Godzilla Songs Letters

Compiled by Lukas Kendall

We got a lot of letters responding to Edwin Black's Godzilla songs tirade from last Thursday. Here they are, without much comment from me, since I'm zonked from our deadline on the new FSM:

From: Roman Deppe, roman.deppe@metronet.de

I think it is okay putting songs in movies as long as they have any connection with the movie itself. I mean, there are movies with only songs and work very well... like recently BOOGIE NIGHTS or the Tarantino-movies. But putting songs into a movie like GODZILLA or BATMAN 3 and 4 is just money-making. I don't want to complain about a song-CD until the score gets released itself, too. Especially the SPEED 1 and TWISTER CDs were ridiculous, I would have been very upset if their great scores would have never been released (come on, 12 songs on the SPEED album, of which only one was actually in the movie, and only in the end title... nobody needs CDs like that).

But over here in Germany these CDs do another task: They are free advertisements for the studios. I remember it especially with the movie JUDGMENT NIGHT. The movie came out in the States about 1 year before it was released here (only on video), but the crappy hard-rock CD came out over here the same day as in the states. So, a lot of my friends knew this CD soon (it was pretty succesful over here) and after some weeks they asked me (I was the filmgeek of my school) when this movie is coming out in germany ("Its filmmusic is so great! I have to see it!). But almost all my friends were surprised and very disappointed that there were almost no songs at all in the movie (unfortunately Silvestri's music wasn't very exciting, either, so I don't cry for not having a CD of it). A song album I liked though was BLOWN AWAY, although that that movie featured maybe Silvestri's best score ever and that this score wasn't released still bothers me... at least the songs were actually used in the movie sometimes more than just as source cues for some seconds, so the album was kind of justified...

The Judgment Night-thing is going to happen with GODZILLA, now with all the videos running on MTV you have 4 ot 5 minutes long trailers showing on TV several times at day and until the movie opens in september the TV-nerds will wanna see the movie and be disapponted that the "cool" actionscenes feature no Puff dady, but kind of an orchestral thing (Yuck!). Oh by the way, I remember when JURASSIC PARK came out its sound effects destroyed the speakers in our local cinema, but they couldn't repair them in time, so for several weeks each time when the movie got loud you heard only scratching sounds. So after the movie we talked about it of course and one girl stated: "It was a great movie, but the music was so annyoing. Always this scratching!!! Who writes crap like that?"... well, at least she paid attention to the music of the movie...

But anyway, I can understand why Hollywood producers put songs in the movie or on CDs... I don't care as long as we still get our scores and maybe we don't have to experience another SPEED 2... in that movie you thought, the makers were more interested in selling an album than a movie. Songs from beginning to end... the ship is just a floating disco, in each room, floor, stairs are differnet songs played throughout the movie... and 7 different songs in the end-titles! Beat that!

From: "Josh \"Sbuckler\" Gizelt" <Josh.Gizelt@gte.net>

Edwin Black brings up several important points in his essay, especially how incredibly large amounts of money are being spent on music that is barely heard in the film.

The connection between music and cinematic action is as elusive as anything, and of course there will always be a big mess when moneymen dominate creative decisions, but the record companies and film studios collective desire to create a hit record is understandable. The film industry is just that- an industry. It is odious, but true. Unless the cinema is completely funded by the government, like in Sweden, artistic choices in America will be subservient to the almighty dollar.

The use of a song over the end credits, however, is a different story. Although few people will hear the entire song, the simple fact is that if it is a famous enough song, it will register.

Both Full Metal Jacket and Devil's Advocate close with the Rolling Stones' "Paint it Black," which perfectly encapsulates the former film, and makes a good stand in for "Sympathy for the Devil" (apparently because Interview With the Vampire had closed with a horrific version of that song by Guns-N-Roses) in the latter. In neither case, however, could the song appear on the album due to the prohibitive re-use fees involved with lisencing Rolling Stones songs.

As artistic choices, both examples are brilliant, offering the audience something familiar to relate the film to.

There are no rules for the proper use of music in a film, and so using previously established music or performers is acceptable IF WARRANTED. Both The Big Lebowski and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (both brilliant films) did not have, or need, original scores (the Carter Burwell track on the album of The Big Lebowski is source music). If they did, part of the effect of atmosphere and period would probably have been lost.

Although I loathe that Titanic song (I'm not too fond of the film either), it proves that there can be a successful song tie-in if the composer is involved (I wish somebody had mentioned that to the producers of Tomorrow Never Dies so that k.d. lang song would have appeared in the head credits instead of that Sheryl Crow crap).

You'll notice that I didn't mention the use of contemporary pop in film, and the reason is simple. I don't think it works that often. Obviously, there are exceptions, such as the ones mentioned in Mr. Black's article. The problem is that I can't think of a recent example.

