So it's pretty well known right now that I've been listening to the Interstellar music a lot lately.

And so I was just watching some silly videos that overlay the Interstellar music over other movies, like Gravity or Star Wars or whatever. And because I was procrastinating art, I was reading some comments. I mean, yes. This is YouTube comments I'm talking about mainly, but I've seen this same topic applied elsewhere and it just got me thinking.

I like Hans Zimmer's music. I think he's a wonderful composer, and I would probably call him genius.

Well, someone did just that in a comment, and of course, is replied with some toxic comments.

Some people who have probably studied some music composition and such, maybe even Music Majors, are going on about Hans Zimmer and his compositions are anything but genius, which I call bull on and I'll tell you why soon.
Now, they make a solid point about how most of Interstellar's soundtrack is comprised of a re-occurring few chords, with "hardly any melody" (This is often a negative critic. Note that most Pop songs do the exact same thing, and I'd hardly call them masterpieces and made by geniuses.). They quote some critic dude saying that Hans Zimmer just composes and doesn't really have a feel for the characters or even plot he's composing for, yada yada, and claims that they can take the Inception soundtrack (or any of Zimmer's compositions) and it could just as easily be placed in The Dark Knight or some other movie he's composed for.

May I take this moment to point out that I personally think Hans Zimmer did a great job conveying the mood and characters in Sherlock Holmes. Just saying. Try putting that on top of The Dark Knight.

Anyway, this whole line of thought got me thinking. And this is something I've thought about a lot recently. For some quick context, it's been a while since I've watched Kyle Landry stream on twitch, because usually there's an art stream going on at the same time that I watch. The visual Art community is so welcoming and warm and helpful, and then I go back to Kyle's streams and the chat is just...meh. Sure, it can be funny--it's generally full of memes and Twitch emojis. But the art streams are too? The general feel of reading the comments on Kyle's stream, which is obviously full of music enthusiasts and pianists--who are usually "classically trained" and have a deeper understanding of music composition then I do-- is just about toxic.

And I think I've found out why.

They have disconnected music from emotion. Sure, they can "play with emotion" and such, but do they really feel it? Music isn't just there to sound nice, or to be impressive on a piece of paper, or to always be a conglomeration of various musical theories in order to create "the most genius composition ever" (herpderder). No, music is a representation of emotion. Of feeling. I don't care if theoretically the music isn't genius. I don't care if theoretically the music IS genius. I, and many others, need to be able to feel the emotion that went into it, that shaped the piece. It's the emotion that makes a piece genius, not the composition.

Why else are those early 8-bit songs from gaming considered masterpieces? Simple and memorable melodies and chords, that's what. Would you compare Koji Kondo to Mozart? I mean, I did a project comparing him and Tchaikovsky, but that's just me shhhhhhh 8th grade self Plus, there was an emotional attachment to them from your own feelings playing games and what not.

So, of course, there's the visual aspect of movie soundtracks. I already loved the music in Interstellar, but until I saw the visuals with it did I have a deeper appreciation and connection. I cried so many times during Interstellar, embarrassingly so when you consider that I actually cried in moments that weren't the faintest bit emotional simply because I was connecting the music to the visuals in front of me. And then those moments where I was supposed to feel something? It was crazy man.

To say that Hans Zimmer isn't a musical and compositional genius because he has a specific music style showcased in many big-name movies is utter crap. Try telling me he isn't a great composer when I watch (obviously spoilers if you haven't seen the movie, and if you ever plan to, DON'T WATCH because I didn't know this at all and it was made that more impactful) this scene and I'm crying, largely in part because of the music. (Which can be heard better here, if ya want to know. I just tried watching the scene muted with the soundtrack itself playing, and it was kinda cool.)

Don't get me wrong, folks. I'm going to be a Music Major myself. I'm super excited to learn all the cool composition tricks and chords and structures and such. And yeah, I already know I'll be listening to music and trying to pick out the usage of different theories and what-not--I already pick out the different instruments if I can. But that doesn't mean I'll stop listening to music from an emotional standpoint. I'm not going to go around calling such and such or so and so crap just because it is a bit repetitive or uses certain chords. If I feel or can associate some emotion to it, then clearly something is going right.

And the emotional appeal is not something that can just be written in using perfect technique.