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Greatest Soundtrack Ever: Lord of the Rings voted Number One. (1 Viewer)

Seth Paxton

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1.) Total Recall (Jerry Goldsmith)
2.) Conan the Barbarian (Basil Poledouris)
3.) The Omen (Jerry Goldsmith)
Yeah, I love all three of those as well.
I am a bit dissappointed to not see Good, Bad, & the Ugly on there. Not for the now cliched "main" theme, but for all the rest of it. One of my favorite films to listen to.
I will say this, I'm not a big score guy (rarely buy them), but both Potter and FOTR stood out to me while watching the films. There were times when I thought "boy, this is a nice piece of music".
Every time I go into Lasers Edge they have a soundtrack running. And every time I ask myself "why aren't you buying and listening to soundtracks?" :)
 

andrew markworthy

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With all due respect to Steve, I've got to put a contrary opinion of Classic FM.

For the benefit of our American cousins, Classic FM is a commercial national station which broadcasts nothing but classical music. There is a BBC radio station (Radio 3) which does the same, but it tends to be seen as 'serious' and 'stuffy' (largely because some of the pieces they play last over twenty minutes without a break). Classic FM, when it started, concentrated on the more accessible classics and generally played excerpts from them. At first it was a breath of fresh air, but over the years, the station has become IMHO something which tries to appeal to the lowest common denominator. I think the choices of the listeners gives as sure an indication as anything of how lowbrow the mainstream audience now is. With any poll, the acid test is the precentage of items taken from the immediate past. People who aren't v. bright always think that the recent past is the most important (e.g. the recent poll which put Princess Diana's death as the most important news item in British history). The majority of the Classic FM list is of very recent stuff and often seems to be based upon the popularity of the film more than the score itself. By their deeds shall ye know them.
 

Yee-Ming

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I guess these lists are always coloured with "temporal effects", for want of a better term (sounds like something from ST:V? :D )
as Andrew said, it'll be biased towards the recent past, hence LOTR:FOTR coming in at #1. the fact that a 25-yr old score, Star Wars, is #2, suggests strongly that it is a true contender for the title.
obviously, much older stuff, like Psycho and Vertigo, has vanished off the radar screen. but couldn't it be argued that operatic/classical scores, e.g. Magic Flute, Nutcracker, were the soundtracks of their day? can and should these be taken into account?
 

Seth Paxton

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Andrew, your post is the greatest post ever made at HTF. You really put it in perspective. If only more posts were that fluid, that vivacious, that transcendent of the typically unexceptional posts found at the HTF.
;) :laugh:
 

Kirk Tsai

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Let's put aside the fact that this list has no credibility what so ever, what organization do you think would most accurately rate film scores if they were ever to make up a list?
 

andrew markworthy

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Thanks for the praise, guys, underserved though it is. :b
Can I just add that we all still love Steve, regardless of his listening habits? ;)
 

Michael Taylor

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I know this is slightly off-topic, but my 9 yr. old son could probably come up with a better list than this. It wasn't until I was a teenager before I really started paying attention to film scores. Thankfully, my son has picked up on it at an early age. He always comments on the music in any film we watch. I used to listen to the Gladiator score in the car when I took him places. Halfway through Pearl Harbor, he mentioned that the score sounded like Gladiator music. I thought it was cool that he was able to link the two together, considering both films were scored by Hans Zimmer. When I was his age, I never would have been able to connect the two films musically.

And yes, he knows the difference between a score and a soundtrack.
 

Bill Huelbig

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Kirk said:
Let's put aside the fact that this list has no credibility what so ever, what organization do you think would most accurately rate film scores if they were ever to make up a list?
Here's a list that I like a lot better, especially since it gives Herrmann his due (the #2 score), along with Goldsmith, Waxman, Rozsa, Korngold, Alfred Newman, etc.
http://www.scorelogue.com/features/top100_final.html
--Bill
 

Chad R

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Then "Amadeus" could have been included as well as '2001.' Just one more strike against this list.
 

Lew Crippen

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Here's a list that I like a lot better, especially since it gives Herrmann his due (the #2 score), along with Goldsmith, Waxman, Rozsa, Korngold, Alfred Newman, etc.
And adds some composers (Quincy Jones, Ralph Vaughn Williams, and André Previn), not noted for composing film scores. I also like the fact that John Carpenter is given his due for his musical contribution to Halloween. Its also nice to get the reasoning supplied behind the choices. I would not have considered, for example Jaws 2, as a candidate without the list, and had it not been for the explanation, would have rejected the entry completely.
A hard list to disagree with, though I’m sure that there will be some disagreement. Probably the main issues would be where any particular score is placed on the list.
Thanks for the link. :emoji_thumbsup:
 

Randy Korstick

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I'm a big fan of the FOTR soundtrack and think it is the best score of the last few years but agree it does not belong at #1 or even in the top 5.
I also have a problem with no Bernard Hermann or Jerry Goldsmith. They both should have at least 3 soundtracks in this list. There are too many great ones by both of them to list. Ennio Morricone should have at least 2 more in this list: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West.
What's with 9 John Williams scores. That's 6 too many. Star Wars, Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark could have easily been combined into one since they share nearly identical main themes. This alone shows how mainstream this list is since John Williams is the Britney Spears of Soundtrack Composers:D .
 

