Postcards from the Id

Star Wars Soundtrack and Favorite Music From Movies

As this post over at Wired shows, John Williams’s Star Wars music from Star Wars: A New Hope is consistently ranked at or near the top of every movie score survey (and rightfully so).  Williams perfectly captures the sense of wonder, adventure, and whimsy that was so strong in Star Wars, particularly given the immense impact the movie had at that time.  Dozens of sci-fi/fantasy/space opera movies have been churned out since 1977, but it was Star Wars that paved the way for this type of film, and the music was an important part of the reason.

I’ve read this elsewhere, but I agree: music compositions written for film seem to get the short shrift in terms of artistic credit.  Why this is, I don’t know, but it’s rare that a film score composer is ever mentioned as a great composer, period; it’s always qualified.  Seems ridiculous to me, since I really enjoy listening to the scores of many movies on my iPod, and many movies are far more memorable than they otherwise would have been if the music didn’t contribute so mightily to the overall experience.

In no particular order, here are a few movies besides Star Wars (off the top of my head) where I think the music score (not soundtracks!) played a significant role in the cementing of the movies’ reputation as a classic, or at least perfectly fit the theme and feel of the film:

1) Jaws
2) Rocky
3) Raiders of the Lost Ark
4) The Last of the Mohicans
5) The Bad News Bears
6) Blade Runner
6) Alien
7) Conan the Barbarian
8) Gladiator
9) Superman
10) Halloween

Not surprisingly, I have most of these on my iPod.  I also have other scores to movies such as Braveheart, King Kong (the Peter Jackson version), Gettysburg (extremely under-rated), The Dark Knight, Casino Royale, and Hoosiers, Wanted, and 300.  There’s a few others I’d like to get my hands on at some point, including Rudy, The Witness,   

Incidentally, you can look at the AFI list of the 250 movies nominated for best score of all time, as well as the 25 winners, here.  The list is quite interesting, especially because it dates my movie-watching experience as post-1975.  Sure, I’ve seen plenty of pre-1975 films, and would rank many in my all-time favorites list.  But when it comes to a more specialized list such as this, my thinking skews towards films I’ve seen in theaters, on awards shows, etc.  The only quibbles I have with the list is that several movies are listed that would seem to be far more memorable for their soundtrack than their score: these ought to be different lists.  The other problem is that Halloween is not on the list, while The English patient is this list, let alone on any list at all that doesn’t include the word “Crappiest” in the title.

In the meantime, I may write up something on my favorite soundtracks at a later date.  Brief preview: Swingers, Once, and Purple Rain will be in the mix!  And if anyone has a film score they think I've overlooked or might be interested in checking out, feel free to leave a comment.

Spinal Tap - Back In The Studio?

According to this, Spinal Tap are back in the studio, recording new material for both physical release, as well as download.  For those of you with absolutely no movie knowledge whatsoever, This is Spinal Tap was a 1984 "mockumentary" that is possibly the funniest movie of all time, and has spawned countless other efforts, both by Christopher Guest (writer of Spnial Tap, as well as Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, etc.) and others.  This was a movie we watched repeatedly in college, laughing harder upon each viewing.  The movie is extrmely quotable, the various "interview" sessions are hysterical, and the various predicaments on the "Smell the Glove" album tour are both ridiculous and yet realistic at the same time.  For example, does anyone really doubt that a bunch of immature rock idiots couldn't get lost behind (and under) the stage at an old stadium in another country?  Returning to the point of the post, the music itself is a supporting feature of the film; really funny, and yet almost sounding like the kind of stuff a band like this would have played back in the 80s.  I have no idea whether anything they record at this point will be any good, in terms of humor, or anything else.  But, I'm never going to let an opportunity to write about Spinal Tap for a few minutes pass me by.  And for a walk down memory lane...

Brain Itch - Otherwise Known As "Help! I Can't Get This Song Out Of My Head!"

