The second half of the 1980's saw big budget releases mix classical and popular music. Alan Silvestri grew up to be a talented musician and arranger., playing jazz guitar, and as a drummer with The Herd. In his twenties, from 1977 to 1983, he composed music for the TV series CHiPs. This brought him to the attention of Robert Zemeckis and they began a long term relationship over a number of movies. The first was Romancing the Stone in 1984. Bonnie Greer called it a "grand Hollywood score". Ian Nathan thought that the music was very modern with a loud bass and a big beat.
Again with Zemeckis, Silvestri composed the score for Back to the Future which was called his masterpiece. It was "brassy and bombastic" and had that fifties feel when Marty goes back to that decade. This was followed by two sequels where Silvestri adapted the original theme. In 1987 he scored Predator and then he was back with Zemeckis for Who Framed Roger Rabbit. That modern jazz score is instantly recognisable that was mixed with cartoon and film noir themes. In 1989 Silvestri worked with James Cameron on The Abyss, composing some inventive music for those jaw dropping moments.
Michael Kaymen was born in New York City and rose to prominence in film composition in the 1980's. Another graduate of Julliard School, he formed a classical/rock band called New York Rock & Roll Ensemble who released five albums in the period to 1973. He became a successful arranger for some of the biggest bands in popular music including Pink Floyd and Queen.
Kaymen scored his first big Hollywood movie in 1983 with David Cronenberg's The Dead Zone. He composed a horror film score with all sorts of sounds. This was followed by his music for Brazil in 1985 and Highlander in 1986, merging traditional ancient instruments with the music of Queen. That same year he scored Mona Lisa. In 1987 and 1988 he scored two huge thrillers in Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. mixing popular songs with classical themes.
Hans Zimmer was one of the most successful composers in cinema history. He moved from his home in Germany to work in London, first as keyboards and synthesizer player with the band The Buggles, and then working with the prolific film composer Stanley Myers on many British films often mixing orchestral sounds withe electronic music. Zimmer's first work in Hollywood was 1988's Rainman for which he received an Oscar nomination. In 1989 he worked with Ridley Scott on Black Rain and the same year he composed the music for Driving Miss Daisy. He was still composing scores for big blockbusters in the 1990's and 2000's.
John Williams had already been discussed in previous episodes and he continued his success in the late 1980's with Steven Spielberg's 1987 film Empire of the Sun. The music was nominated for an Oscar. For some reason this episode omitted William's scores for 1988's The Accidental Tourist and 1989's Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and Born on the Fourth of July, all being nominated again for an Academy Awards.
Maurice Jarre was also mentioned in a previous episode and in 1987 he worked with samplers for the first time on 1987's No Way Out. Also that year he made that aggressive score for Fatal Attraction that harped back to old time thrillers.
John Barry also continued his successful career with 1985's Jagged Edge. That gloomy piano helps to keep us guessing what is going on. And then the same year he composed my favourite all time film music with Out of Africa which won the Academy Award for best score.
Finally, Ennio Morricone won another Oscar nomination for his music for 1987's The Mission and 1988's The Untouchables. But it was his music for 1988's Cinema Paradiso that the contributors thought was a sweet sweeping score.
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