This Fortnight in Music Supervision and Sync (19/10/18)

Film and TV

Jonah Hill explains the significance of music in his new film Mid90s (The FADER)
The FADER visited indie studio A24’s office and spoke to Hill about obtaining the perfect songs for each scene, his love of digging for samples, and the awkwardness of explaining hip-hop to an older generation.

Name that killer tune: why today’s TV dramas thrive on musical mystery (Guardian)
Original scores are fast giving way to obscure existing tracks, propelling their makers to sudden stardom.

The New Movie Soundtrack: A Spotify Playlist (The WSJ)
Spotify Technology SA is disrupting another part of the music business: the soundtrack album. Independent movie studio A24 is releasing the music to the new film Mid90s as a playlist on the streaming service, rather than as an album distributed by a record label.

First Man stars one of the world’s weirdest musical instruments (QZ)
The film’s unlikeliest star is the theremin – an instrument you play without physically touching it. Created by the Soviet inventor Léon Theremin in 1928, the aptly-named theremin was initially conceived during research on proximity sensors for the Soviet government, until someone realized that it sounded really cool and could be used as a musical instrument.

John Carpenter On The Enduring Sound Of Halloween (NPR)
The music transformed Halloween from low-budget slasher flick to one of the most significant American horror films. “It’s right up there with Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Alien,” film critic Matt Zoller Seitz says.

Music Supervisor Spotlight: Rudy Chung (Pop Disciple)
Vibrant music supervisor at Hit The Ground Running and founding partner of Pusher Music speaks on cultivating an eccentric soundtrack to contrast with the nerd zeitgeist of Silicon Valley, disrupting the trailer music space after the Hollywood writers’ strike, and teaming up with Mass Appeal to musically illustrate the stories of hip-hop titans for Rapture.

The Best Songs in the (Fictional) Universe (The Ringer)
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow” got us thinking: What are the best songs written or performed on screen by characters in a movie?

A Star Is Born Soundtrack Gives Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper a No. 1 Album (New York Times)
Bradley Cooper, Willie Nelson’s son and a real pop star masquerading as a fake pop star are among the musicians celebrating a chart-topping album this week.

Universal Music Publishing’s Phil Canning on the challenges of music supervising for film (Mandy News)
Phil Canning is the Creative Manager for Film at Universal Music Publishing. His career has seen him release albums for Aphex Twin, Grizzly Bear and Vincent Gallo and perform music supervising duties on feature films such as Four Lions, Submarine, Berberian Sound Studio, I Am Not A Witch and many, many more.

Listen to Sampha’s New Song for Timothée Chalamet Movie Beautiful Boy (Pitchfork)
Sampha has shared a new song titled “Treasure.” It’s included in the new film Beautiful Boy, starring Steve Carell (as David Sheff) and Timothée Chalamet (as Nic Sheff).

Top TV Song Last Week – October 4th: ‘Hi-Lo (Hollow)’ by Bishop Briggs | October 7th: ‘Pat Earrings’ by CASisDEAD (Tunefind)
The last couple of weeks have seen tracks from Grey’s Anatomy and HBO’s Ballers top Tunefind’s popular TV songs list.

A Star Is Born, Black Panther Lead Hollywood Music in Media Awards Nominees (THR)
The HMMA recognizes music in visual media, encompassing film, TV, video games, commercials and trailers. Past winners include The Shape of Water and Coco, along with the Netflix television series A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The Nearly Extinct Movie Tradition Filmmakers Should Bring Back (The Atlantic)
For theatergoers, the all but obsolete musical overture is a bridge between real life and the world they’re about to enter.

Music Supervisor Spotlight: Tracy McKnight (Pop Disciple)
Eminent music supervisor and former head of film music at Lionsgate speaks on musically illustrating the unbelievable journey from Sri Lankan refugee to international superstar on Matangi/Maya/M.I.A, the resounding global impact of The Hunger Games franchise, and capturing the effervescent spirit of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders for Daughters of the Sexual Revolution.

How Bad Times at the El Royale found its retro soundtrack (Entertainment Weekly)
Writer-director Drew Goddard has packed his latest film with an era-appropriate soundtrack, from Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’” to Deep Purple’s “Hush.” Sometimes a character drops a dime in the hotel lobby’s jukebox; other times Cynthia Erivo’s lounge singer Darlene Sweet breaks into song herself.

GMS Podcast: Episode 1 – 2018 Emmy Nominee Discussion | Episode 2 – Love Jones Retrospective: Pilar McCurry, Music Supervisor | Episode 3 – Purple Rain: A Retrospective (GMS)
The Guild of Music Supervisors have launched their brand new podcast! Check out the first three episodes now for discussions about Emmy Nominees, the 1997 movie Love Jones, and Prince’s Purple Rain.