Here's a quickie blurb about the phenomenon known as "brain itch," or songs that can't get out of your head.  Certain songs, known as "earworms," are more suited for lodging themselves deep into your psyche; they are the repetitive ones, with repeating melodies.  The blogger noted some songs he considered particularly itch-worthy; for me, I often find both T.V. theme songs (particularly from back in the day), and certain commerical jingles to be difficult to resist.  Let's see: the theme songs from the Odd Couple, Greatest American Hero, and The Muppet Show were solid ear worms in their day; more recently, the songs from Psych and Veronica Mars made the grade.  Not to worry on these, though, as I like all of these songs.  The ones that frustrated me the most?  Madonna, without a hint of hesitation.

Lost Recordings of Musical Giants Found a Century Later

I find this NY Times article to be absolutely fascinating, more from the “Amazing Discovery!” department than from any deep knowledge of classical music. Early recordings made by classical music giants from the 1890-1920s, through Thomas Edison’s early efforts with the phonograph, have been located and set for commercial release after being in Russia for decades, and thought to be long lost. It brings a smile to my face to hear the enthusiasm with which the music historians and afficionados discuss this discovery, and I would imagine it would be quite a treat to the trained ear to hear how certain performers and composers actually sounded in their day, especially when it was taken for granted that no recordings of these individuals existed. The quality does not sound good enough that the casual fan would be interested in purchasing this, but it is still nonetheless a truly interesting story, kind of a "National Treasure" moment...

Learning A Musical Instrument May Increase Children’s IQs

According to this article, researchers have found children who spent three years or more learning a musical instrument (in this case, either the piano or a stringed instrument) will show higher levels of intelligence when measured at a later age. The researchers determined the increase was not restricted simply to areas of cognitive functioning directly associated with music, such as auditory discrimination and finger dexterity; they also found significant differences in verbal intelligence and visual pattern recognition (which is associated with nonverbal, visual-spatial intelligence). From the article:

A total of 41 eight- to eleven-year-olds who had studied either piano or a string instrument for a minimum of three years were compared to 18 children who had no instrumental training. Children in both groups spent 30-40 minutes per week in general music classes at school, but those in the instrumental group also received private lessons learning an instrument (averaging 45 minutes per week) and spent additional time practicing at home.

While it is no surprise that the young musicians scored significantly higher than those in the control group on two skills closely related to their music training (auditory discrimination and finger dexterity), the more surprising result was that they also scored higher in two skills that appear unrelated to music—verbal ability (as measured by a vocabulary IQ test) and visual pattern completion (as measured by the Raven's Progressive Matrices). And furthermore, the longer and more intensely the child had studied his or her instrument, the better he or she scored on these tests.

A couple of observations. First, the study intuitively makes sense to me, though I would have preferred if their sample sizes were larger. What is nice about their finding is that the level of effort required to find a significant impact is well within the reach of most children. They are not examining prodigies who spent hours and hours honing their craft; 45 minutes of formal instruction, followed by some amount of individual practice is reasonable. An interesting question, though: What if certain unaccounted-for factors (confounds), such as attention, are impacting these results? For example, could children with attentional problems be less likely to persevere through three years of formal music instruction, and if so, how might this also impact later intellectual development, independent of this specific music factor? Others might be intrinsic music ability, a random difference in IQ independent of prior music experience, even SES (music lessons ain't cheap).  Just a thought, and one that would require a more thorough examination of the study, particularly the methodology.

Another aspect of this study, which I noted above, is that the results don’t surprise me on an intuitive level. In particular, I think that the idea of verbal IQ being outside the domain of musical development is off base, at least partially. For people who do not have significant training in music, tasks involving music will be much more right-brained, nonverbal, and novel. In basic terms, the right side of the brain is responsible for processing novel information, and for non-musically trained people, this is the part of the brain that will process any type of new music instruction (for example, a 30-year old who takes music lessons for the first time). However, as an individual begins to truly grasp the intricacies of music, it does in fact become a “verbal” skill, in that we process music as a language. It becomes a learned, ingrained form of knowledge that is now processed on the left side of the brain, which is responsible for “crystallized intelligence.” Therefore, it doesn’t seem to be any stretch to expect that as an individual (particularly a child, whose brain is more flexible and adaptive anyway) develops skill as a musician, they begin to improve their verbal intelligence.

