How great is Stranger Things? I’ve never been so impressed by original Netflix content. Daredevil had a solid first season, Orange is the New Black is good, but Stranger Things is just absolutely captivating. The writing is rock solid, the acting is incredible (Winona Ryder needs an Emmy for this), and the design of the show is beyond what it has any right to be. And it is so many things– people have called it so many things– that it only just slips the might what it isn’t.
Stranger Things is not horror. At least, it’s not just horror.
Now, I’ve probably called it horror in conversation, and if you love horror, you will love this show, but it’s not simply horror. I considered doing a “Breaking Genre” piece on this like I did for Star Wars, but this isn’t such a difference that it would make sense. And in any case, it’s a very specific genre that most are not as familiar with as they are Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Stranger Things is American Gothic.
Mild spoilers ahead.
01/23/2018
My Favorite Film Scores
valeriemclean1919 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alan Menken, Beauty and the Beast, Elmer Bernstein, Elton John, Film, FIlm music, Hans Zimmer, Howard Ashman, Indiana Jones, Inside Out, John Williams, Junkie XL, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina, Michael Giacchino, Moana, Music, Opetaia Foa’i, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rupert Gregson-Williams, Stanley Kubrick, Star Wars, The Lion King, Tim Rice, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wonder Woman About Film, About Music 0 Comments
So this post came about because a) I have to push back the other post I was planning for today because I haven’t finished the research for it and b) the film I am focusing on for what is now next week’s post has a particularly iconic and important score in terms of film history. I also really don’t care for it. Not to give too much away, it’s a very bass heavy and monotonous score and not very motivic. Well, it has one motif. Still, I started thinking about what I do like in film scores and that naturally lead me to some movies that I really enjoy the music of.
I’ve talked about music in film before. This list is going to cover films with mainly non-diegetic music, meaning that the music is present in the film, but isn’t happening within the world of the characters. All of these films also have wholly original score, save one notable exception– mostly because saying that Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 have great scores is fairly redundant. I also managed to only repeat one composer (no surprise as to who that was though). The films are listed in chronological order as well, because the films I picked really aren’t a fair comparison to rank.
Let’s get started.
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