Troye Sivan Has ‘Revelation’ in Tender Boy Erased Song (Rolling Stone)
Troye Sivan has contributed a new, original song to the film Boy Erased. “Revelation” was written by Sivan alongside his frequent collaborator Leland and Sigur Rós’s Jónsi.

Songs For Screens: ’90s Film and TV Icons Star in Houses’ Dark Video Series (Variety)
Jaleel White (Family Matters), Nicole Eggert (Charles In Charge), Jason James Richter (Free Willy) and Patrick Renna (The Sandlot) star in the clips.

Bobby Sessions & Arlissa Discuss How Personal Experiences Inspired The Hate U Give Soundtrack (Billboard)
Dallas native Bobby Sessions’ contributed the flagship single, The Hate U Give while UK-based crooner Arlissa’s “We Won’t Move” is a powerful testament to the effectiveness of holding a united front in the face of adversity.

Five terrifying film scenes that are all about the music (Evening Standard)
Think about your favourite horror movie scenes — the ones that always lurk in the back of your mind, making you wish you could sleep with one eye open — and the chances are there’s a killer soundtrack accompanying it.

Rejected! The film theme tunes that didn’t make the final cut (BBC)
From rejected Bond themes to spurned songs about special boy wizards, here are some of the songs that just missed out on making the final cut…

Post Malone and Swae Lee Drop New Song ‘Sunflower’ From Spider-Man Soundtrack (Variety)
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Republic Records have teamed up for the first time to create a “contemporary musical companion” for the upcoming feature film, according to a recent announcement.

Westside: Listen to First Two Songs From Unscripted Netflix Music Series (Billboard)
Netflix, in collaboration with Warner Bros. Records, will bring its first-ever unscripted music series to the streaming service on November 9th titled Westside.

The 1st Annual NYC GMS Conference Highlights (GMS)
Check out the highlights from the First Annual NYC Guild of Music Supervisors’ Education Event at Mondo.NYC 2018.

Gaming

‘The quality has risen dramatically’: Ivor Novello winners The Flight talk scoring video games (Music Week)
Ivor Novello award-winning songwriting and production duo The Flight – Joe Henson and Alexis Smith – have previously worked on scores for Horizon Zero Dawn and BBC documentary series Drugsland, as well as early recordings by Lana Del Rey. Here, the pair open up about the opportunities for music and gaming…

Our video game series High Score returns to Classic FM this November (Classic FM)
Bafta Award-winning composer Jessica Curry returns to Classic FM for a third series of High Score, the show that celebrates the rich and varied world of video game music.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Soundtrack Features 192 Interactive Mission Scores (Playstation Lifestyle)
Ivan Pavlovich, Rockstar’s Music Supervisor, has stated that there are a total of 192 interactive mission scores throughout the game thanks to Woody Jackson, the game’s composer.

Video Game Music Composers: New VR Headphone Tech (Gamasutra)
Video game composer Winifred Phillips takes a look at some brand new developments in the area of headphone audio for virtual reality projects. 

Listen To The Epic ‘Alister’s Theme’ From Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 (Forbes)
Award-winning composer Jack Wall’s score for Black Ops 4 is arguably one of the series’ best yet. Celebrated for his work on previous Call Of Duty games, the Mass Effect franchise and more, Wall was once again tapped by Treyarch Studios to compose a score capable of heightening the thrilling first-person shooter gameplay of Black Ops 4.

Interview: Peter Connelly talks Tomb Raider, composing video game music and his Dark Angel Symphony Kickstarter (Entertainment Focus)
Rejoice classic Tomb Raider fans! Peter Connelly, composer of the original Tomb Raider titles: The Last Revelation, Chronicles and The Angel of Darkness (co-written with Martin Iveson) has set out to remaster and remake these wonderful musical compositions in the style of a live symphony!

Checking the Score: Interview with Majula Frontier Composer Dale North (Hardcore Gamer)
Having done work for Wizard of Legend, Remixes for Final Fantasy music and having worked with greats like Hiroki Kikuta, Dale uses his personal sound to compliment the various twists and turns found in RPGs.

A Sneak Peek of the Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales Soundtrack (VGR)
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales is due out in just a few weeks’ time. CD Projekt Red has now shown nearly an hour of gameplay footage and revealed which regions will feature in the game; Lyria, Rivia, Angren, Aedirn, and Mahakam. Now, Marcin Przybyłowicz, CD Projekt Red’s in-house composer, has shared a sneak peek of the upcoming soundtrack on Twitter.

