 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm familiar with contempt, and I ahve nothing but comtempt for it. ;-)
Seriously though, I think this is nothing more than it is with all things in life. You're a kid, you think such-and-such cartoon is hot shit, but you grow up and it changes; you become a teenager, suddenly it's lost it's appeal, and you become and adult it isn't pretty much crap and not worth your time.
You like some film when you were young, but once grown up, you find yourself thinking you were crazy to like that crap.
Who here has never regretted purchasing a LaserDisc/VHS/DVD/insert other medium here release of some movie, only to wonder later when older what the hell they were thinking?
"Full House" was a big deal for many years two decades ago. Would you watch re-runs now? I have zero interest.
For some people the "Chariots of Fire" theme may be nothing more than the equivalent of bell bottoms and combs in afros.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I don't seem to hear film themes much outside of my own playing them. Maybe it's just that I don't watch sports. But I do take pains not to beat any one thing to death by playing it too often.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Oct 17, 2013 - 10:41 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
.
(Member)
|
I think the important word is "contempt", rather than "familiarity".
When something becomes generally popular, those who feel their own taste is more individual and discerning than average might feel the need to alienate the popular item. They'll consciously or subconsciously rebel against its presence regardless of its intrinsic merit.
For example, no-one would say that viewing the familiar Mona Lisa should be beneath the dignity of an art lover. But if everyone has a copy of it on their wall at home, or every doctor's waiting room displays a framed print, it will be perceived by some as being way beneath their dignity to hang it on their own wall. Nothing to do with the painting itself, and everything to do with the contempt one feels for the massed "sheep" that have adopted it.
If everyone is playing Lara's Theme or the Born Free theme, or Carmina Burana or The Four Seasons, same thing. When tunes become very popular, they become symbols of the masses and are no longer the property of the so-called enlightened. So they become the subject of threads like this.
A more specific example in film music terms would be a film music concert. If it features only the main themes from Dr. Zhivago, Born Free, The Sound of Music, Star Wars, The Magnificent Seven, Raiders of the Lost Ark and ET, people here would not say the music is no good despite its familiarity. Rather, they'd likely be contemptuous of the people who put the concert together and made the concert so "popular". It would be seen as film music for the masses, and not for their own "specialist" and "more discerning" tastes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good observations all. My own feelings on the subject have already been touched on by some of you, but here they are again in my own words -
In my case I'd say that familiarity doesn't quite breed contempt, but it has bred, in some cases, a sense of indifference. It's a bit like a Strauss waltz or a National Anthem - you know them so well, and the connotations are so strong, that they almost cease to be music. Or at least we don't "hear" them on a musical level. I suppose the same could be said of a TV theme for any show that's been in syndication for decades - the symbolic nature of it will have worn away any perception of it as real music. It's as if our critical faculties have been switched off.
With film music, there was a time when I'd grown so used to hearing STAR WARS everywhere that I'd almost "forgotten" that it wasn't simply a noise that was associated with a popular movie franchise. I thought, wait, this is music written by a real person. So I forced myself to go back and listen to all the John Williams STAR WARS scores again, and it was like a revelation. Familiarity had bred indifference, and I had to shake off all the built-in connotations to fully appreciate the music anew.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
