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csandrm-blog · 7 years

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Articles and Books to be researched

Why is music memorable?

The Essential Secrets of Songwriting. 2016. What Makes Music Memorable? | The Essential Secrets of Songwriting. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.secretsofsongwriting.com/2016/04/04/what-makes-music-memorable/. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

EDMProd. 2016. 8 Strategies for Making More Memorable Music - EDMProd. [ONLINE] Available at: http://edmprod.com/memorable-music/. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

Better Kid Care (Penn State Extension). 2016. Music makes it memorable — Better Kid Care — Penn State Extension. [ONLINE] Available at: http://extension.psu.edu/youth/betterkidcare/news/2015/music-makes-it-memorable. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

No Film School. 2016. Watch: What Makes a Soundtrack Memorable? . [ONLINE] Available at: http://nofilmschool.com/2016/09/watch-what-makes-soundtrack-memorable [Accessed 30 November 2016].

Why should music in film be memorable?

Robin Hoffmann. 2016. 12. What is the function of film music? | Robin Hoffmann - Composer - Orchestrator - Arranger. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.robin-hoffmann.com/tutorials/guide-to-working-with-a-film-composer/12-what-is-the-function-of-film-music/ . [Accessed 30 November 2016].

Lists of memorable music:

AXS. 2016. 10 memorable music, songs and themes in movies - AXS. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.axs.com/10-memorable-music-songs-and-themes-in-movies-63986 . [Accessed 30 November 2016].

Why is Marvel Movie music not memorable?

Geeks of Doom. 2016. Why Isn’t Marvel Movie Music More Memorable? (Video). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2016/09/15/marvel-movie-music-video . [Accessed 30 November 2016].

Mental Floss UK. 2016. Why Is the Music in Marvel Movies So Forgettable? | Mental Floss UK. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/86243/why-music-marvel-movies-so-forgettable . [Accessed 30 November 2016].

Collider. 2016. Marvel Soundtracks Explained in New Video Essay | Collider. [ONLINE] Available at: http://collider.com/marvel-soundtrack-video-essay/ . [Accessed 30 November 2016].

How to score a film

Vulture. 2016. 6 Lessons in 6 Film Scores, by Michael Giacchino -- Vulture. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/michael-giacchino-how-to-score-a-movie.html. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

Music & Audio Envato Tuts+. 2016. The Process of Score Composition, Part 1. [ONLINE] Available at: https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-process-of-score-composition-part-1--audio-1322. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

Scale emotions in music for scoring

The Ethan Hein Blog. 2016. Scales and emotions | The Ethan Hein Blog. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2010/scales-and-emotions/. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

The Power of Music in Film

PopMatters. 2016. The Power of Film Music | PopMatters. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.popmatters.com/feature/surroundsound-060315/. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

Temp music

The Relevance Of Temp Tracks | Epic Sound. 2016. The Relevance Of Temp Tracks | Epic Sound. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.epicsound.com/resources/temptracks/ . [Accessed 30 November 2016].

How does music associate with Memory?

Music and Memory. 2016. Brain-Music Connection - Music and Memory. [ONLINE] Available at: https://musicandmemory.org/about/brain-music-connection/ . [Accessed 18 December 2016].

Live Science. 2016. Music-Memory Connection Found in Brain. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.livescience.com/5327-music-memory-connection-brain.html. [Accessed 18 December 2016].

Cognitive Daily. 2016. Music and memory: How the songs we heard growing up shape the story of our lives – Cognitive Daily. [ONLINE] Available at: http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/08/18/music-and-memory-1/ [Accessed 18 December 2016].

Film Scoring Books

Richard Davis. 1999. http://hugoribeiro.com.br/. [ONLINE] Available at: http://hugoribeiro.com.br/biblioteca-digital/Davis-Complete_Guide_Film_Scoring.pdf. [Accessed 18 December 2016].

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csandrm-blog · 7 years

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The Birth of my Idea

My idea came about upon memory. I remembered seeing the video essay and I instantly settled on my idea. I knew I wanted to research something regarding sound.

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csandrm-blog · 7 years

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Questions within the Text

The idea that inspired me of my research was the video essay found in Geeks of Doom article called Why Isn’t Marvel Movie Music More Memorable?

This article leads the reader to a YouTube video essay called the Marvel Symphonic Universe. The video speaks about my subject and goes through some research on it. It starts off by asking people to sing scores and then dives into why they are not memorable. This source is very reliable for me because it started me with the idea in the first place. It also placed benchmarks for research methods I could use. For example they used methods such as voxpops and a focus group. They also go into subjects such as reasons why the scores are not memorable because of techniques and then into actually composing the music by explaining Temp music in the run. Although this video has a large bulk of information in it, I want to take the audience more into consideration. By conducting personal interviews with composers and focus groups with diehard fans of the franchise I will get much more information and see what the audience actually wants to hear in these films.