From: "James R. Auman" <jrauman@ncrb.org>

Amen! to Edwin Black's article on the state of the soundtrack. Hollywood should look at the AFI Top 100 movie list and figure out, how many of these movies had pop song soundtracks? If I was a director trying to create the next American classic, why-oh-why would I put up with this corporate mentality (because I won't get financing if I don't!). Heck, half the songs on these pop soundtracks don't even appear in the film. What is that about? However, as long as they going to do this, I'd rather just let 'em fill the CD with useless music, then to put any score on it. I'd take my chances on getting a complete score album later on.

Case in point: Trevor Rabin's Armageddon score. From the trailers, it sounds like it's going to be quite good, and I'm a huge fan of Rabin's. However, the CD that is coming out has 12 pop-songs on it, and one track with actual score. So now I'm paying $13.99 for one track. I doubt I will even give the other tracks a single listen. But now, I'm worried that since they released a small portion of the score, they won't feel obligated to release any more of it on a separate CD. I find myself pulling for the movie to suceed just so I can get the score CD.

Finally, to end on a scary thought: What if the following movies had been force to include pop-songs: Star Wars, Close Encounters, ET, Superman, Raiders? How horrid that would be!

From: Kurt Roithinger <gren@teleport.com>

"You may ask, why does Godzilla need a song? Godzilla soundtrack composer David Arnold scored the producers' two previous hits, StarGate and Independence Day and no hit song was needed. Answer: since Men in Black scorched the charts and Titanic sailed to global bestsellerdom, money-minded Hollywood is aflame with the notion of turning movie music into revenue-producing Top 40 hits. So while music industry circles buzzed for months with advance details of the soundtrack songs, no one seemed to know if, when and how much of the real score composed by Arnold would be released."

i think this is a pretty gross oversimplification of the matter at hand. the difference here is that unlike stargate and ID4, the producers and the studio were positioning this movie from the outset as a vertical marketing bonanza. the other 2 had toys and action figures and whatnot -- but this one was gonna be oh-so big, it had a near mythical creature at the heart of the matter and was expected to draw in the audiences by the truckload. the potential for vertical marketing looked vast and mineing it properly includes a soundtrack that is able to catch the fancy of the buying public that can listen to it on their way to toy-r-us to buy the godzilla action figure while gulping from a godzilla cup from taco bell, etc.

men in black and titanic really are good examples of how this works well in action, but i do not see them as the touchstones of this trend ('american gigolo' maybe). both MIB and titanic were movies that were well recieved with the public and thus the hype/frenzy over the movie helps feed the sales of album and vice versa. it's pretty much elemental marketing.

"Soundtracks have long been America's leading wellspring of serious ensemble composition. Movies generate more extended music heard by more people than any other source. Last year, approximately 200 movies required original scores. This body of music is more than just an exercise in notation, it indispensably enriches the movie experience during the dramatic moment. When a producer arbitrary replaces original music with a "hit record," often created without any regard for the screen action, the art of filmmaking is undermined. "

while this is noble sentiment indeed, it's also crap. there are some scores that are wonderful. true peieces of art that rival the work of the great masters of old. but for every one score that is an instant masterpiece, there are propably 10 clunkers out there. for every one score that is 'good', there are propably 5 that are 'not-so-good'.

in some instances we've had movies where the score tends to exist almost apart from the movie and winds up being better then the movie itself (ennio morricone's 'the mission' comes to mind). the bottom line here is that the door swings both ways here. Using a songtrack sometimes works, more of ten then not it has habit of being merely adequate. and sometimes it sucks. Using a score sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't and in general the majority is somewhere in between. 6 of 1, half a dozen of the other.

"Certainly, popular songs have long been a staple of good filmmaking. The list of dramatic movies made memorable by their pop songs is long and stellar. Henry Mancini gave us the commercially successfully "Days of Wine and Roses" and "Moon River" (for Breakfast at Tiffany's) which are forever linked with heir Oscar winning movies. The Graduate is inseparably associated with its Simon and Garfunkle songs, not Dave Grusin's original score. Midnight Cowboy was defined by "Everybody's Talkin'" just as Saturday Night Fever's was by its Bee Gee music. In those cases, the pop musical genre sprang from the character or thematic content of the film."

For what it's worth, the studio nearly prohibited the inclusion of 'moon river'.

But i think your article is entirely bereft of the proper historical perspective here, since it more or less takes a rock-centric view. the process of inclusion of popular songs in a movie is as old as the talkies themselves. when al jolson warbles a few songs out in 'the jazzsinger', he's not singing anything particulary new or great -- he's singing pop tneshe was more or less associated with anyway from the days of vaudville.

in general, the practice of including a popular song or a popular group in a movie is pretty old (was there any bandleader fo the '30s and '40s who DIDN'T make a few movies?) and sometimes these movies are remembered more for their musical content of popular songs then anything else (alexander's ragime band).

the development is more or less evident here is that the muscial score at one time or the other began to share time and space with songtracks. the reasons for thisare as simple as marketing or sometimes it does actually serve a purpose (to create/underscore a musical senses of a 'contempoary' era), but all in all i'd agree that for the most part it's just part of a marketing scheme for most folks nowerdays.

