Show and Tell - The Marvel Symphonic Universe Video

I decided to do my final project on the concept of repurposing in music. I had already done a blog post on this, so it seemed natural. What follows are excerpts from my final project describing and reflecting on the video I did my show and tell on:

This trend even extends into the realm of film scores. Recently, the Youtube channel, EveryFrameAPainting, uploaded a video dissecting why Marvel music is often unmemorable. Implicit in this argument was the observation that the broader phenomenon of temp music was, in part, to blame. Temp music is essentially music that is temporarily added to a scene in lieu of original music. The intention is that it will be later replaced by the film’s original score. However, composers are often asked to imitate the temp and, as a result, the temp and original score are oftentimes indistinguishable. Temp music and interpolation both present composers and producers the opportunity to circumvent the creative process entirely. I have no qualms with people who label repurposing in these ways as uncreative because, quite frankly, it is. Music generated out of a desire to be safe is what typically leads people to decry mainstream Hollywood movies and top 40 radio. 

Shifting to applicable topics introduced in the class, I find remediation to be paradoxically relevant. I say that because, from what I understood from the reading, implicit in remediation was the notion of progress. In remediating something, one is somehow augmenting or enhancing the process or experience. An example may be witnessing some form of media, a show or a movie, on a television screen versus by means of virtual reality. Certainly the second one would offer a more immersive experience. Yet, technological advances in music production have seemingly facilitated the development of derivative music. Samplers and digital audio workstations make the processing of older works of music easier than ever. In the context of the aforementioned EveryFrameAPainting video, music programs are directly cited as culpable for this trend. Allowing directors to easily add music from prior film scores over scenes already filmed is what enabled the temp music movement to manifest.