Yes, this is going to be a rant, a nerdy one at that, even though I am not qualified to even discus this topic, I will try to because it is really starting to bug me.
Scene:
You are sitting, very comfortable, with a bottle of wine next to you, watching a beautiful film about drugs and love. Of course this film has a magnificent soundtrack, as everyone keeps talking about it. You have heard people speaking about a specific track, how they want to be able to play it, how it reduces them to tears. You hear the music and as soon as you hear the theme, you get pissed off. Why? Because composers don't seem to be able to compose not similar sounding soundtracks for their films. The film I was watching? Requiem of a Dream. The soundtrack I was thinking off during the whole film: The Fountain.
This is not the first time that this has happened, nor am I the first to notice it. So I have been doing some google-fu today to see what came up. Apparently, there is something called a temp-track that composers and directors use to guide them into a certain mood or direction while writing the soundtrack, it is used during the editing of the film before the soundtrack is written, the soundtrack might be based off the songs and tracks the director had already picked out for certain parts of the film. All the composer has to do is write something similar to the track the director has picked out without blatantly copying the track All very nice, but to me that is like stealing somebody's ideas, changing it and selling it as your own product, but that is what the world has come to.
Of course there are exception in which the computer pays a tribute to certain composers, films or songs. The truth it, in this world of capitalism and apparently limited artistic freedom everything is sounding alike. Wherever I go there is always something that sounds like something else and it is really hard to find something that sound unique, the only way to turn now is musicians that destroy their own music until it sounds like you got a malfunctioning machine running and making music out of that, to me, that is the new creativity.
I am getting a little sick of hearing the same damn theme whatever I watch. I understand that after hundreds of years of composing music, there is little space to write something completely unique. It doesn't matter what you do, somebody else has done it before you, it might have already been forgotten, it might be so old that only the connoisseur know about it, still, it is not unique anymore. There will always be a theme, motive, rhythm, melody that you write that has already been written, the story you are telling has been told a thousand time before, just different in a different time, different characters and another place. Though, I can't help it that I get slightly annoyed when I hear the same theme in a different film, with another topic. Even the composers that I admire do copying and self copying.
If I would ever speak these words out loud at home, I would be mangled by my sister and my parents, because I should not complain so much. I am just stating the obvious, sharing my thoughts about it. It is not like I can't enjoy a film, can't enjoy the soundtrack. Sometimes it just gets too much and I get confused in my head on what I am watching and the soundtrack, because honestly, when you start associating a certain track with a certain scene and suddenly the scene has changed, but the music hasn't, it starts getting difficult to not get confused about what you are watching.
Here is a list of soundtracks that are similar.
Requiem of a Dream vs. The Fountain
Gladiator vs. Pirates of the Caribbean
Batman vs. Transformers
King Arthur vs. Pirates of the Caribbean
Jumanji vs. Titanic
Composers have of course a certain style they write their music in, but some tend to just recycle their musical themes. A couple of composers that are really good at that are James Horner, Hans Zimmer and even John Williams at times. Though sometimes it can be hilarious, because listening to these soundtracks to hear the similarities I realised that even Pirates of the Caribbean sounds like The Lion King at times, you know why? They had the same composer, inside I smiled a little, because really, those two, even though they are owned by Disney and created by Disney, one is a children's film with subtle themes for adults, the other one is just a plain action film made for teenagers and adults. I suggest for new films, just buy the whole soundtrack of another film and slap it on the audio track and be done with it, just as time-saving and easy, don't you think? All I got to see is, good music stays good and amazing composers and still amazing. If I only had half the talent they had I would be the happiest girl alive.
Even your pop songs are not save ... 4 chords, that is all your need to write a pop song.
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