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Synth and Software’s Top 10 Soundtracks That Should Have Made Our Previous Synthy Soundtracks List…
Well, you demanded it by being so mad at us for leaving out your favorite soundtracks!
We polled our contributors for their favorite soundtracks that featured synths last month, and they came up with some great entries. Of course that slighted dozens of scores that by all rights belong on the list, for the simple reason that there are more than ten!
So in the interest of world peace, we’re taking a different tack with this follow-up: focusing on the synth-featuring soundtracks that are the most influential. And if we believe that’s going to be less controversial, boy do we have another thing coming!
This is what you’re thinking: why didn’t they just call it Synth and Software’s Top Ten Most Influential Synth-Featuring Soundtracks?
Because that wouldn’t be nearly as fun, which is what this is all about in the first place.
11. Flash Gordon, Queen
We’ll kick this feature off with a free bonus entry, carefully avoiding the obligatory “it’s one more, i’nit” Spinal Tap joke. Queen was one of the first pop megastars, not film composers, to score a film. That itself is a trend, and this is a heavy synth score.
10. Life Aquatic, Mark Mothersbaugh
You know “Whip It,” right? Please say yes? Mark Mothersbaugh is in Devo, of course, that wonderfully funny band.
He’s also known for his quirky scores for the quirky Wes Anderson movies. And it’s no surprise that his scores can be funny.
Mothersbaugh scored Rug Rats and other Nickelodeon shows, Wes Anderson’s Royal Tannenbaums, Pee Wee’s Playhouse.
But since we have to pick one, Life Aquatic is probably his most influential.
9. X-Files, Mark Snow
Mark Snow is a very well known TV composer, and the X-Files was a very popular TV show. He used the Synclavier as part of his synth-heavy sound. The theme with delays and a Theremin-like lead melody was a trademark, referenced widely and often parodied.
8. Suspiria, Goblin
Suspiria is a cult horror movie. Goblin is an Italian progressive rock band, led by Italian composer/performer Claudio Simonetti. This is a heavily synth-oriented score that had a wide impact.
Continue to the TOP 10 Synth Soundtracks revisited…
7. Saw, Charlie Clouser
Saw is actually a horror movie franchise, not just one film. Charlie Clouser was originally known as the keyboard player with Nine Inch Nails. And the Saw music is dark, with Nine Inch Nails-ey synth textures, distorted drums, crunchy sounds. He brought that to the scoring world. Pretty much everything before that sounded clean by comparison.
6. Twin Peaks, Angelo Badalamenti
Twin Peaks theme especially influenced a lot of composers. It had a lot of analog drones, low-end evolving synth textures, with contrasting pretty chords and melody.
The TV show was very good too.
5. Koyaanisqatsi, Philip Glass
This surrealistic creation was as much a visual experience as a musical one, because of Philip Glass’ organ- and synth-featuring music. When you think of minimalism, Glass is probably the first composer to come to anyone’s mind.
Minimalism’s (at least Glass’) subtly evolving ostinatos and static harmony were probably a reaction to the discordant music of the 20th century up to that point.
Was Koyaanisqatsi a movie? A music video? We can debate that, but it was certainly influential.
4. Miami Vice, Jan Hammer
Hammer was one of the first composers do play all the parts himself. His lead synth playing sounds like guitar, both because of the sound and because of the way he played it. He was one of the first to bring in a grungy, overdriven sound.
Musicians who grew up in that era also remember him as the gymnastic keyboard player with John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the famous fusion band.
Continue to the TOP 3 Synth Soundtracks revisited…
3. Solaris, Cliff Martinez
Nobody had heard anything that sounded like this when it came out almost 20 years ago. Martinez used a combination of synth textures and heavily processed gamelan bells (mostly with delays and reverb). It all works together to create another wash of sound like Blade Runner does, but different. This score feels minimalist – meaning the art movement.
Did you know that Martinez came to prominence as the drummer for The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Captain Beefheart?
2. Escape from New York, John Carpenter
This score, composed by Carpenter and performed by him and Alan Howarth, was hugely influential. The music is quite minimalistic, driven by Memory Moog ostinatos, bass lines, and – uniquely for the time – very little percussion.
1. Blade Runner, Vangelis
Blade Runner has to be the winner, for two reasons. The first is that so many of you were seriously angry at us for not putting it on the list! One person on Facebook said it was the worst top ten list ever. Brutal!
However, the main reason for it being number one is that to this day, Vangelis’ masterpiece continues to have an influence on scores. It was very different from what John Carpenter was doing (see #2, his score to Escape from New York) – rather than ostinatos, he used big, beautiful synth texture washes of sounds. And using ethnic vocals and other elements along with the electronics was new.
Check out our contributors favorite soundtracks that were featured last month.