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I'm sick of Epic Music and Trailer Music nonsense

rudi said:
I went to London to watch Dune Part 2 at a large screen IMAX cinema when it came out.
I remember how samey all the trailers were - the same deep booms, build ups, percussions.
They were literally interchangeable, and predictable. AND INCREDIBLY LOUD, making the seats rumble.
They might have worked in isolation, but not here.
And no mean to lower the volume ;)
It was such a relief when the film and its soundtrack started, and a real delight.
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I have certainly covered my ears with my hands in cinemas before. One time I nearly left but stuck it out to get to the film. Which was also playing rather loud; but wasn't quite as bad.
 
redninja said:
Indeed the problem is bigger than just the music itself as some others have already mentioned. I think, if I got to rephrase my rant, I just don't get why so-called creative minds love to exaggerate each and every aspect of a production in the industry. What I'm trying to say is, I think I have a problem with trailers in overall as some others have also pointed out, or overall scripting in the movies and etc. So the trailer music just falls victim to these.
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Absolutely - the problem is not with creativity, but the focus on going for the 'safe options'. The people who decide on those types of music are mostly on the business side of the industry. They look at bottom lines, spreadsheets, focus groups, what has worked before. Hence all the re-hashing of music tropes.
It's not just the music industry appealing to the known and familiar.
Occasionally that mold is broken and all the more noticeable for it.
 
Bluemount Score said:
Trailer music is literally the best music for intense workouts
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I thought that heavy metal with cinematic influences was supposed to work best for this. :rofl:

But seriously. As the OP mentioned, epic music unfortunately gets repetitive as everyone is trying to get to the same vibes to catch the ear of the listener.
Maybe the best thing about real epic music is the wild factor. Meaning that something will be truly epic if you have a rection as: "I never heard anything like this before, and it's freakin' awesome".
That's what I would define as epic. Not just a few staccato choirs with a string riff behind.
I mean... even a beginner can learn how to do something like that after taking a few classes on composing.
But making something unique that also sounds powerful is very hard to get. It would take a tremendous amount of imagination and practice, also it would lead you to a soft spot where you might overdo the track, making it too edgy.
But indeed, for most of the so claimed epic tracks, I would refer to them just as a rather adventurous background theme.

The epic part of a track is maybe the fact that it will imprint the moment you listened to it for the first time in your memory. But very few do that, and definitely not one that does not stand out from the rest.

EDIT: To summarize, I think that the more you listen to music the harder it is to find it epic anymore. As you get used to things it's harder to find something that makes your heart pound as hard as in the past. A person new to cinematic music might find even the sound of a single marcato horn chord epic, but if you heard that 10000 times then it gets less epic.
 
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BTW,

Regarding trailer music, it can be a form of art to cut and edit it into a 3 act structure but I don't buy the idea of making something that deviates too much from the original just because it's meant to be for advertising purposes.

Here,

Take a look at the The Dark Knight trailers. We have wonderful excerpts from @Rctec 's original music used in the soundtrack album blended with modern type of Sound Fx's without overdoing it and the music comes in at critical points and elevating your feelings to higher levels of goosebumps.

Just that line of Joker, "this city deserves a better class of criminal..." and then bang! The music takes you to a flight under the bat wings or take you for a crazy drive in the city just Like A Dog Chasing the Cars.
Hats off to the editors and composers.



Or trailers of movies like "Catch Me If You Can", "the Founder", "the Devil Wears Prada" etc... IMHO they all blend well with the actual material and don't get drown in nonsense sfx with only risers, sub-drops and etc.
 
ChickenWhisperer said:
EDIT: To summarize, I think that the more you listen to music the harder it is to find it epic anymore. As you get used to things it's harder to find something that makes your heart pound as hard as in the past. A person new to cinematic music might find even the sound of a single marcato horn chord epic, but if you heard that 10000 times then it gets less epic.
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I'm betting this can happen with almost every genre (and sub-genre) of music, especially if said genre has less room to maneuver in before it becomes something else. I remember all these times sitting in a car with my brother and listening to metal from the radio and my reaction to almost every new track was "meh, bands x, y, z did this better in every conceivable way."
 
Trailer music industry is super creative and super different - saying as a trailer music library owner with 10 years experience.

And it is separated from music for cinema by the same reason why music for advertisement is separated. Because it works with different matters, by different rules, has different purposes and business model.

IMO thinking it's all the same, boring and have no interesting ideas - means you didn't dig into it well or it's just not your type of music.

It's like to say "all rock songs are the same - there are always guitars, drums and vocal". If you don't like rock, you might think like that, but it's not true.

