TPCAST LAUNCH COMPOSITOR MOVIE
TPCAST LAUNCH COMPOSITOR TV

“You’ll start hearing other shows and movies having similar types of music,” he predicts.I am posting a solution that had stumped me majorly for an hour yesterday until I had fixed it. Silverstein thinks this theme will kick off a trend, now that it’s struck such a note with audiences. That realism clearly resonates with Succession fans the main theme has already racked up more Spotify streams than Britell’s top composition from If Beale Street Could Talk, whose score received an Oscar nomination, and fans can’t get enough.

TPCAST LAUNCH COMPOSITOR MOVIE

“It’s relatable enough that we’re like, ‘Oh wow, that’s our world, not a Disney movie in some imaginary world.'” “It’s meant to draw you into the reality that exists,” Silverstein suggests. That also adds to the documentary-style realism of the show. Unlike sit-coms with clear audio cues or Marvel movies with big, bombastic musical moments, the Succession score refrains from providing a meta-commentary. “You’re not just getting the easy thing,” Silverstein says. But in Succession, where the theme pops up as part of the score throughout episodes, Britell plays it “straight.” In other words, the score subverts expectations and leaves it up to viewers to determine a scene’s mood or subtext.

TPCAST LAUNCH COMPOSITOR TV

In TV shows, the music becomes its own kind of recurring character, with themes that are expanded and adjusted as needed to match the tone of each scene over the course of many episodes. It also matters that the music matches-and elevates-the experience of watching the show.

Silverstein calls out the 808s (a popular drum machine sound), detuned piano (piano intentionally made to sound out-of-tune), audio-processing filters (more technical composition tools) and “gritty” strings that all come together in a way that’s “not as sweet and glossy as you might get in other soaring themes.” This is no Downton Abbey, gilding an image of a genteel patrician family, but rather something less polished and pleasant, reflecting the nastiness of the Roy family dynamics. The theme mixes Britell’s expertise in classical composition with his background making hip-hop beats, layering the two styles. Then there’s the structure and sonic texture of the music itself. The result: theme music that sounds different, and therefore more memorable. You’re not just a line cook, you’re a chef,” he speculates of Britell’s approach.

“It’s a composer’s most ideal situation, because you get to come up with the creative landscape. But Succession has none of that sense of reproduction.

Often, TV and film music is initially filled in with what’s called a “temp track,” a placeholder that a composer will then re-produce in what Silverstein calls a “paint-by-numbers” approach. That established background may have provided him important creative leeway.

Britell is known for his distinctive film scores: he’s behind the sound of movies like The Big Short, Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk.

Tpcast launch compositor