When did you know?

[artyjeffrey 20]

Just wondering, do any of you recall when you discovered film music, and knew there was a connection? That point when you knew, "This is MY music...."

I know, I know, we all don't listen JUST to film scores.

For me, it was 5th grade. My teacher took us to a concert hall, where I heard a string section for the first time. I could hardly believe my ears, I thought it was a recording. I remember leaving in the bus, looking out the window at that building and knowing that I had found "it."

[Joe Brausam 215]

4th grade for me, when my cousin bought me a copy of the Special Edition ESB score for my birthday.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

As long as I can remember.

[Trent Hoyt 13]

Star Wars. Star Wars. Star Wars.

[Henry B 50]

Yeah... Star Wars. Aladdin came first, though.

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

There wasn't really a single moment. It was a gradual process: playing a JW show marching band show in high school, which led to casually buying the Greatest Hits set out of interest, which led to buying individual soundtracks, which eventually led to joining this God-forsaken place in the fall of 2001.

[John Crichton 4]

There wasn't really a single moment. It was a gradual process

Me too. I had a few cassettes to start with when I was in my early teens, mostly Star Treks and nothing Williams, but I only listened to them casually. Then came the Star Wars SEs, which I got gradually over '97-'98 and I guess it was '98 when I started really listening to them, and in the end memorizing them. Then TPM in '99, and my legendary Summer of 2000, in between my freshman and sophmore years of college, when I got the newly released complete Superman and any Williams OST I could get my grubby little hands on (The Patriot new, Raiders before it was out of print, Hook, Last Crusade, ET).

[pixie_twinkle 48]

When I was given the 2-record set of ESB for Christmas 1980. I'd asked for the single disk version with narration, dialogue and sound effects from the film (the closest you could get to owning the film before VCRs became popular) but my parents bought me the wrong one. At first I was disappointed. Then I decided to play it anyway. The rest is history.

[Jacob 0]

I don't really know. Tracking down the leaked Sith score was sort of the final nail in the coffin, but before that it was pretty gradual. I grew up with the Star Wars movies. We always had a couple soundtracks around; The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration, Medicine Man, Patton, First Knight. I think we had some Superman and Star Wars/Trek and other random sci-fi stuff on cassette (Erich Kunzel's Star Tracks I believe). Some older siblings started getting into it more with Braveheart and The Patriot. But something happened between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. I didn't anticipate the former but I strongly did the latter, and I'm not certain why (the bonus Musical Journey DVD didn't hurt though).

Recently I discovered the old Raiders, Superman, and Patton LPs amidst the likes of Simon & Garfunkel and the Carpenters in my parents' old collection (also a rerecording of the Dollars Trilogy). Quite the pleasant surprise to find it going that far back in my family.

It must have just been my destiny.

[indy4 155]

I got TPM as a gift, and I liked it. I never really considered getting any other soundtracks, I believe I had the two tracks from Shrek on the "Music From and Inspired By" album. Then, I got By Request as a gift, and that really got me into it. Then I got ESB, Star Wars, Jurassic Park....But it wasn't until very recently that I started buying so many so often. That's why I almost always have something on my Recently Ordered CDs list--I haven't been collecting for long, and even now, I'm not a hardcore collector.

[Richard Penna 3,715]

As a young kid I had always liked the Jurassic Park theme, but nothing more than that - I wasn't aware of music in films.

It was Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, when I noticed there was some pretty amazing music playing in the background, and consequently got the soundtrack from Kazaa (yes, I know, I remain not proud of that). I started getting more from Kazaa, and being totally amazed by it all. By the time I got to uni in 2003, I was in love with scores.

I was also into Harry Potter and Gladiator to start off with, but I'm not sure when I first got into them (wasn't soon after either film came out).

[Marian Schedenig 8,227]

Took my father's Gerhardt Star Wars CD out of the shelf (for whatever reason, never having seen the movie or having heard the score) and was hooked.

[Luke Skywalker 1,798]

I think it started with Jurassic park.

Then the SW SEs came when i was able to buy things (decent parental income)

Though one always likes and notices disney songs as kids.

