Movie Music...Aaaarrrgghhhh

[Burt Alcantara]

I tried to watch the pilot of Caprica. After about 20 minutes I had to pop the DVD out because of the loud incessant, obnoxious, monotonous music.

What is it with movies these days? Seems like the worse a movie is the more loud obnoxious music there is. This is the 3rd movie I couldn't watch because of the music.

Personally, I find the less music there is in a movie, the better it is. Not because of the specific absence but because there is usually good movie making going on. Good acting, directing, photography, and story does not require much music.

Producers and directors know a turkey when they see it so to cover it up they add more "loud." Loud actors, loud makeup, loud sets, loud CGI, loud music. All amounts to bad movies.

Same goes for TV. I think documentaries are the worst. They control the "message" with syrupy music when they want to make a point in their favor and "Jaws" like music when you're not supposed to like something.

Just to put things into perspective, I was a professional musician for over 30 years, so yes, I am very biased.

Bah, humbug.
/rant off [for now]

Burt

[Rich Stewart]

I just watched Earth. Music drove me nuts in a few places.

[glenn bradley]

Not an uncommon complaint to my experience. Many players have a "night mode" or other fancy name for compressing the audio signal. This feature takes the louder and softer points and kind of evens them out.

The purpose is to allow you to hear the whispering dialog without scaring the neighbors when the bad guys bust in shooting. In your case you may find this makes the movie tolerable.

I have found a side benefit to LOML's hearing impairment; the sub-titles on movies no longer bug me (after years of exposure) and I don't need the sound as high as I might without them. Of course, at my house I just let it rip cause there's no one to bother but me ;-)

[Burt Alcantara]

Glenn,
The loud I'm talking about is the offensive loud, where the music is inserted to pump up the action even when there is no action to pump up.

I'd rather they have an option like closed captioning -- music on/off.

[Greg Cuetara]

This is not only limited to movies but also TV shows. I was watching a show the other night where they whispered and then loud gun shots with music...very annoying.

I also agree that the music is pretty terrible...but again so are most of the shows and movies. I personally think that the talent is spread pretty thin...they try to push out too many shows and movies.

[Robert Parrish]

Gee I thought I was the only one that hated the music in movies! You can't hear the dialog for the loud music in almost every movie. As for TV the Hallmark channel is the worst.

[Burt Alcantara]

Not to be a male chauvinist pig, I think the worst consistent offenders are those "wimin" flicks. Bad music, bad stories, bad acting and waaaayyy too many tears. For this reason, I've eliminated most of the "For Women" channels from my selector lists on DirectTV. Wife hates them too but she's much more of a TV hater then me.

[Mitchell Andrus]

A notable exception to the complaint (I'm with you on this) is the music in the Hal Roach comedies. Laurel & Hardy..... There are a few albums that have re-recorded those tracks by Beau Hunks.

http://www.amazon.com/Our-Relations-Laurel-Hardy-Music/dp/B00005AQI5/ref=pd_sim_m_2

Masterful stuff back then, and played deep in the background where movie music belongs.

Listen for the way the bass sax (my weapon of choice on stage) sets the mood in these oldies. Grand!!!

[glenn bradley]

I'd rather they have an option like closed captioning -- music on/off.

You know, that is a really good idea. You can watch a movie in four different languages, with the director talking over the whole thing, why shouldn't we be able to trun off the soundtrack? I like it.