Some of us remember the Eighties fondly, others, like myself, are too young and often look at them with a mixture of puzzlement and admiration. One of the distinguishing features of many films from that decade is the prevalence of electronic scores by the likes of Harold Faltermeyer (immortal through his “Axel F.”-Theme from Beverly Hills Cop and the score for Top Gun), Jan Hammer (“Miami Vice”) [, Vangelis (how could I forget him)] and director/composer John Carpenter. A lot of their scores are now classic pieces, but they also umistakably date the films to their period.
Last year, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed a haunting and very distinctive mostly electronic scpre for David Fincher’s The Social Network which won them a Golden Globe award. French electronic duo Daft Punk provided a hammering soundtrack for Tron: Legacy and even scored (pun intended) a cameo appearance as futuristic deejays. This year, british duo The Chemical Brothers are scoring Joe Wright’s next film Hanna. A. R. Rahman’s score for Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours also relies heavily on electronic sounds.
I am asking myself: Are we witnessing a return of synthesized music in film scores after a long time of only symphonic and pop soundtracks? I have no answer yet but would be thankful for more examples and ideas in the comments.