[Miguel Andrade 1,266]

Sometime around 1978, I was maybe some 5 years old...

Don't ask me even how, but i knew that that brassy fanfare was from Star Wars.

From that day on, music is an essential part of my life, in particular, Johnny Williams music.

[fommes 154]

The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration and the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade score.

[Marcus 390]

I remember it vividly, even though it's one of my very early memories:

I was about three years old, and saw Star Wars for the first time. It was the first time music did something profound to me; I felt as if the world suddenly grew larger. It truly changed me, and I think that moment more than anything set me on my quest to become a composer.

[MSM 126]

I am a JWFan since October 14th, 1994, when I saw Jurassic Park for the first time, projected on a big screen. The scene where the helicopter entered the Isla Nublar skies will be in my memory forever. I asked myself for the first time if this was classical music, or music specifically written for the film. I watched the End Titles carefully and there I found it: that great music was written by a man called John Williams

The next day I went to Free Record Shop and bought the soundtrack, which became the first cd I ever owned myself. The rest is history.

[Luke Skywalker 1,798]

I am a JWFan since October 14th, 1994, when I saw Jurassic Park for the first time

1993?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Yes 1994 is a tad late.

[Melange 446]

do any of you recall when you discovered film music

Honestly I don't think i could pin it down to one particular incident with 100% certainty. It was gradual over decades. My grandparents had lots of LPs of scores from movies they liked. Perhaps my earliest listenings were their LPs of Dr Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia,etc. Like others here I remember seeing Empire Strikes Back,Return of the Jedi,Superman,Raiders, TOD, E.T, and other movies in the cinema, and ran around the school playing field with my fist out pretending I could fly, imitating the Superman theme. Same for E.T. Myself and everyone I knew, knew the music but didn't even investigate who had composed it. It didn't matter. I suspect my exposure to film music probably took place long before these famous films in the cinema. I mean, both John and Jerry Goldsmith composed work for TV series (like the Waltons) so I was probably hearing their work on TV, before big screen stuff. Lots of Goldsmith scored 1970s movies on TV while growing up, for sure.

It could have been anything from Coma to Capricorn One, Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia, Rosza's Ben Hur, Herrmann's work on Jason and the Argonauts, etc, or CE03K and Jaws on TV (didn't see them in the cinema) . All sorts. I fondly remember Star Trek II wrath of Khan in the cinema, and that scene where they entered the Genesis Cave with the amazing visuals on a big screen accompanied by Horner's score. Yet, as mentioned earlier, for years I didn't know who wrote the music and didn't feel the need to know. I don't remember searching the credits for who wrote the music a lot of time. I just loved it.

It meant that for most of my years of growing up I didn't know consciously in the forefront of my mind that Jerry Goldsmith was the composer for ST motion picture and the Rambo movies, or that Horner did ST II and Aliens, or took particular not that John wrote all that work for Jaws, E.T, etc. I was focused on the music itself, first and foremost it seems.

And, at the end of the day I guess it doesn't matter, really. It's the music that counts. My early years were probably more Goldsmith and Williams scored movies. My teen years seem to have been watching movies with Horner and Silvestri scores (Abyss, etc), although Jerry was certainly big at that time too. Rambo, etc. But again, I didn't take note of who wrote the music. In the 1990s, Williams came back to the forefront with his Jurassic Park and Schindler's list scores. I think I really took note from that point onwards of who was composing this music, because Cd's were becoming popular here and I began to buy the CDs of music from films I'd loved from years before, and began to learn by association who composed the music.

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Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

[Richard Penna 3,715]

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[Docteur Qui 1,544]

The first music I remember listening to and truly enjoying it was from Jurassic Park. From there I began to listen to The Imperial March. Finally, which was the nail in the proverbial coffin, was watching the trailer for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for the first time. I knew then and there I needed to have any music that was associated with this man, called John Something....

[Red 75]

There wasn't a specific moment for me, either. It came from seeing the Star Wars movies many times, as well as Jaws, E.T., and Hook. To be honest, I didn't really start to become a fan until I joined this site, which opened me up to all of John's work.

