the list of 9 for june 30, 2003:
NINE ROCK STARS WHO BECAME FILM COMPOSERS
Pop music and film music have always gone hand-in-hand. For decades, the winner of the "BestOriginal Song" at the Oscars was not only a major radio hit, but was often written (or cowritten)by the composer of the film. Lately, though, as rock stars stare 40 in the face and decide theywant to do more with their lives than play reunion concerts or become the subject of VH1 specials,the world of film music has started filling up with familiar faces from the rock world. Some tryit as larks (Toto's horrible soundtrack for Dune), some simply make their own music and thedirector adapts it to the screen (Neil Young's guitar score for Dead Man). This listlooks at those who actually traded in spandex and tour buses for full-on orchestral, scene-specificmovie work.
- MARK MOTHERSBAUGH. One of the most successful transitionsfrom pop to film, Mothersbaugh fronted the cult band DEVO for many years before settling into hiscurrent occupation, and you can see his roots in the bouncy scores he's written for movies likeHappy Gilmore, 200 Cigarettes and the TV series "Rugrats." Lately he's stepped up by beingcomposer of choice for hipster darling Wes Anderson - Mothersbaugh wrote the scores for BottleRocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.
- DANNY ELFMAN. If there's any rock singer who has outdoneMothersbaugh in terms of classic film score success, it is Oingo Boingo's Danny Elfman, whoappropriately channeled his brand of spookhouse pop into Tim Burton soundtracks. This eventuallyled to less Boingo-esque scores, and he is now one of Hollywood's top composers. His credits arefar too numerous to mention, but the non-Burton highlights include Good Will Hunting,Spider-Man, Men in Black, Red Dragon and The Hulk. Whew!
- RANDY NEWMAN. Most people under 40 may not know that theubiquitous Newman - who came from a composer family and has scored over twenty films - was asinger-songwriter once known, and hated, mainly for his dry late-70's parody "Short People." Evenback then folks were irony-impaired and thought that Newman genuinely hated short people.
- LISA GERRARD. Although it's hard to call 80's cult duoDead Can Dance a "rock" band, nevertheless Lisa Gerrard and her partner Brendan Perry stillcranked out albums and toured to enthralled audiences, just like rock stars, except they weredoing some sort of pan-ethnic tribal stuff. Perry has dabbled with film but Gerrard is the truebreakout: she co-composed scores for Gladiator, The Insider, Ali and is now doing scores onher own, such as Whale Rider.
- TREVOR RABIN. Everybody was surprised back in 1982 wheneffete 70's progressive rock band Yes came back with a hit album and two memorable singles, "Ownerof a Lonely Heart" and "Leave It." Their pop resurgence - brief as it was - came thanks to twoTrevors: Producer Trevor Horn (who also masterminded the Buggles and the Art of Noise) and youngguitarist Trevor Rabin, who injected life into the group for a couple of years, and now doesall the music for Jerry Bruckheimer movies. Whether this is a step up from playing guitar for Yesis a tough call.
- STEWART COPELAND. The Police's drummer followed his owncomposer leanings as soon as his band broke up, and although his filmography of B movies andthemes for short-lived TV series is hardly an impressive resume (Wall Street is easily hismost high-profile film), he's getting lots of work.
- CLINT MANSELL. Former front man for British cult band PopWill Eat Itself, Mansell got his big break on a little film: Darren Aronofsky's Pi. Thehype surrounding the film forged a Hollywood career for Mansell, who's since composed the scoresfor Requiem for a Dream, Murder By Numbers and Abandon.
- WENDY MELVOIN AND LISA COLEMAN. Possibly the most unlikelypair of film composers are these two women who used to be in Prince's band The Revolution. (That'sthem strutting in thigh-high boots in the "When Doves Cry" video). They had a pop hit of their ownwith 1990's "Waterfall" and now keep busy composing for, uh, "urban" movies like DangerousMinds, Soul Food and Juwanna Mann.
- TANGERINE DREAM. Finally, let's give it up to Germany'sfinest Tangerine Dream, a collective of prog rockers who turned their seriously arty noodlingsinto gold, scoring as a group some of the major pop culture movies of the 80's: Risky Business,Vision Quest, Fright Night and, of course, Legend. Most of the members of the groupcontinue to score films individually. Rocken Sie on!
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