Modern soundtracks like City of Angels and Varsity Blues continue to top the charts, even while music from American in Paris and Grease still endure -- both today's soundtracks and earlier film and stage music offer some of the more memorable music of the century. The only soundtracks, though, that are easy to find are the ones that are of-the-moment -- the current hot Broadway show; the most-watched TV series; the top-grossing firm. Yesterday's soundtracks seem to drift into relative obscurity, making it hard for collectors to find the music, let alone information about the soundtrack. From Sondheim to Star Wars, MusicHound Soundtracks is the guide made just for this breed of music-lover.MusicHound Soundtracks reviews 3,000 soundtrack albums, including contemporary pop compilations and the classic orchestral scores. All the details on much-loved, or at least incessantly hummed, albums are easy to find. Entries are arranged alphabetically and offer album title, release year, bone (or woof) rating, composers, artists, and a review covering the highlights, lowlights and an overall evaluation of the soundtrack.
MusicHound Soundtracks covers composers such as Elmer Bernstein, John Williams, Max Steiner, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann and relative newcomers to the trade like Randy Newman, Danny Elfman and Marc Shaiman. Vital TV and stage soundtracks are included, such as The 60's, Chef Aid: The South Park Album, The Lion King, Rent and Hedwig & The Angry Inch. MusicHound Soundtracks concludes with a section reviewing compilation albums, followed by indexes to song title, composer, conductor, performer and five-bone recordings that make the best stuff a breeze to searchfor.
More than 100 photos and a free CD sampler of dynamic soundtrack cuts make this millennium worth of soundtrack information even more essential. Editor of Film Score Monthly Lukas Kendall offers an essay on the evolution of soundtracks, white Julia Michels, VP of A&R at Capitol Records, describes how compilation CDs are created. Film composer Joel Goldsmith contributes a foreword on film scoring.