Music from Disney films and video games also had impact.

[Martyprod 86]

i remember that pretty well, but i'm really not sure about the date.

i'm born in 1974. i saw in theater empire strike back in 1980.

but one day, my brother and i went in a library and he took a Vinyl (double album) of the Starwars Episode IV from Williams. as it was a renting, he copied me the album on a tape that i could listen on my audio tape player (i certainly was maybe 7 or 8 years old), and i couldn't Stop to play it. i have certainly played it hundred and hundred of times.it's really my first memory of williams music.

but before starwars, i saw in theater the black hole, and during a long time, i thought that the black hole music was a score by john williams WHAT a mistake but the black hole is too one of my SF score ... and barry is one of my favorite composer too now (of course !! ).

[nicholas 1]

Close Encounters. The music haunted me. Not the 'When You Wish Upon a Star' stuff, just the mostly atonal underscore. I got it for Christmas on a cassette - best present ever. Anyone remember cassettes?

[Melange 446]

but before starwars, i saw in theater the black hole, and during a long time, i thought that the black hole music was a score by john williams WHAT a mistake but the black hole is too one of my SF score

Yeah, the Black Hole was quite influential on my life too from what I remember. I believe I saw it in the cinema too, and remember it being a very very dark and rather spooky film, considering I would have only been 6 years old at the time. The ending kind of scared me. I also used to have plastic figures of maximillian and we even named our cat after maximillian. The score was also noticed but as mentioned before, I don't think I ever bothered to find out who had composed it.

Anyone remember cassettes?

Certainly. I still use them in my car. Cassettes are used quite often by myself because I have lots of locally recorded and printed music collected from around the world, on cassettes. Transferring them in recent days before they wear out.

[Pieter Boelen 740]

I don't remember exactly when. It was somewhere halfway into secundary school, I think, which would put it at about 6-8 years ago. My dad had just found out about illegally downloading music (ahum) and I thought it might be fun to try and get some of the music from the films I liked, mainly Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Back to the Future.

Strangely enough I had only ever seen Indiana Jones for the very first time not so long before that, even though I had always wanted to see these films being convinved that I loved them even before having ever seen them. I had seen both Jurassic Park and The Lost World in primary school(!) and remembered liking the music. Then I don't know how Star Wars actually fit into the whole picture. I rented Episodes IV-VI on video at one point, which was the first time I ever saw them. Back to the Future we lent on video from some friends and I might actually have seen that before Star Wars or Indiana Jones.

Before getting into film music, I was convinced that music was pretty useless(!). Just random notes (classical music) and random beats and words (pop music) and really I don't have much interest in that. The difference with film music is that film music actually has got something to say. It's got a story to tell, it has emotions, which all these other types of music don't do to the same extent.

I always liked the memorable adventurous music best, which is why John Williams is my favourite composer. He has a gift for writing music that you remember after seeing a film only once and even when knowing nothing of film music. Originally I thought John Williams had written ALL good film music in existance. I thought Back to the Future was written by him as well. Of course the mis-tagged music I downloaded didn't really help in that respect.

[Henry B 50]

Before getting into film music, I was convinced that music was pretty useless(!). Just random notes (classical music) and random beats and words (pop music) and really I don't have much interest in that. The difference with film music is that film music actually has got something to say. It's got a story to tell, it has emotions, which all these other types of music don't do to the same extent.

...

[Ollie 1,059]

Probably at the age of 3 or 4, around the time I can actually remember events of my childhood. I've always payed attention to music within movies and TV shows.

[John Crichton 4]

Anyone remember cassettes?

Oh yeah. I was still using them up until a few years ago for my old car that didn't have a CD player.

[Ollie 1,059]

Cassettes? Pffttt, my parents played 8 Tracks and Reel to Reels.

[John Crichton 4]

We had a reel to reel at my college radio station. We didn't use it (we were on minidisks then), it just sat there looking old and useless. I was wondering why it wasn't in a museum.

[Richard Penna 3,715]

Close Encounters. The music haunted me. Not the 'When You Wish Upon a Star' stuff, just the mostly atonal underscore. I got it for Christmas on a cassette - best present ever. Anyone remember cassettes?

