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Friday, February 27, 1998

Scoring at the movies

MUSIC: Ranging from classical to pop, film soundtracks evoke emotional responses and bring in a few extra bucks in the process

By Ai Goldsmith

Daily Bruin Contributor

Although we live in the age of science and technology, people are looking to extract emotion from almost every experience. Such desire for emotional rapport has led movies like "Titanic" to the top of the charts - but the ship doesn't sink there.

The mind boggling success of "Titanic" in the box office is mirrored by the record industry as well. So far, about five million copies of the soundtrack grace the lives of "Titanic" fans in the United States, with sales over 10 million reported around the world. "Titanic's" success on the record charts is a prime example of the rising popularity of soundtracks.

According to Len Lovallo, regional product manager for Blockbuster Music, popularity of a soundtrack often depends on the impact the movie had on the audience.

"People are so impacted by a movie (like 'Titanic') that they just have to have the soundtrack," Lovallo says.

In the case of "Titanic," the movie's success, and the effect on the audience, comes from the dramatic and passionate story of two lovers, Jack and Rose. Yet the story may not have been as believable or exciting if it weren't for James Horner's score.

"The score to 'Titanic' made the love story believable because it was about love songs," says film composer and UCLA professor Paul Chihara.

Chihara, who has taught distinguished film composers including John Williams ("E.T." and "Star Wars"), explains that the purpose of underscore (the background music) in movies is to add emotional depth to the film.

"(Film music) is about emotion, about making the story memorable," Chihara says. "We go away from a movie moved by emotion - not information. When we talk about 'Titanic,' we don't say that we learned that the ship went down in 1920. We already knew that. But we didn't know that we cared about those characters and that we would go on caring about them. That's what music does ... it makes you care."

The music in "Titanic" is certainly not the only score that has made a movie memorable. Other soundtracks from successful movies like