Writing the Futuristic Song

What will the future sound like? Sure, we don't have a clue-look how totally different than now the music of our present century was supposed to sound like listening to early science fiction movies. Listening to John Williams soundtracks, it's hard to tell if the future will hold 12-tone scales, Gregorian chants, or huge classical fanfares mixed with heavily synthesized jazz. Most of us would have never expected the charts to again be topped by bubblegum pop and country or scream-rock, either, if we were to guess 30 years ago what would be popular today. Get your synthesizers out, kiddies, and let's come up with some cool guesses of what we think the future might sound like.

COME UP WITH SOMETHING TOTALLY NEW

If you are lucky enough to get a job writing a soundtrack to some futuristic piece, or just want to come up with a really spacey album, think of what music might sound like that far in the future. Take the number of years that the piece is supposed to be in the future, and subtract that number from today, and think back on what music sounded like that long ago. Looking at how different music is today, think ahead and try to make similar changes in instrumentation and style. In many ways, much music is very much the same today as it was in the past. If you try to think how the percussion, keyboards, strings and woodwinds have changed in that same time period, try to extrapolate how they might change that far in the future. Can you come up with these sounds on your synthesizer? Can you create such sounds on other traditional instruments, using new techniques you can come up with? Can you come up with totally new and very different rhythms and sounds? Or, if you are writing a soundtrack about a post-Armageddon situation where things go back to the very primitive, is there a way you can create such sounds without electricity or traditional instruments, since there may not be any? Put on those thinking caps, and have a fun time, here. Your producer may want you to make some changes, but chances are, if it's good, it's good, and they will like it just the way you created it.

FALL BACK ON THE TRIED AND TRUE

Sure, there are plenty of folks who will just ape whatever the big name soundtrack writers have already done. Study the experts, if that is the sound your studio is looking for, but for goodness sake, try to put your own stamp on it so it won't get you or your bosses into copyright trouble. Sure, much of space music anymore seems to be big and brassy and symphonic, with lots of deep instruments to suggest the huge size of a big space cruiser, and a simple string or flute line to suggest a smaller craft. Star field shots are often depicted by random high notes to suggest the twinkling of distant lights, or a sweep of strings or synths for an aurora borealis sort of view. Look at plenty of other good films, especially those who have at least gotten soundtrack award nominations for ideas. Many are even available as scored pieces-I played my share of them in college for concerts and even football games-this can really help if you want the nuts and bolts of how some of these songs were put together. Now rewrite that stuff in your own idiom and have a blast at it-most people can hear if a writer is enthusiastic about what they have written, and it will help you be able to better present it to your boss or band when you try to see if it will get accepted.

Go To Page: 1 2