"However, the arbitrary use of pop songs, especially those not arising from the storyline, will hurt a film."

Perhaps, perhaps not. 'pump up the volume' and 'the crow' had songtracks that were propably better then the movies themslseves and played well throughout the movie, even though (at least in 'the crow') they had no real association with the plot.

It didn't prevent 'the crow' form having a wonderful score that was well worth getting as well.

"K2 was a flop, in large part because the background music did not connect for moviegoers to create the awesome spectacle of man vs. treacherous mountain. Yet Zimmer's rejected score was released on CD nevertheless."

and here i thought K2 was a flop because it was just a pretty mediocre movie about a subject most folks really don't care much about and rife with ho-hum acting. i sit corrected.

"When the CD is issued, 30 to 60 minutes of quality original score plays second fiddle to barely heard pop music or is abandoned all together. Mark Mancina's music for Twister was omitted entirely from the CD (released on its own disc later). Hans Zimmer's music from Days of Thunder was also excluded from the soundtrack album. Dick Tracy (Danny Elfman) and The Specialist (John Barry) were the first in a new trend of first distributing a well-promoted "pop soundtrack," and then quietly issuing the original score some months afterwards to appease the much smaller soundtrack market."

Days of thunder was a nice score that should have gotten a release, i agree. But for what it's worth, i'd say the original 'batman' was the first real incident in recent times where a pop soundtrack recieved much of the hype, with the score being released only later on -- about 1 year before dick tracy.

"If the song trend continues, filmgoers may be in for another of Hollywood's pendulum swings as it recedes from orchestral soundtrack music in favor of pop-rock. That last happened in the 1980s. If the trend goes too far, movies may seem more like MTV videos than the dramatic experience America has come to love."

And then, after a while, the pendulum will shift back and we'll have more movie scores. it just usually kinda happens that way. tastes in music are fickle and subject to change at times.

but for what it's worth, i don't see this all to be quite as bleak as you make it out to be. movie scoring may very well recess a bit over the next few years or it may very well just continue to flourish. but it hasn't died out completely yet, now has it?

From: "Pieter Coenen" <mab@village.uunet.be>

"Many rightfully say the song, "My Heart Will Go On," was crucial to the film's emotional success. "

How on earth can a song, played over the end credits (!) of a movie, be crucial to it's emotional success? It's a bit like saying that "peace in our life" sung by Frank Stallone (and also incorporating thematic material of the actual score) played over the End Credits of RAMBO II could have been crucial to its "emotional" success?

From: David Ferstat <dferstat@iinet.net.au>

It's always good to see someone sharing one of my favourite rants. Pop music in film, and in film soundtrack albums, has long been a sore point for me.

If a film absoluteley MUST have a pop song, then, at least it should be by the composer who's writing the rest of the score. John Barry has pointed out before that at least the composer, if competent, will be able to make said song match the rest of the film music.

The answer to the question "Why?" is, of course, MONEY. American film studios do NOT produce films for art. They produce them for money. Art is, at most, a secondary (frequently even lower) consideration to film financiers who are all too often the same individuals who run record companies, and who therefore stand to benefit from music albums sales. Knowing that the film-going and music-buying public wouldn't know good or dramatic music if it jumped up and bit them somewhere tender, they consider it sound business practice to use easily and CHEAPLY available pop music (often from artists whose contracts they own).

While we have this almost incestuous relationship between record companies and film studios, I predict that the phenomena can only get worse.

From: "Dan Goldwasser" <dgoldwas@earthlink.net>

In Edwin Black's article talking about the use of pop music in films, he neglected to mention the other phenomenon: the pop song "inspired" by the film. In GODZILLA, we heard Arnold's score throughout most of the film. Yet on the album release we are presented with a plethora of songs which appeared nowhere in the film.

SPEED is the first film that comes to mind which had a "Music From And Inspired By" header on the CD release. Thankfully there was an score release, but it seems that it's becoming less likely that we'll see score releases if pop albums keep coming out.

Until Varese Sarabande announced (only recently) that they would be releasing the score to SMALL SOLDIERS, we were stuck with a CD put out by DreamWorks Records which contained all songs, and no score.

I can only hope that in the future score albums will be released seperately from the pop albums - otherwise we might end up with something like DARK CITY and LOST IN SPACE: scores tacked on to the end of a CD filled with rock songs which appeared in the film for only a fleeting moment, if at all.

In case anyone is wondering, no, I personally did not make it through all these letters. But I'm glad people wrote them! Send your comments to: MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com