Which then leads to an article from Secrets of Song Writing called What Makes Music Memorable? This short article speaks about song writing in general. It mainly speaks to the songwriter and gives him or her tips on what can make a song memorable. Although it ta a very good article and can very much help out someone looking to improve is craft, it does not help me out in my study. Since the composer in who is scoring music for a film is, much more often than not an expert in music, it will not help him out on making the score more memorable. The idea behind my study is to make the score more relatable to the viewer’s emotion. Scoring to enhance the viewer’s emotional response and for the viewer to know them emotion he is meant to feel.

On the other hand, No Film School’s article “Watch: What Makes a Soundtrack Memorable?” not only reviews the video in the first article but goes in detail to explain what makes a soundtrack memorable. It gets into what temp music is. Where the video explains that temp music is music that the director gives the composer to write like instead of working with him to come up with what the composer feels that there should be. This article works well with what I am looking for in my research. It takes the video that inspired me and makes explains part of it in text which would be much easier to reference in the future. This article is also very well written taking examples from the source to explain to the reader in more depth.

When I was researching I realized that I needed to include the question on how music associates with memory. In doing so I stumbled upon an article from the site Music and Memory talking about this certain subject. It has a video in it that explains what is in this relation. Going into details on how different parts of the brain are activated which still work when there are diseases in the brain that deactivating certain parts. It is a great source to introduce me to the information I need but it is very vague. The host in the video explains the certain parts of the brain that activate when and where but he doesn’t go into detail that will fuel my research. Despite this, it gave me ideas on how I can research in more detail by maybe, for example, interviewing brain specialists who specialize in memory so they could give me hints and ideas on how music associates with memory.

These articles are great benchmarks to start me off on my research. The opened doors for me and showed me where I’m going to need to dig deeper to get the information that I need. Seeing what information is out there also motivates me to throw out an even larger amount of it for people to find useful. Since there isn’t much, it might help people if they find all the information needed for this specific subject. Apart from helping me through my research, it will also help me in my musicianship as I will find this research as a tool to make more memorable music.

References:

Geeks of Doom. 2017. Why Isn’t Marvel Movie Music More Memorable? (Video). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2016/09/15/marvel-movie-music-video. [Accessed 22 January 2017].

No Film School. 2016. Watch: What Makes a Soundtrack Memorable? . [ONLINE] Available at: http://nofilmschool.com/2016/09/watch-what-makes-soundtrack-memorable [Accessed 22 January 2017].

Music and Memory. 2017. Brain-Music Connection - Music and Memory. [ONLINE] Available at: https://musicandmemory.org/about/brain-music-connection/. [Accessed 22 January 2017].

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csandrm-blog · 7 years

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Presenting the Research

In the modern day of Hollywood, Marvel Studios are taking over the industry. With notable films like: Marvel’s The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Iron Man 3, they are reached international success by making from $1.5 Billion, $1.4 Billion and $1.2 Billion respectively. By creating a Cinematic Universe and introducing this concept to the filmmaking world, they have made their product a commercial success and leave their fan wanting more for the story to expand. Despite having this success, there is a rather notable problem in their films. The comparing their movies to other financially successful movie franchises’ such as Star Wars, Harry Potter and James Bond, their scoring suffers. Going to the most ear catching points of films, asking a person walking out of the cinema to sing or hum the theme song on a Harry Potter film will be a piece of cake. Similarly, asking for the James Bond theme, the Star Wars theme and the Indiana Jones films would be very easy. Once you ask a person to sing or hum a Marvel Studios theme song, you will get a sudden silence, or an “I can’t recall a song”. If it’s hard for people to recall a theme song, it is then even harder for people to recall a song. Why is this?

I have compiled a list of sources which explain:

Why these scores are not memorable? Why should music in film be memorable? Why is Marvel Movie music not memorable? How does music associate with memory? How to score a film. The Power of Music in Film.

References: Wikipedia. 2017. List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films - Wikipedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marvel_Cinematic_Universe_films[Accessed 21 January 2017].

Mental Floss UK. 2017. 10 Highest Grossing Movie Franchises of All Time | Mental Floss UK. [ONLINE] Available at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/70920/10-highest-grossing-movie-franchises-all-time [Accessed 21 January 2017].

