How I Got Into Film Music. . .

~...or: useless trivia about myself!~

Although most of you probably couldn't care less, I thought I'd tell you the story of how I got so obsessed by the generally considered obscure genre called film music. This is also one of the often-most asked questions in various film music discussion groups, so I thought I'd just have the story ready here in case anybody asks again...

It all started when I was 8 years old or so. Up untill then, I had only listened to regular children's records dominated by songs and narration. However, things started to change when my father donated all of his LP-taped cassettes to me (all 60-something), and gave me his old hifi deck recorder and amplifier at that! This must have been the mid 80's.

Although my father was (and still is) mainly a classical music lover, this collection was for the most part made up of 60's and 70's rock and pop albums. It ranged from Elvis to Beach Boys to Emerson, Lake and Palmer to Pink Floyd to Bob Dylan to Rolling Stones etc.

These artists became my first real passion, and I gradually discovered that my main interest was with the big, epic and semi-instrumental sound of progbands such as Pink Floyd and Manfred Mann's Earthband or the melodious, sweeping sound of Alan Parsons Project and Supertramp (my favourite to this day!)

From this point-of-departure I realized that my own musical path (divorced from my father's influence) lied with the power of instrumental music.

Thus - and I don't know exactly when and how - I soon discovered the world of electronic music and particularly Jean Michel Jarre (that he is also the son of film composer Maurice may be considered an "omen" of sorts).

From there on, a gradual interest in film music awoke, sparked somewhat by my interest in films, but mostly by my interest in instrumental music. Again, I don't remember which score was my first love, nor exactly when I started to notice and appreciate film music. It must have been some time during the late 80's, and probably had something to do with my growing appreciation of the STAR WARS films, as with so many other people my age. I had been a fan of the STAR WARS films from a very early age, and with my newly acquired taste for instrumental music, I had noticed the spectacular musical scores that accompanied these films - especially RETURN OF THE JEDI. I honestly can't tell you if this was the first film score I ever noticed, but it was one of them, for sure, and it is still my favourite soundtrack of all time (partially because of nostalgia, partially because it's a damn fine score that includes most of the themes from its prequels plus added bonus compositions such as "The Emperor's Theme" and "Forest Battle").

Despite my very young age, I delved into the wonderful, yet challenging world of film music, discovering ever more composers and musical styles as time went by. Soundtracks have never been easy to come by in Norway (and always expensive), but I picked up pieces here and there, and when I bought my first soundtrack Compact Disc - probably THE ABYSS or JURASSIC PARK - in the early 90's, I was already in posession of  a reasonable collection of taped nostalgia.

It had thus taken me no more than about half a decade to go from children's records to high art film music - a very important period of my life.

Film music has had an enormous impact on the evolution of my musical taste in general - whereas I intitially was limited to music and scores that had a discernible, "song-like" melody, I'm now into everything from the classical approach of the golden era  to the jazzy 50's to complex avantgardistic scores to electronic blends etc., the current top 3 - if one is to reduce film score fandom to a sporting event - occupied by John Williams, Danny Elfman and Elliot Goldenthal respectively.

And yet - so much to discover and listen to - and so little time......