# Hollywood using the same works



## GreenMamba

Slate magazine has a piece criticizing Hollywood for over-using certain Classical works. It's a video article and not very deep, but you may find it interesting.

http://www.slate.com/articles/video...and_its_classical_music_repertoire_video.html


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## Mahlerian

It's funny that they juxtaposed O Fortuna as an example of cliche with John Williams' music for Star Wars which is clearly inspired by that exact piece.

I think that she misses the main problem, that we've typecast specific "sounds" into specific emotions and settings, losing out on the nuances of music in the process. "Choir+Orchestra=Big huge emotions and spectacle" is in itself a lazy way of approaching music for movies, regardless of whether you use the most obvious and abused exemplars or not.


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## Merl

Mahlerian said:


> I think that she misses the main problem, that we've typecast specific "sounds" into specific emotions and settings, losing out on the nuances of music in the process. "Choir+Orchestra=Big huge emotions and spectacle" is in itself a lazy way of approaching music for movies, regardless of whether you use the most obvious and abused exemplars or not.


I find that films using music to try and evoke tension / horror tend to build up the music to a crescendo at given points so the 'shock' of a cinematic moment is now as predictable as finding popcorn in Showcase. The films that genuinely scare me or provoke a sense of terror often have little or no background music (part of the reason many of the original J-horror films were so good and their American remakes so poor).


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## Vaneyes

Atonal's perfect for horror movies and seldom remembered, save Psycho (1960).


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## Pugg

However you think about it, it's good for record sales, I remember ( from a Philips salesman) they sold over 5000 copy's from Mahler 4, ( in one month ) used in a film called "De IJssalon


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## jerseycat

Many independent film studios are turning to royalty free music sites in search of background music. Sundial pictures recently licensed 2 songs from freemusicpublicdomain It's a smart move because it's as cheap as using public domain works but the music is much more updated.


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## geralmar

Pugg said:


> However you think about it, it's good for record sales, I remember ( from a Philips salesman) they sold over 5000 copy's from Mahler 4, ( in one month ) used in a film called "De IJssalon


And don't forget what Elvira Madigan (1967) did for sales of Mozart's 21st piano concerto. Unfortunately the concerto was then nicknamed after the movie.


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## Sloe

Merl said:


> The films that genuinely scare me or provoke a sense of terror often have little or no background music (part of the reason many of the original J-horror films were so good and their American remakes so poor).


I agree what make them so special is the sense of mysterious calmness that got lost in the American remakes. I also don´t think the scariness is what makes them good instead I regard them as supernatural drama.


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