Friday, February 27, 1998
Scoring at the movies
MUSIC: Ranging from classical to pop, film soundtracks evoke
emotional responses and bring in a few extra bucks in the
process
By Ai Goldsmith
Daily Bruin Contributor
Although we live in the age of science and technology, people
are looking to extract emotion from almost every experience. Such
desire for emotional rapport has led movies like "Titanic" to the
top of the charts – but the ship doesn’t sink there.
The mind boggling success of "Titanic" in the box office is
mirrored by the record industry as well. So far, about five million
copies of the soundtrack grace the lives of "Titanic" fans in the
United States, with sales over 10 million reported around the
world. "Titanic’s" success on the record charts is a prime example
of the rising popularity of soundtracks.
According to Len Lovallo, regional product manager for
Blockbuster Music, popularity of a soundtrack often depends on the
impact the movie had on the audience.
"People are so impacted by a movie (like ‘Titanic’) that they
just have to have the soundtrack," Lovallo says.
In the case of "Titanic," the movie’s success, and the effect on
the audience, comes from the dramatic and passionate story of two
lovers, Jack and Rose. Yet the story may not have been as
believable or exciting if it weren’t for James Horner’s score.
"The score to ‘Titanic’ made the love story believable because
it was about love songs," says film composer and UCLA professor
Paul Chihara.
Chihara, who has taught distinguished film composers including
John Williams ("E.T." and "Star Wars"), explains that the purpose
of underscore (the background music) in movies is to add emotional
depth to the film.
"(Film music) is about emotion, about making the story
memorable," Chihara says. "We go away from a movie moved by emotion
– not information. When we talk about ‘Titanic,’ we don’t say that
we learned that the ship went down in 1920. We already knew that.
But we didn’t know that we cared about those characters and that we
would go on caring about them. That’s what music does … it makes
you care."
The music in "Titanic" is certainly not the only score that has
made a movie memorable. Other soundtracks from successful movies
like