The "death" of melody

Recently, I’ve participated in an interesting discussion on VI-Control.net entitled: “The death of melody”. The discussion was motivated by a YouTube video of the same name. Its author is contemplating a phenomenon that is present in modern music for quite a while now: the lack of recognizable and memorable melodies. Although he is mainly mentioning music genres geared toward the masses at the ones struck the most by this trend, the author also touches on the more serious ones, such as film music.

Some of the participants in the mentioned discussion didn’t agree with the conclusions stated in the said video. However, it is undeniable that there is a lot of truth to it. It is a fact that most modern music sounds “alike”, specifically due to the ever-increasing absence of a key element that makes each musical piece unique and recognizable: the melody. As I’ve written at VI-Control.net, personally I’m considering coming up with original, simple, singable, and even somewhat “naive” melodies as the pinnacle of musical creation. In this day and age, this is more difficult than ever before just because of the burden imposed by the enormous legacy of music from the past, led by an idea of melody as the alpha and omega of every good composition. But the frequent “absence of melody” in modern music is equally often related to certain modern trends.

As a composer of music “for the sake of music”, rather than applicable art such as film music and the one for media, I believe that melody is “the thing” that can actually reach the listener. Music without words that usually evokes emotion in most people must rely on simple musical themes in order to have the same effect. This is one of the reasons why instrumental music (unfairly) always has a much more difficult path to popularity and acceptance.

Film music is undoubtedly the most popular form of instrumental music these days. The film and the film industry have always had an immense influence on the masses, almost as much as the popular forms of music. Because of that, it is especially interesting to observe the “absence of melody” phenomena in this particular field. The author of the mentioned YouTube video has directly mentioned Hans Zimmer, one of the most respected film composers today, as an obvious example of this. This had resulted in a heated debate on the said topic as Zimmer is also a composer of music for films such as “Rain Man”, “Thelma & Louise”, “True Romance”, “Broken Arrow”, “Gladiator” and many others, that is full of characteristic melodies. But there is no doubt that after the millennium, Zimmer had also embraced certain uniform recipes for modern film music, which is from then on almost blindly followed by most of the film and other composers of instrumental music. This particular style is often dubbed as “epic” and it is characterized by huge orchestrations, choral arrangements, the mass of special effects, and thunderous percussion. This is not universally devoid of melodies, but they are simply not as memorable and instantly recognizable as, for example, the Star Wars theme by John Williams.

So what has caused this trend in general? I believe that the main culprits are decreasing the interest of an average listener for a true immersion while listening to music, as well as the modern media, driven by omnipresent consumerism. Most people these days are in a constant rush due to some job or another and other obligations and they simply do not find enough “time” or will for more serious indulging in activities such as music, films, reading and art in general. All this has sadly become just a background distraction. The music is being “listened to” on a cell phone, the movies are being “watched” on YouTube, and there are fewer and fewer of those who are actually reading, visiting museums and art galleries, etc. All this considered, it is no big surprise that the media as well as the film and music industries are enticing and promoting the music in which the pretty melody is not a necessary element anymore. From my own perspective, I salute everyone, creators and the audience alike, who’re refusing to go with the trends and today’s expectations.