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csandrm-blog · 7 years

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Why did I choose this title and what I plan to do with it.

I chose this title because I am a very avid Marvel fan and I have been since I was a child. This will surely motivate me to research things I love and that I will not lose interest. I want to find a way to help out and know what could be done for this issue to be improved. And finally, as a musician, this will help me work out the key ingredients to a memorable and good song.

As research methods I will use music books, online sources, focus groups (still uncertain), vox pops and surveys.

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csandrm-blog · 7 years

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What makes in not memorable?

A theme song for a movie musically what triggers interest in the audience. As a child, I remember being completely immersed on the first note of the original Spider-Man movie from 2002. That first sequence of notes still echoes in my head till this day and listening to it brings back nostalgia. Moving on to the new Marvel movies coming out today, albeit getting immersed by the visually, I don’t walk out of the cinema with the theme song or another certain score still singing in my head; why is this? I would like to investigate why this is so. Starting off with a study on what makes a song memorable. What music has to do with memory and how it, especially theme songs, set the feel and emotion of the whole film. Then I will investigate why the songs in these newer films do not live up to the studies and finally, I will propose what can be done from Marvel to improve on their score game.

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csandrm-blog · 7 years

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Critical Studies and Research Methods - Essay

Why Are Musical Scored in Modern Marvel Movies not Memorable.

Coming up with this idea was a nostalgic trip in my case. I am and have been a long time Marvel movie fan since the first Spider-Man film was release in 2002. As a child I used to watch that and its sequel religiously approximately every two weeks alongside the Harry Potter franchise and Disney films. Those films all had one thing in common - Memorable music.

I remember inserting the VHS tape into the player and sitting on the sofa as the television lit up. The first notes on the score always had me immersed into the television. The iconic theme song in Harry Potter always put a smile on my face and switched me into the wizarding world. The Spider-Man theme made me imagine me swinging from web strands from one building to another. And the sing-along quality of Disney films always caught my attention.

This music was so important to these movies that it defined them to some extent. Upon hearing them for the first time, have it be on television, online or asking someone to recall some of them will instantly remind you of the film. Some of these songs, till this day are still used.

Taking the Harry Potter franchise for instance; in the latest movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them still uses the theme song. This instantly makes the viewer realize and say that this film is set in the same universe. Another example would be Beauty and the Beast; in the live action remake, the trailer plays the song most prominent in the movie, Tale as old as Time. Having it be a teaser trailer or even the movie itself, you know that this film is going to be about a girl who falls in love with a beast and have them meet and eventually having the beast turn into a regular man.

Why are these songs so memorable?

My inspiration to come up with this title came to me upon watching a video essay on YouTube. The Marvel Symphonic Universe is a video essay about why Marvel Studios films’ scores are so bland and not memorable. Granted that once you start one of the movies you recognise the theme song but if you play it outs its context one will not recognize it. The makers of this video actually grabbed numbers of people in front of a camera and asked them to sing a song form Star Wars, and as expected, they did. The then asked them to sing a song from James Bond, and they do. Next came a Harry Potter song, and, they did. But when they were asked to play any song form a Marvel movie (implying its coming from Marvel Studios) they couldn’t.

This really intrigued me. I have watched all the Marvel movies in the catalogue numerous times and yet I couldn’t. This really got me thinking about why this is. As other movies, these films have theme songs and having Marvel Studios have a franchise of film which is the highest grossing franchise in film history (The Marvel Symphonic Universe, 2016) not being recognised by its own music is a little bit off putting. All successful franchises have memorable music in them, these include; Harry Potter, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, James Bond and countless others. But why isn’t Marvel’s music memorable?

The video goes into details on what is wrong, why it doesn’t work, why it isn’t memorable and then dives into temp music. What it is and why it is used and why it eventually ends up left in the cut without it being meant to stay there in the first place. This video inspired me to dive into the research and look into it with a bit more detail.

Since the music of the films I mentioned before is still stuck with me till this day I want to know what makes it that way. How does music become memorable in the first place? I want to know the relationship between music and memory. As a musician I find it easy to recall song I love listening to and playing but why do these movie song not do the same to me? Why do I find it so hard to remember them, or even at some point even notice them? I also want to see what leads to a memorable film score. Not only will the final study fulfil my curiosity of why these scores are not memorable but it will also help me in my musicianship to be able to write memorable music.

This study will be a very interesting to the ready but it will also help the everyday reader to appreciate musical scores more and maybe trigger even more studies in the future.

References

YouTube. 2016. The Marvel Symphonic Universe - YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vfqkvwW2fs&t=2s. [Accessed 19 December 2016].

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