musicals out there, I am going to have to say though that Soundtracks really take the cake when it comes to the more important of contributions... There are a couple of reasons for this:
1. Universally, rather it be on the big screen or on the small screen Soundtracks compliment the movies or TV series that they are supposed to go to pretty nicely!
2. Now this is just my opinion, but almost every musical TV episode, or music based TV show that I have ever scene has always and so far from what I can tell, will always universally suck!
And this is pretty universally true for the horror & science fiction genre as well!
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Believe it or not, a truly fun soundtrack![/caption]What I mean by this is that rather it be on the small screen or on the big screen, Soundtracks tend to play an extremely important role in the production they are connected to. A couple of great examples of this:
A: Psycho (1960): Universally, the arrangement that music composer, 'Bernard Hermann' put together for this classic horror/thriller by: Alfred Hitchcock (Vertigo) was so well made that in a lot of respects, I think with out this maestro's work, this movie would never have become the insane cultural icon that it is today!
B: Star Trek... I know, I know, I do tend to use this example an awful lot, but it is true! I mean no matter who the composer or musicians are, who are associated with the latest movie or TV series, generally speaking truly help make the movie the historic epic that we all see on the big screen!
Now those are a couple of great examples of some soundtracks that have totally helped make these Horror or Science Fiction movies the true masterpieces that they were when they first came out, and the cultural icons they are today!
And there is another side of soundtracks that I thought that I would mention here that are really important... That is the talent they bring in to work on these movies!
Rather they be composers like, 'John Williams' (Jaws), or heavy metal super stars like, 'Rob Zombie' (Halloween), producers generally bring in some truly amazing talent! A couple of examples are as follows:
John Williams' score from, Star Wars - Episode 3: A New Hope (1977):
http://youtu.be/2Mo0dSHFGPg
Rob Zombie's 'House Of 1,000 Corpses' from the movie he directed with the same title:
http://youtu.be/WT_f2UFNj3U
Charles Bernstein's famous score from, A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984):
http://youtu.be/tn_DjzN8410
