Time for me to 'expand my horizons'. I am pretty good and small and large ensemble sounds or even solo acoustic instrumentation. But twice in the last two months, I left a project because I was not creating a "Millennial" sound. In the first project, I scored the film three separate times with directions and links/temp tracks before the filmmaker decided I was not giving her the 'sound' the was right for the film. That was why this last time, I read the script and asked up front about what type of 'sound' they envisioned before I started scoring and I am glad we put on the brakes today.
So I thought this would be a great topic for the 'lounge'. Some films just want/need a live guitarist or a band or a synthesizer keyboard. But is that what makes for a 'millennial sound'? What would you say would be the ingredients for creating a millennial sound.
For me there are lots of terms out there and some might even call it a 'modern sound'. I know many of the A-List composers can embrace both the orchestral/ensemble sound and as well as whatever you want to call the scoring that goes behind a film marketed to the under 30 age group - typically a comedy.
So let's dispense of the terminology here and see if we can put our hands around exactly what type of music this is.
Link some of the temp tracks.
I have no idea what the "Millennial" sound is? Are you talking something like what Reznor and Atticus Ross did on The Social Network?
I don't know either - its just not the sound that I typically offer. Must have something to do with the music genres or arrangements somehow. Perhaps it is just a preference towards commercial or commercial style music often licensed by music supervisors which predominantly features bands, or guitarists or singer songwriters. I don't know but I have been told about it twice in the past two months and apparently my currently specialties/portfolio didn't have it. (That's OK :) There is enough love to go round - I have other projects).
Did they give you any tracks that were the sound they were looking for?
I know how the film ended up for the one in May that 'went in a different direction' since it has already been released as a proposed 'pilot' on youtube scored by someone else (not me).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepyQF6wGyk&feature=youtu.be
Yeah, that's just quirky/electronica. Synth, small perc, and marimba. Thomas Newman has been doing that for decades.
Jonathan - so other than the choice of instrumentation, does the music used in films marketed to the under 30 group (like Sex & The City, et al.) composed or arranged in a specific way - voicings, rhythms, time signatures, tempos, articulations (especially for the horns), choice of counter melody - anything else you can think of?
There might be micro-trends, but broad-stroke-wise, there isn't much new under the sun. We live in the time of Eclecticism, so originality is defined by a composer's personal use or combination of existing idioms. If I had to guess, I'd say you were running into less of a Millennial Sound obstacle, and more of a synth/production obstacle. I know you use a notation program for scoring (Sibelius?), which seems like it could work with orchestral and maybe big band music. But for a synth/quirky score you really need to get elbows-deep in production with a DAW (and, imo, I'd do the same for an orchestral score). A good exercise would be to re-produce a score you think of as Millennial. See what roadblocks you encounter (gear, production chops, etc.) and then figure out how to get around them to get the exact same sound. If there's anything to a Millennial Sound it's production as opposed to voicings, rhythms, time signatures, tempi, articulations or choice of counter melodies. Millennials didn't invent production, but it's certainly the main focus for any demographic today. Look, I've got a couple degrees myself, but to paraphrase Adam Neely, "While you were in college studying chord substitutions, someone else was figuring out 10 different ways to make a kick sound lit."
I always put it..." He can get more out of a 7 than I can a 13".
Here a list of free synths (I'm a fan of u-he): https://blog.landr.com/8-free-vst-plugins-inspire
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My biggest obstacle is not DAW (I have had Sonar for years). I believe I need to learn more about effective use of percussion and percussive sounds and secondly, I have to find a better sample set with diverse guitars, guitar sounds, guitar licks and guitar loops.
Thanks for the 'kick'.
Ouch. You know Gibson just ended development on Cakewalk/SONAR? Still, SONAR will probably work for you for some time, and it means you can load some synths and mixing plug-ins. Orange Tree is a place to check out for guitar samples. And Wavesfactory has some great quirky/small perc.
Also, you could pick up a bunch of "toys" from music shops, or Lark in the Morning, and record them yourself. Here's a cue I had to compose and record in one day, in between two other gigs: https://soundcloud.com/jonathanprice/liplocked
I'm playing live snare, saxes, harmonica, shaker, wind wand, devil chaser, and a xinh tien (jingle rasp, sounds like a guiro). And you can hear it's not just recorded but processed, creatively panned, etc. It's like a lot of quirky music: something you'll definitely need your SONAR for.
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Years ago, I used to use Sonar along with Sibelius and do the same thing in both. Then since I was taking composing classes, I switched totally into Sibelius since the prof could not read/understand piano roll.
Now that the composing classes are no longer offered to 'lifetime learners' / continuous education people and only to those going for degrees (which I am not), between now and the end of the year, I'm going to get Protools (though I hate dongles and equivalent security methods).
Beyond instrumentation, are there melodic or harmonic elements that help create the Millennial sound, elements that are not commonly found in a John Williams or Alan Silvestri melody for example?
Mark - good question - that is exactly what I was asking above.
So this is interesting! If you google "What is the sound of a Millennial Soundtrack" you get this kind of stuff:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennial_whoop
and songs like this:
https://youtu.be/8uySNTFJMec
https://youtu.be/H7HmzwI67ec
Check out the Intro in "AH, It's a Love Song" first link above, and the Intro and Chorus in "Good Time", second link. Could this be what they're getting at? This kind of line is found in a lot of Millennial music...
Maybe taking this kind of line and building and orchestral arrangement around it would get you in the ball park?? It would certainly sound different!
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Let's hear some more examples of original scores that are considered Millennial! Cuz the above example (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iepyQF6wGyk&feature=youtu.be) can't be it. I'd imagine something electronic, bit-crushed, with LFO's dictating rhythm, color, dynamics, and tempi. Maybe something like IT FOLLOWS or STRANGER THINGS, which are most certainly Carpenter-inspired (and he is most certainly not a Millennial), but they stay fresh. The quirky sound of the score example above has already been covered by Rolfe Kent, Marks Mothersbaugh, Thomas Newman, and other non-Millennials. And the electronic sounds aren't doing anything new. Something like a bit-crusher controlled by an LFO. That's something you could call a Millennial sound. Even though it's emulating the bit restrictions of the 80's/90's, it's using the restriction in a creative way that wouldn't have been thought of back then. But what do the filmmakers think is the Millennial sound? We could come up with bit-crushers and whoops, but what is it that they think is it? What are some actual film score examples?
I’ve been doing a little more poking around and I’m reading the the film, “The Dark Knight” was considered a Millennial smash. This film differently had a hybrid score, synthesizers with orchestral elements, by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard I believe. Also maybe the score to "Inception" which was also hybrid score if memory serves. There was likely LFO’s used in these scores I would think.
Maybe hybrid... Not that it hasn't been around forever, but there is more of a focus now.