10 Reasons Hollywood Film Scores are the World’s Greatest Form of Music

By  · Published on February 17th, 2015

Trevor Thompson interviews Birdman composer Antonio Sanchez (Epicleff Media)

Most people know the James Bond theme music or the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. The upcoming SCORE: A Film Music Documentary, now raising funding on Kickstarter, has uncovered the international cultural importance of film scores, including the creative history of Hollywood’s finest maestros. And its (slightly biased) executive producer, Trevor Thompson, has comprised the following list of reasons why film scores are the greatest music of all time:

1. They Have Universal Appeal

Katy Perry is big. The Beatles are HUGE. But film music is iconic. You might not know the name of the composer who scored your favorite film. But if you have a favorite film, a big reason why it’s your jam is the music. It’s hard to imagine, but there are people out there who haven’t heard “Blank Space.” Many of them have seen a movie, though. If you go anywhere in the world and play an iconic film score like Star Wars, chances are [the people there] know it. And love it, too.

2. Film Music is Every Genre of Music Combined Into One

It’s the most non-judgmental form of music out there. Blues, jazz, classical, rock, R&B, soul, gospel, country, fugues, techno, electronica, Gregorian chants. You name the genre, there’s a film score that’s incorporated it before. So if you like ANY form of music in the world, you’ll like a film score, too.

3. Pig Teeth

Sometimes traditional instruments aren’t good enough for film composers. Sometimes they have to get creative. That is, more creative than usual, when designing sounds. Sure, you can program some synth sounds. But you can also do what composer Marco Beltrami has done before and just order a pig skull off eBay. He used the teeth of a dead pig as a rhythm instrument in The Homesman. And he’s considered a relatively normal composer.

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