Rob Gillespie

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Regardless of what the poll - or people here - say, I stand by my opinion that Fellowship is the best soundtrack CD I've heard since The Empire Strikes Back. I've just not heard anything which delivers the same level of feeling, and with such fluid beauty as this score. Williams did a grand job with Ep.2, but it just doesn't 'get' me in the same way as Fellowship does. Nowhere near, actually.

As for Horner, well, I lost interest in him years ago. He can write a pretty tune, but I find most of his stuff just sounds like it was written on auto-pilot.

You also have to take into consideration the fact that a lot of these voters are giving their opinions on music they hear played from the station. I find some film music - while working brilliantly within the context of the movie - gives me little enjoyment to hear on it's own (i.e. Herrmann), while others stand on their own two feet.

A note aside - someone commented earlier on Last Of The Mohicans. I must admit, I've never really understood the adoration for this score. There only ever appear to be one tune played throughout the whole film. I know there is a more to it than that, but that's just the way it comes across.

Another note aside - I love Randy Newman's orchestral work for Pleasantville. Just a gorgeous little collection there, especially the scene with the 'rain' and the mural. Love it.
 

Terrell

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This alone shows how mainstream this list is since John Williams is the Britney Spears of Soundtrack Composers
:laugh: Yeah, that's a good one. He's the best composer of his generation, if not all time. By the way, those themes are most certainly not nearly identical.;) As for 9 Williams scores, I agree that's too many, as it leaves out some other very deserving composers. But that's just a testament to William's greatness. The man has so many memorable scores that people remember.
A list is a list is a list. This is probably a list voted on by mostly young people. Does LOTR belong at #1, not a chance. Does William's deserve 9 spots. Of course not. You have to include the great composers of of long ago.
 

mark_d

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If you're gonna do any list of "all time", much as it then contradicts the banner, I think anything written within the immediately preceding ten years should be excluded.

If you don't survive that decade, then you have no right belonging in an all-time greatest list, do you?

If people are still as wild about the FOTR score after 10 years, then it truly must be up there with the greats...

Me? Beauty is in the eye (or in this case ear) of the beholder, so I don't recognize lists like this as anything other than food for discussion.

Mark
 

Randy Korstick

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Well I knew it wouldn't take Terrell long to jump in on anything with Star Wars or John Williams ;) .
John Williams is great at composing main themes(even if many of them are borrowed from classical music and from his own previous works) and main themes are what the masses with short attention spans remember so that explains John Williams popularity not to mention look how popular most of the movies he had an opportunity to score are. But great themes do not make a great composer. Most of the people who voted on this list voted on main themes and probably have never heard the whole soundtrack albums they are voting on. If they did many would change their minds as many of the John Williams scores do not stand up as a complete works only a collection of some goods themes filled out with tons of filler music. While many of the truly great soundtrack composers create soundtracks that stand as a complete work much as a classic composers symphony would. The lack of this plus the lack of originality is why many musicians and music critics consider John Williams a hack even though the general public consider him great. Which is what makes him so similar to Britney Spears. They both know how to take just a little bit of talent and very little originality and market it to the mainstream as what the mainstreams wants.
By the way those 3 themes difinately are very similar listen to them all in a row and you'll swear thay are all from the same movie.
 

Evan Case

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Utter baloney, Randy.
As for the list itself, I agree it skews towards modern films a bit too much. One other classic score that I don't think has been mentioned would be Chaplin's music for City Lights (particularly as conducted by Carl Davis in the late '80s). Equal parts beauty and humor.
Evan
 

Steve Christou

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Thanks for the link Bill, nice to see Goldsmith's Star Trek and John Barry's OHMSS in the top 10, don't agree with the top 3 scores though, but interesting.
I would hazard a guess and say the James Bond theme is the most famous and most easily recognisable theme in the world, more than Star Wars or Jaws or any other film theme.
 

Randy Korstick

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Evan
Thanks for adding something intelligent to this conversation and sharing with us what you are having for lunch.:crazy:
 

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