Quick: Hum a piece of music from the first Marvel movie that comes to mind. The theme from Captain America? Something from the $2 billion Iron Man franchise? If you’re drawing a blank, you’re not alone. In a smart new installment of his video essay series Every Frame a Painting, Tony Zhou explains all the reasons the music of “The Marvel Symphonic Universe” is so utterly forgettable—and these reasons help explain why so many other contemporary movies have forgettable themes, too.
For one thing, the music in Marvel movies tends to blend into the scene, either because it’s buried by other noises or because it isn’t surprising in any way. “It’s like the air conditioner in the background. After a while, you tune it out.” More intriguingly, directors seem to be growing increasingly attracted to temp music, the temporary soundtracks (assembled from pre-existing movie scores) that serve as a stand-in for the music that will make the final cut. When filmmakers become accustomed to temp music, they sometimes direct composers to write music that’s just like what they’ve already heard. All of this adds up to scores that are so unobtrusive that you’ll never think of them again after leaving the theater.
Of course, as a certain other Marvel movie demonstrated, using pre-existing music isn’t always bad—when the choices are surprising.
More from Tony Zhou and Every Frame a Painting:
- This Video Analysis of Looney Tunes Characters Will Make You Think About Them Differently
- How Buster Keaton Perfected the Art of the Gag
- This Video Essay on Chairs in Cinema Is Way More Interesting Than It Should Be
- So Many Movies Are Filmed in Vancouver. But It Always Has to Pretend to Be Someplace Else.