The most important aspect of this article for me is that it provides yet another reason to kick myself in the #@$!. Afforded the opportunity to take guitar lessons as an adolescent, I instead succumbed to my attentional deficits, and quit after only a couple of months. I’ve taken lessons off and on as an adult, but it is infinitely harder at this point. This will, of course, not be an option for my children (yep, tyranny shall reign in my household!). Actually, I shall put into practice a concept often referred to a “The Illusion of Choice,” whereby my kids will be allowed to choose which instrument they would like to learn; however, whether or not they learn an instrument will be a choice conveniently taken off the table (unless, of course, they demonstrate acuity in some other activities, which is fine - they simply won’t have the option of vegetating, like I did!).

New Song (To Me, Anyway) - The Airborne Toxic Event

The Airborne Toxic Event is a indie rock band out of Los Angeles.  Formed in 2006, they are starting to get national play, even though they've apparently had a large MySpace presence for awhile.  I recently caught the single "Sometime Around Midnight" on the radio, and bought it off of iTunes almost immediately.  They have a debut album due out next month, and if the rest of the album is anywhere near as good as this single, I'll be getting it.  Here is a clip of them playing live, and their bio is also intersting (at the link above).  I don't pretend to be on the cutting edge of new music (I never really was, and now I'm too old), but I'd have to guess this band has a big future in fornt of them.  Check out their song!

For All You Prince Fans Out There...

..you have to check this out.  Holy Purpleness, Batman!  I'm not sure I'm in a place in my life anymore where I'll buy something like this, but back in the day, there'd be no doubt. 

Speaking of "Bad" and "Music"...

Ya gotta love this: A site that chronicles the worst albums covers of all time.  I've got to say, the list is pretty good.  Er, bad.

Guily Pleasures - Songs You Sing, But Only When Alone...

Here is a funny list of songs that you know you like, but you won't admit it in public.  Well, I will - I've got most of these on my Ipod...

Good Rhythm Associated with Intelligence

Okay, musicians, go ahead and toot your horn (so to speak). This study found an association between being able to “keep time” and one’s intelligence. The researchers indicated the ability of good timing is associated with problem-solving and reasoning skills. The study did not examine musical ability per se, just the ability to demonstrate rhythmic accuracy. The researchers found that the higher the intelligence of a subject, the more accurate they were in marking time with their own tapping. From the article:

According to Fredrik Ullén, the results suggest that the rhythmic accuracy in brain activity observable when the person just maintains a steady beat is also important to the problem-solving capacity that is measured with intelligence tests.

"We know that accuracy at millisecond level in neuronal activity is critical to information processing and learning processes," he says.

They also demonstrated a correlation between high intelligence, a good ability to keep time, and a high volume of white matter in the parts of the brain's frontal lobes involved in problem solving, planning and managing time.

"All in all, this suggests that a factor of what we call intelligence has a biological basis in the number of nerve fibres in the prefrontal lobe and the stability of neuronal activity that this provides," says Fredrik Ullén.

What would be interesting is an examination of whether lessons in such timing skills, most likely through music lessons, improves: A) this skill (i.e. how much is timing innate versus learned); B) general intelligence (i.e. does improving rhythmic timing increase one’s overall intelligence, at least in the areas of problem-solving and reasoning); and C) one’s amount of white matter. If so, it bolsters the argument that participating in creative endeavors , particularly as a child, improves one’s overall intellectual prospects.

Then again, this study was completed in Sweeden. Were they not responsible for these rhythmic assaults (see below) that bordered on a declaration of war?