I bought My Heart Will Go On on cassette maybe a year or so after release.

[Pieter Boelen 740]

...

?

[artyjeffrey 20]

"Close Encounters. The music haunted me. Not the 'When You Wish Upon a Star' stuff, just the mostly atonal underscore. I got it for Christmas on a cassette - best present ever. Anyone remember cassettes?"

Coincidentally, I can recall back in 1988 a week or so before Christmas going with my parents to a local mall and finding CEOT3K on cassette, taking it home, putting on my headphones, with the beginning of Christmas vacation, staying up late into the night listening to that wonderful work about three times in a row. I'll never forget that opening.

By the way, remember how the plastic case on that cassette was red? Cool.

[King Mark 3,631]

When was about 10years old was taping TV theme songs off the TV on a mini cassette recorder

Got a Star Wars conducted by Zubin Metha LP at 12

Saw ESB in theater about 10 times to just to hear the music

K.M.

[artyjeffrey 20]

When I was given the 2-record set of ESB for Christmas 1980. I'd asked for the single disk version with narration, dialogue and sound effects from the film (the closest you could get to owning the film before VCRs became popular) but my parents bought me the wrong one. At first I was disappointed. Then I decided to play it anyway. The rest is history.

Another coincidence, only in reversal. I asked for the ESB double-lp and instead got the disk with all of the sound effects! I ended up loving it and still have to this day!

[King Mark 3,631]

I didn't buy the ESB soundtrack untill a year later.I was at that age where my friends would think I'm weird for listening to soundtrack,so I didn't like going into a store to buy a cassette of ESB..but I finally did anyways.

K.M.

[artyjeffrey 20]

There comes that point when your liking for something outweighs concerns such as the opinions of others. I guess that's when one becomes a "fan."

I'll never forget my bad experience with my ESB casette, that cheap Polygram or RSO or whatever derivative it was. Everytime there was a boom-tz, there would be clipping. I was a dumb kid, and assumed that that was just the way it had been recorded. It wasn't until years later when I got the Anthology that I heard Empire without the clipping.

[Jeshopk 8]

I honestly don't remember. One of my earliest memories is crying at the finale of the Close Encounters LP when I was 3. JW was always there and always favored over other music. I didn't specifically request soundtrack albums until I was 5 (Jaws, Raiders, ET, Empire).

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

After seeing Star Wars. And Close Encounters.

1977. I was eleven.

[Ollie 1,059]

I bought my first soundtrack when I was 8.

[MSM 126]

I am a JWFan since October 14th, 1994, when I saw Jurassic Park for the first time

1993?

Mom didn't allow me to see it in cinema

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

and consequently got the soundtrack from Kazaa (yes, I know, I remain not proud of that).

In my opinion, its morally fine to download, find that you like it, and then buy it if its affordable.

Anyway, i've loved film music (or shall I say JW in particular) for as long as I can remember. I grew up watching Star Wars on a nearly daily basis and I simply cannot remember a time when I did not know who George Lucas, John Williams, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Peter Mayhew, and Anthony Daniels were (sorry Kenny Baker and James Earl Jones!).

[MrScratch 294]

Got a Star Wars conducted by Zubin Metha LP at 12

I've been listening to this recording lately, it's quite good and possibly my favorite Close Encounters suite.

I am a JWFan since October 14th, 1994, when I saw Jurassic Park for the first time

1993?

Mom didn't allow me to see it in cinema

JPs theatrical run lasted well into 1994. I remember seeing it on the big screen one last time myself in the summer of 1994 at a cheap theater.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=...urassicpark.htm

As for "when did I know", some of my earliest memories are listening to the Star Wars and Superman soundtrack albums on my dads old turntable.

[Luke Skywalker 1,798]

wow, i knew JP lasted long (movies these days dont do anymore) since i watched it arround januar, but a whole year, wow.

This movie was big.

I'm proud to be one of the JP's JWfan generation

[MSM 126]

I'm proud to be one of the JP's JWfan generation