Music has always played an important part in my enjoyment of movies and TV shows. My interest was first sparked by TV shows like Doctor Who, UFO, Space 1999 and Thunderbirds. Barry Gray is one of my favourite composers. He made a puppet show sound epic and added to the excitement, especially in the pre-credit teasers. On the big screen it was John Williams, initially. If Star Wars had followed the trend of adding electronic scores to sci-fi movies, it might not have been the success that it was.
Mercury rightly uses Once Upon A Time in the West. As a good example of score. The beginning of the movie, where no score is used – only the sound of things like water dripping on to a cowboy hat - was influenced by Morricone going to a concert that used similar sounds to create a type of music. The score in Leone’s Duck You Sucker plays a part in selling the ambiguity of the lead character. Is he called Sean or John?
One movie that captured my imagination recently, partly because of song choices was Drive. I loved the Kravinksy track used during the main title sequence.
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