Insomniac Announces New Video Game Themed Music Festival PLAY Coming 2019 (Billboard)
It’s called PLAY, and while specific details are still mum, we can say it’s scheduled to make its debut in 2019. It’s centered around five basic themes; music, gaming, eSports, activations and cosplay.

Advertising

LSD’s ‘Thunderclouds’ Rules Top TV Commercials Chart for September 2018 (Billboard)
Labrinth, Sia and Diplo’s collaborative project LSD rules Billboard and Clio’s Top TV Commercials chart for September 2018, and for the second consecutive month, thanks to their single “Thunderclouds.” The track holds at No. 1 thanks to its appearance in Samsung Galaxy Note9’s “Powerful S Pen” ad.

US marketers spend 10x more on sports than music — but why? (Marketing Dive)
Why does the imbalance in marketing investment exist? More importantly, how can marketers begin to leverage a virtually universal passion for music to the same degree that they’ve tapped into a more specific fandom for sports?

The Rise of Consultancy Isn’t Just for Agencies! (LBB Online)
Finger Music’s Dave Hodge says more brands and agencies want music consultants to make their spot stand out.

The most Shazamed ads of the week (US) – October 12: Capital One Digs Up Classic ’80s Songs in This Week’s Most Shazam’d Ads | October 19: YouTube Music’s New Promos Make This Week’s Most Shazam’d Ads (Clio)
Every week, Clios.com, in partnership with Shazam, rounds up the most Shazamed ads of the previous week. These are the top spots from October 12th to October 19th.

Business

Music Week Sync Awards 2018: All the winners in full (Music Week)
Top music supervisors, artists and label sync teams at publishers and labels have been honoured at the 2018 Music Sync Week Awards.

Big syncing: A look back at the year in sync (Music Week)
Ahead of this week’s Sync Awards, Music Week round up a selection of extracts to take you on a whistle-stop tour of the year in sync. Enjoy the show…

Capitol Music Group Names Anton Monsted EVP, Soundtracks and A&R (Billboard)
Veteran film and TV music supervisor and producer Anton Monsted has joined Capitol Music Group in the newly created role of executive vice president of soundtracks and A&R, it was announced on Tuesday by CMG President Ashley Newton and COO Michelle Jubelirer.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing Songwriting Camps Yield Over 300 Syncs as Program Expands to Miami & Atlanta (Billboard)
Five years after starting its songwriting camps, Sony/ATV Music Publishing’s efforts have resulted in more than 300 sync licenses of original songs created for brands including Adidas, Bose, Comcast, Dunkin’ Donuts, Google, NFL, Miller and Nissan, as well as dozens of movies, TV shows, trailers and video games.

A Soundtrack Is Withheld: How Interscope Gambled and Won, Delaying A Star Is Born Album (Variety)
Conventional wisdom once dictated releasing soundtracks before their respective films. But with A Star Is Born, songs constituted spoilers.

Music Supervisors of the Future, Your Jobs Are Safe (LBB Online)
Thirty Two Music’s Founder/Director Toby Slade-Baker and Director Alex Lodge give their thoughts on the future of AI music supervisors.

Tips and Tricks

A Guide to the Business of Trailer Music with Position Music’s Emily Weber (Synchblog)
Want to learn more about the business of trailer music? Check out the recording of our recent webinar with Position Music’s VP of Creative Licensing – Trailers | Promos | International, Emily Weber.

The Guild of Music Supervisors’ Suggested Metadata Standards (Synchblog)
Supe Troop’s Laura Katz runs through the Guild of Music Supervisors‘ suggested metadata standards when pitching your music for sync placements.

Events

Key Worldwide Music Industry & Sync Events List 2019 (Synchblog)
Our list of key music industry events in 2019 has landed! Don’t forget to bookmark this page – we’ll keep updating it as more dates get announced.

Variety’s inaugural Music for Screens Summit – October 30th (Los Angeles)
Tied to the popular feature, Variety’s inaugural Music for Screens Summit will feature panels, workshops & interviews with music supervisors, composers, publishing executives & filmmakers driving music for TV, film theater, video games & commercials.

A2IM SynchUp – November 8th (Santa Monica)
We’re moving to beautiful Santa Monica for a two-fold day: a focus on synch licensing and a focus on digital capacity. This day will be rich with networking, panels, discussions, and one-on-one meetings. Attended by music supervisors, independent record labels, publishers, DSPs and more, this is a premier private music industry event.