..Let me just chime in a little here. I NEVER listen to things that are a "tribute" or "in the style of".
When I had my day job as head of music at Dreamworks, I got flooded by demos of John Williams sound-alikes. I kept wondering that it never occured to these people that this was Steven Spielberg's studio and he could just walk down the hall and ask the real John Williams to work on a score... Of course it pisses me off, (is that too vulgar a term for this forum?) someone trying to write in my style, or any other working composer's style. It dillutes what little original thought I have. It might be a horrible noise to some, but to me it's still making a living. And I take some pride and pleasure in the noise I make, 'cause it's my noise. Shouldn't you be aiming a little higher? How do these conversations go? The director or producer says "can you sound like Zimmer?" and you say "Yes, show me the money"? Where is the challenge in that? That's de-composing!
...Don't you know how career cycles work? - At the beginning its "Who is Hans Zimmer?", then "Get me Hans Zimmer", "Get me someone who sounds like Hans Zimmer", "Get me a Young Hans Zimmer" and finally, back to "Who's Hans Zimmer?". By the time you figured it out, my style will be irrelevant. All the copying just hasten it's demise. To paraphrase Jean Cocteau - "Fashion - You can forgive her anything, she dies so young..."
But the people who's careers I had a little helping hand in, (not their music - that's all them) are people like John Powell, or Harry G-W. Strong, independent thinkers, independent voices - Brilliant artists in their own right. Henry Jackman is totally his own man. He wanted to do mainly Drum 'n Bass when I met him. "Wreck-It Ralph" sounds nothing like my music. The only thing we have in common is working 'round the clock, putting in the hours to experiment, think it through, come up with a concept. ...And we always execute plan 'B' flawlessly when the grand concept turns out to be unplayable (or unaffordable).
I saw this interview with Keith Jarrett once, where he was explaining that everybody was always going on about finding "Your Own Voice". But... You are born with your voice. That's a given. It's logical. You are not born with John Williams' voice... Actually, it can be a bit of a bore and you end up trying to get past it. Now go and see what crazy, wild things you can do with it. Shake it up. Orchestral Psychedelic Country and Western Electronica is coming, trust me!
(p.s...sorry about the rant. And I'm just as guilty to be influenced by my heroes...No need to write a long post pointing it out to me...)
-H-
Bref j'ai choisi de faire quand même du (sous)Zimmer sur ce coup... J'ai faim... Pardon monsieur Zimmer... - Compositeur .org - Forum des Compositeurs : Musique et Composition
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