By the way... I'm 19 now. I've already got over 460 film score cds... and I'll probably not slow down anytime soon!

As for dantoris' comments about The Rock...well, that's kind of funny, The Rock was the movie that I thought that really turned a lot of "mainstream" heads and attracted the attention of many non-film music listeners. Seriously. Many of my friends pointed out their liking for The Rock, and how that sparked the beginning of their film music "career" (if you call listening a career). Others would say Crimson Tide was a big influence....but Crimson Tide just doesn't keep my attention for its entirety like The Rock did. Crimson Tide had some great parts....but to me, The Rock was just packed with more memorable melodies all the way through.

Another film that I know that started a lot of people off in film music has to be Star Wars: A New Hope. It's the UNDISPUTED king (in terms of soundtracks) of grabbing the most non-film music fans into film scores. Well....I shouldn't go so far to call it undisputed....but I think everyone would probably (hopefully) agree with me on that.

The score that got me into film music was Forrest Gump. This was the FIRST EVER CD I had ever bought (I wasn't even really into music in general, can you believe that?), though I realized that I had bought the soundtrack compilation album instead of Silvestri's original score. That tells you something about the marketing strategy at most marquee-name retailers....

So, the short version:
Never cared for classical music, never even consciously thought about film music , although I sometimes whistled the main theme from Lord of the Rings and loved the sequence right before the Riders of Rohan appear at the end of the film. I also taped the end credits of Gremlins 2. Hm, pretty contradictionary, huh?

Anyway, one day I looked into my father's CD shelf (full of classical CDs) and there I saw Gerhardt's Star Wars CD. I should add that I had never seen Star Wars at that time (I was 15 or 16). I have no idea at all why I decided to listen to the CD, but from that day on, I was hooked on classical and especially film music. And what's even weirder, my father didn't like the CD much (I doubt he's ever seen the movies, and he wouldn't like them). He just had heard the Imperial March on the radio once, and got the CD hoping that it contained it. It didn't, of course, but in the end I was introduced to film music by a CD that I shouldn't have cared for, and in fact shouldn't even have seen because my father shouldn't have bought it. So I guess I was just incredibly lucky.

I could add that for a long time, I hated Bernard Herrmann's music, and even Goldsmith. The score that made me like Goldsmith was The Great Train Robbery.

I discovered that I remembered music from several movies I had seen earlier, when I didn't consciously notice the music. I knew that I loved LOTR (not bad for a child, liking that atonal score) and Jurassic Park, although we didn't have a working video recorder and I couldn't hear the scores again before buying the CDs.

...short version, yeah, of course...

I have to say though, as far back as I can really remember, the earliest film music that sparks any kind of memory in me is CE3K, that famous 5-note motif.

It's strange: I really thought I hadn't paid any kind of attention to film music, and then once I had started colecting, I started having all these flashbacks to childhood, remembering the MUSIC to certain films. I really has paid attention to the music. Anyone else have this sort of experience? or am I just plain weird?

One of this is Star Trek II. I guess I was only about 7 or 8 when it came out. The score as heard in the film is forever burned into my memory. And I remember watching it at home, with the Reliant all in flames and Horner's smokin' horn parts to signify Khan.

and of course, the very first classical piece I'm aware of is Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf

Actually between it, the Back to the Future, Star Trek and Indiana Jones films I pretty much started this passion. There were other films as well. Though those were the main ones I remember. I also noticed that originally it was only portions of the scores I liked. And over time I started to like more and more. Funny, it was once I started listening to a more variety of scores around 1995 that I could listen to practically any score.

Personally speaking, I can't remember what the first score I bought was, though I am pretty sure it was one of the Star Wars scores. However it was not until I bought the soundtrack to Batman around 1991 or 1992 that I really started to collect soundtracks. Some of which were songtracks. Just glad the longer I was collecting the more scores I was ending up with compared to the compilation discs.

Regards,
Sean Robert Abbey

The first one on the tape was - Flying

I loved it, as well as the Star Wars main theme and the Chariots of Fire main theme, which were on side two. I also grew up hearing Out of Africa which my Mum loved.

But I only got seriously into buying score when the special editions came out and I bought Return of the Jedi. ET followed as well as Braveheart and (strangely) Truman Show.

