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People hated Arnold when he first arrived on the scene, then he stuck around for over a decade, and suddenly, his sound was the Bond sound. Like it or not. There is no point in taking a well-liked composer with their own way of doing things and then making them copy someone else's work.
James Bond is bigger than any one actor, director, or yes, composer. That's the beauty of it compared to every other major franchise, there is no one house-style that the filmmakers cannot deviate from. Dr. No, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Casino Royale are all vastly different movies but they are all still Bond.
If you want a Bond movie with a Sean Connery-like lead and a score that sounds like John Barry, then you're in luck because we have about six of those, stretching from 1962 to 1971 (with a short break), and the best part is that they are the real thing, no exact duplicates required.
The answer lies somewhere in between. Using LIVE AND LET DIE as an example; George Martin didn't copy Barry in anything except (maybe!) structure, yet LALD is still unmistakably a Bond score, with a perfectly fitting adaptation of the Bond theme and some wonderful uses of the title song throughout. Stylistically, however, LALD is little like the previous Barry scores.
I think you might be slightly missing my point, that in my opinion, there is no "answer" of any kind. It's all down to personal taste and how long the composer sticks around for. If Éric Serra had worked on the Bond films for 11 years, then by the time Casino Royale came out, his style would have been the "Bond sound" to the general public.
LALD sounds unmistakably like a Bond score to you, likely because it has been around for nearly half a century, it's not something objectively embedded within the very DNA of LALD. I fully agree with you about the usage of the title song in the score itself, though.
That to me, has been the biggest failing of pretty much every Bond score post-1987, even the ones I like. If a movie is going to reveal its title and or plot/theme in a 3-5 minute long musical number in the first act, that music had better damn well be tied into the fabric of the rest of the movie in some way.
Though I can't really blame any of the composers since most of the songs are chosen too late to properly work the score around them. And I understand why award-winning composers like Newman might feel a bit offended at being told to incorporate someone else's music into their own at the last second.
:Edit: I should of course stress, that this doesn't "ruin" any of the post-1987 scores for me, and I actually like a great deal of them, it's just a minor element that bothers me. Luckily, most of them manage to find some other main theme to integrate into the score, it's just a pity it couldn't be the actual main theme.
Writing's on the Wall was recorded on January, I'd argue that 9 months is more than enough time. So no, Newman is not justified AT ALL.
So would I. I think there certainly is an answer, and it's that which has set Bond scores apart from the pack over the years.
I’d pin that more on Mendes and EON. When SF was recorded, there originally was no instrumental of Adele’s song until EON requested it at the last minute. If they felt it was important to have the Sam Smith song interwoven throughout the score they should have requested that he do that instead of only do it for one scene. I think the truth of the matter is that having the song be interwoven throughout the film hasn’t been a priority for EON since LTK, so this isn’t an issue exclusive to Newman. David Arnold was the only one to go the extra mile, and he only really did that in three of his scores.
At least Arnold made a different score for DAD instead of recycling half of his previous score.
That wasn’t Newman’s fault. Sam Mendes and Lee Smith took recording sessions for SF and remixed them into the film as a temp score and liked them so much Mendes decided to keep them in.
Yeah, I always find it such a pity that Newman was never allowed to fully explore what he could do with the Bond sound. Barry and Arnold were allowed to grow and evolve with each subsequent score they did, while Newman was quite literally told to just make Skyfall 2.0. Sort of sums up a lot the problems with SP tbh.
:Edit: The saddest thing we lost out on with Newman was a chance for him to move beyond the ambience heavy style of Skyfall. His playful percussion-heavy tracks with strange musical instruments for films like Jarhead and Lemony Snicket proved he could have done so much more.
The source seems very dodgy, but I wish this is true.
I second this-- if true, Holy S***Balls!!!
Layered music, that's…music to my ears! Will have to check out his work :-)
I didn't mean to implay that I blamed Newman for that (I'm aware of Mendes and Smith being responsible), just that DrClatterhand should avoid insulting people for having different tastes as if Arnold was a hack.
They could at least get the name right.
Newman was announced around January 2012 for SF (I think) and on 4th December 2014 for SP (same day as the press conference).
That's actually pretty sexy. Haven't seen the show, but yet I already know what kind of show it is by the main theme.
But that Britell guy seems amazing. Love those two tracks. Of course, for a feature film a composer has to be able to not only come up with a few amazing tracks, but he has to be able to keep up the level for two hours, i.e. in the case of a Bond film, for the duration of 60-100 min of music. I don´t insist on action scenes getting wild musical cues, I thought John Woo underlaying big caliber mayhem with classical music worked wonderfully. So I wouldn´t be averse if the composer, and at this moment I guess it´s still safest to say that´s Dan Romer, produced not very loud cues for NTTD. But I must insist on continuous quality. Every minute of music must be worth listening to, unless it´s just the occasional generic hum for a minute, I´m willing to tolerate that as soundscape.
Though this channel has three followers and also claims Safin is a rebooted Dr No, so....
I wasn't conciously aware of him but like what i've been hearing on spotify so far. Very good versatility and depth.
And having been nominatrd for an Oscar twice already, he would fit in much better with this production Team.
Edit: This stuff is orgasmic
And the Piano Version, oh my god
Calling this a dodgy source is an understatement. I think this might be wishful thinking on our part.
You just want the job yourself, but we're not falling for it a third time...
I love your SF score though, all good ;)