P. S. Super tired of the idea that trailer music = epic music. It's not.

P. P. S. There were some examples of old trailers as a good trailer music examples - almost all of them are boring for me and covered in mold. But it's only my subjective opinion.
 
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redninja said:
I don't buy the idea of making something that deviates too much from the original just because it's meant to be for advertising purposes
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Because each project must be presented to different auditories by different ways. If you sell for example Warcraft movie, you take epic orchestral music in the first trailer to catch main auditory, but add The Prodigy in the last trailer, trying to catch people, who was not impressed by the first one. It doesn't fit the original mood - yes. It sells the film to the new auditories - yes.

Trailer purpose is not just to show what the film is but sell the film to different auditories, who is interested in it and who is not.

Take Gladiator 2 trailer as example with rap stuff in the climax. People who loved the first film usually hate it, young people who didn't see the first one usually like it. Looks like Paramount is interested in the second ones, so that's why there is no "Now We Are Free" trailer cover.
 
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Do you remember when 'trailer music' was synonymous with 'taking the cue Bishop's Countdown from James Horner's score to Aliens and dropping it right in there!'

letterboxd.com

Films using James Horner's "Bishop's Countdown" music in the trailer

You know you've heard THIS or some slight variation of it in a ton of trailers! Suggestions welcome
letterboxd.com letterboxd.com

... because that was a thing, too. David Arnold's Stargate score, Zimmer's Backdraft, lots of other 'welp, just stick this score from another movie into ads for the new movie' stuff was regular practice for a good while.

There's a whole lot of very creative contemporary trailer music, but also trailers where the editors lean more into sound design than melody. Sometimes that even works to great effect, like the teaser trailer to Prometheus (which I admit sounded way fresher in 2012 but is still cool).

I like to listen to Thomas Bergersen's TSFH tracks that fall within the genre of Epic Music. And Jo Blankenburg's. I like to listen to trailer music by Ninja Tracks, who display great skill in a wide stylistic spectrum. I like to listen to Bishop's Countdown, too. There are trends I don't like in advertising, and missed opportunities on a case by case basis, but I don't think it is an indictment of Epic Music or Trailer Music on the whole.

I find that it requires creativity and skill to compose in those genres, too. I used to have more of a blanket dislike for 'trailerized pop' until I was tasked with making some. Adapting a well-known song into a trailer structure and doing so in a way that re-contextualizes the music or enhances a particular emotional aspect of it is not a simple matter. Or, it wasn't for me. It was engaging and enjoyable for me to take some music I revered and give my best effort to frame it in a new way.
 
I think part of the problem is that once you get sensitised to something you dislike recognise as a cliché or where you are only too aware how the sausage is made (eg braaaamms), further uses really grate. It becomes an issue in long-running series where the same motif keeps getting used. The music at that point becomes really noticeable and pulls the suspension of disbelief when other music supports the visuals just fine and you don't really notice it explicitly unless you choose to concentrate on it.
 
redninja said:
As about the other half, "epic music", another example is "epic remakes or takes" of well known compositions like "Duel of the Fates". I have heard lots of so called epic takes/versions of it on Youtube and man, those really kill me. Of course people are free to cover or make their own interpretations on these things/songs but naming them "epic" is really a bold and unnecessary naming convention which just ruins the legacy of those iconic masterpieces.
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It sounds like your complaint is more with amateurism and clickbait than with 'epic music' itself, then. Misuse of the label instead of the label itself being at fault.
 
Inception trailer and soundtrack was when it started to bother me. As pompous and empty as the movie itself. Maybe my memory plays tricks on me, but while watching the movie in cinema I believe all those heavy hits and braaams started to annoy the heck out of me. Although, it doesn't seem that bad now that I hear it again, so it probably got even worse in later movies.
Loudness and lots of brass and heavy percussion doesn't make anything epic by itself, it must come from the music in the first place.
If I want to hear "epic" brass parts, I'll just listen to Bruckner because any movie music pales in comparison anyway.
 
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davidson said:
Are some of you forgetting how repetitive, samey, and corny most trailers were back in the VHS days?! Loud whoosh hits and braaams are just the new Don LaFontaine.
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Yes, but that sound was revolutionary in its day. 🎇 That is how all of these sounds are at some point. Then they get old and kicked aside. 📼 25 years later that sound is sampled and used to create a new sound. ♻️ It's the cycle of life, at least from a music standpoint. 🎼
 
davidson said:
Are some of you forgetting how repetitive, samey, and corny most trailers were back in the VHS days?! Loud whoosh hits and braaams are just the new Don LaFontaine.
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To be honest, I remember the difference that voice-overs made more. There were a lot of generic phrases, but it systematised the clips differently. It felt a little more elastic and discursive.
 
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