“Sound is 50% of the moviegoing experience.” – George Lucas
There are very few filmmaking components as well-equipped to establish a distinctive voice as the score. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) is arguably more recognisable for Vangelis’ game-changing synthetic score than for any narrative elements, Ennio Morricone’s work on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) established the definitive template for scoring cinematic duel sequences, and John Williams’ Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) theme is among the most recognisable musical works in history, and yet it feels increasingly like sentiments such as Lucas’ famous line on the importance of sound, cited above, have been quoted so often in film discourse as to be glazed over rather than internalised. The importance of a unique musical presence has gradually become less desired over the years, resulting in another easy shortcut for Hollywood towards designing a truly risk-free production line for their output. In mainstream circles, composers are no longer being chosen for their compatibility with the project, rather because they have a reputation for a specific, tried-and-true style which has proven popular in their past works.
To this end, the producers on the highest levels of mainstream filmmaking have essentially narrowed the field of eligible composers to a small handful. Any upcoming blockbuster which has an epic and emotional scope will more than likely be assigned to Hans Zimmer, while a film marketed with the key buzzword of “fun” will inevitably be offered to Michael Giachinno. On the other hand, any quirky Oscar contender will become putty in the hands of Wes Anderson-emulator Alexandre Desplat, with Thomas Newman picking up the slack by covering the more weighted prestige dramas.
Consequently, this diverse range of films have all begun to sound virtually identical; I dare anyone to try and distinguish between Hans Zimmer’s work on Widows (Steve McQueen, 2018) and his work on X-Men: Dark Phoenix (Simon Kinberg, 2019). This has had a massive effect on the gradual blending of Hollywood films into one grey mass of copycat content aiming only for inoffensive reactions, an approach that is quickly becoming the standard in a post-Marvel landscape.
There are still a respectable number of unique players in the field of film scoring, however they have largely become dependent on independent projects managed by specific directors to realise their work, which rarely leads to prolific career paths. Daniel Lopatin has produced unsettlingly offbeat scores for both Good Time (Josh and Benny Safdie) and Uncut Gems (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2019), yet those remain his only two film credits to date. Similarly, Michael Abels’ memorable and thematically tuned work on Jordan Peele’s films Get Out (2017) and Us (2019) have garnered no recognition from the industry whatsoever. The opportunities offered to these experimental composers are few and far between, as the market has seemingly turned its head away from new and exciting ideas in favour of swelling violin hero beats, leaving the responsibility of giving these fresher voices the space to execute their rejected visions to lower-end, more outgoing filmmakers who cannot afford them the widespread recognition they deserve.
The Academy Awards have a part to play in this bias against modern film composers, having consistently given the majority of the nominations in the Best Film Score category to old favourites. The 2020 Academy Awards have only cemented this issue, having assigned four of the five spaces to returning composers, including the aforementioned Alexandre Desplat, John Williams and Thomas Newman, alongside Randy Newman, who appears, based on the originality of his score, to have mistaken Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach, 2019) for a particularly morose sequel to Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995).
The only remotely interesting voice in this category was Hildur Guðnadóttir, who brought considerable depth to the arguably undeserving Joker (Todd Phillips, 2019). Her ultimate victory is a slight glimmer of hope for unconventional film composers, though it should be noted that, in stark contrast to Newman and Desplat, Guðnadóttir has booked no additional projects for the foreseeable future. The greatest achievements in this category may occasionally yield recognition, but they are evidently not enough to change the fact that the deck is stacked high against the more distinctive contenders.
There is no corner of the film industry which could be considered remotely accessible to the majority of the talented artists working today, however I believe that the practice of film scoring should absolutely be the one to pave the way for a more open-minded system to develop in the future. The scoring process is the perfect testing ground for artistic risks in high budget scenarios, precisely because the bankability question is not nearly as much of a threat in this portion of the process. Avengers: Endgame (Joe and Anthony Russo, 2019) did not earn $2.798 billion at the box office because of the high demand for Alan Silvestri’s score, rather due to its focus-tested storylines and spectacular marketing prowess. There is little to lose in lending opportunities to composers like Lopatin and Abels, who appear to have something more provocative to contribute than the recycled industry leaders. If the century-old precedent is anything to go by, the results could change the filmmaking world forever.
