ASTS 046: The Evolving Sound of Science Fiction Cinema, Part 6-The 1980’s, cont.

Hello again and welcome back to the podcast! In this somewhat "super-sized" installment of my multi-part trek through the music of Science Fiction cinema, I attempt to close out the decade of the 1980's. The previous installment in this series focused on titles from the years 1980-82. Here, I cover the remaining years of the decade with examples of the competing and sometimes collaborative film music trends - pop & electronic and orchestral. 

 

The 80’s were a peak time of musical surprises, somewhat akin to the 1960’s when we heard a mix of traditional orchestral scores, jazz, pop & rock-based colors as well as avant garde music derived from concert techniques. Following its revival, the large scale orchestral approach continued reigning over much of cinematic Science Fiction, now bolstered by electronic and choral elements. Parallel to this were the experiments in synth and pop styles, connecting the genre to present day (for the time) musical trends. To help identify these unique sonic qualities, I'll sample music from TERMINATOR (Brad Fiedel), 2010 (David Shire), ENEMY MINE (Maurice Jarre), KRULL (James Horner), SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE (Elmer Bernstein) and THE ABYSS (Alan Silvestri), amid more!

 

*Correction - During this episode, I mistakenly attributed the theme song for the TV series "Cheers" to composer Craig Safan. In fact, while Safan provided the series bumpers and underscore cues, the theme was composed by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo.

 

Stay safe out there, take care of yourself and each other! 

 

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