I recently found a CD version of that old tape that started it off. The Flying theme is actually arranged by John Beal and made faster than Williams' version, and I prefer it actually. I think it's got more of a flying feel. I also got Out of Africa on CD coz I grew to love it.

I guess it's flying and Out of Africa that made me grow to prefer sweeping themes played by strings.

Over and out.

quote:

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Originally posted by JJH:
It's strange: I really thought I hadn't paid any kind of attention to film music, and then once I had started colecting, I started having all these flashbacks to childhood, remembering the MUSIC to certain films. I really has paid attention to the music. Anyone else have this sort of experience? or am I just plain weird?

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Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. Obviously, film music really works subconsiously, and does it so well that you can remember it after YEARS even if you never consciously noticed it.

Well, I have actually done what Marian wants to do above - Since this is such a recurring topic, I have made a text version of my "story" and printed in on my homepage "Celluloid Tunes". If you are interested in reading it (it's very short), you can go to my site, click on "Speaking of which" and then "An example of gradual musical development". There it is - complete with a picture of myself and all!

Perhaps I started really being hooked when I refused to leave the cinema before the end titles of Earthquake and The Towering Inferno had finished. And I took note of the composer's name. I hear he's quite famous now.

quote:

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Originally posted by Lou Goldberg:

I can't say just one score got me into film music. It was a product of bit by bit becoming aware of music and movies from listening to the radio, watching TV, or spending afternoons at a theater.

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Actually I would assume that to be the case for most.

In my case, It is sort of the same. Even though the ones I mentioned earlier are the ones that I really enjoyed and were the first I noticed, even before I was an fan of music. It was an slow process these last 10-12 years to get where I am now. And that is addicted to film music.

Regards,
Sean Robert Abbey

quote:

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Originally posted by Exarkun:

Believe it or not, it was Transformers: The Movie Ehehhe...
10 years after the movie was released, i finally got my hands on the score YUMMY

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I believe it!

I too am an big fan of that score. It was not the first score I noticed. Though it definitely is one of, if not my favorite scores.

The expanded score is very good. Hopefully it will get an regular release.

Welcome to the Board, Patrick.

My devotion to scores really started when I went to the movies and watched "Gremlins". Yes, the "Gremlin Rag" made me stay through the entire end credits and the next day I bought the album without any hesitation. It is still my all time favorite and started a collection of many many many LP's and CD's of scores. My friends asked me: What's wrong with you? Why listen to this noise, it doesn't make any sense (when I ordered the Star Wars double LP in high school and my class mates heard it). Well, a long time ago people thought the earth was flat, meaning their brains were narrow without knowing it. Today they call it "**** for brains". Of course people don't have to like me playing "Backdraft" at a party at full blast 'cause it's not on the top 40 list and never were, therefore it's not acceptable at the party curcuit. Ever tried playing "The 13. Warrior" at a party? One or two think it's great (movie freaks), the rest point a gun at you and demand Brittney Spears and "Ooops, I did it again...". Yeah, you did it again, you made a total arse out of yourself. AGAIN. People are so NOT open- minded, they need to be told by a TV commercial or an ad in a magazine what to like.

You know it, how many people you know REALLY love movie scores (except here at Moviemusic). They don't know ****, except Limp Biscuit singing the theme from MI2. They will never know the name Lalo Schifrin, they will remember Limp Biscuit. And you know what, it's okay. For some twisted reason I was annoyed when "Titanic" sold so many albums. Idiots. They didn't listen to Horner at all. All they wanted was the memory of the movie and that crap song that followed. The score was great, but Horner didn't buy his new car because of that. And that's sad.

What score would turn me into a score freak TODAY? Hmmm. I don't know. My 80ies scores that I bought made a mark, Star Trek II (my second) and Temple of Doom (my third) made such an impression on me (because I was young?). So I read, people today gets excited because of Zimmer. The Rock. Some fine melodies with action. Crimson Tide. Don't get me wrong, I own over 40 Zimmer CD's and love them all. But I'm never excited anymore, like when I was 15 and went to the movies and watched (and listened to) Legend, Cocoon, Gremlins, Goonies etc. Scores today rarely get me excited. Episode One was okay, but come on, compared to the other ones? The thing is, if I ever was young today (as I once were), I doubt I ever had found an interest in movie scores. There is just too few good ones today, and too many bad ones. But that's okay. 'Cause I'm saving a lot of money now.