Opposite, yet complementary in their own way, one cutting-edge producer and another classical composer compete this year with Barbie and Oppenheimer soundtracks for the scepter of the “master of soundtracks.” But they are both winners.
In a July 10 article, journalist Aya Romano di vox defined “Barbenheimer” (that is, a suitcase between Barbie To Oppenheimer, released in the USA on the same day: for the ingenuity and originality of memes, today it is irresistible) as a state of mind, atmosphere, lifestyle, artistic and social movement that could transform cinema for always: “destroyer of worlds, savior of cinema.” According to the results of the American release, the consequences of which we will see in Italy only at the end of August, given the lack of modernity between the release in our cinemas Barbie (July 20) and Oppenheimer (August 23), the numbers only confirm a more unique than rare case for the post-pandemic film industry.
Although the dispute between the different souls of two feature films has always been about the apparent and different vision of both the director and the actor, and the semantic nature of the two works, so to speak, it has not been seen how even the choice of two composers to sound the respective speakers was a perfect synthesis of the current state of film music. so much so that it pushed the same pop musician Mark Ronson, composer/supervisor and producer of the original score Barbieopenly challenge your rival Ludwig Göransson through social media, Christopher Nolan’s new movie voice and interstellar space star Wars.
If already since the early 90s there has been a discussion about what is the perfect synthesis of a modern soundtrack, complemented by opposing factions – those who leaned towards mixtapes of composed songs, of which Quentin Tarantino is still the master, against those who are still rightly nostalgic on the great themes developed in the 80s by authors like John Williams – they are right Barbie AND Oppenheimer two titles that encourage us to think about the musical forms that this discussion has spawned, and in particular about two characters so ironically opposed to each other, but much more alike than they might seem. Ronson and Göransson are undoubtedly the result of this age-old dilemma, but how did they come to fight for the scepter of power? soundtrack master?
Growing up on a cultural antithesis between the chill of the Scandinavian peninsula, where the late Johann Johansson spun the canvas for the high-tech future of contemporary soundtrack, of which Göransson himself became the spokesman, and New York, which had just woken up from the end of Studio 54 and the emergence of MCs with their fusion of disco and funk, to which Ronson moved on at the age of 8, both channeled their formative experiences from the earliest work they produced. If Mark Ronson, the new Kendall Roy (famous memes in which they are associated i’m just ken with a cult character succession), for attitude and glamour, with a passion for the Beastie Boys and Dap-Kings, he established himself as a DJ in the early 90s, solidifying his knowledge of sampling techniques as told in a didactic-musical format. Watch the sound with Mark Ronsonfor Göransson, his musical purpose was immediately central, that is, to compose for images.
Following the thread of the story, their first meeting/clash takes place at the end of 2018 in a context that, up to this point, has not been fully explored by the Swedish composer. It’s Grammy night, Mark Ronson is fighting for smallsong written for A star is born which two months later will receive an Oscar for best original song, but Göransson will destroy the whole evening by putting This is America for Donald Glover, who will win Record of the Year by smallas well as an award for best film soundtrack Black Pantherthe first work for the Marvel franchise, thanks to which he became the starting point for great blockbusters.
For a moment, their roles were completely reversed. The Grammys, since 2007 the undisputed reign of Mark Ronson with their sparkles and strobes, are seeing a new ambitious contender arrive in town, an element that will be completely canceled in the 2019 Oscars edition, in which Ronson himself makes his first appearance in court thanks to the Academy’s own small.
Both masters of our time, with very different understanding of the compositional process and appeal to their fans. Visiting their social media profiles, we see Mark Ronson invading his account with the color pink, even entering the Barbie box itself and thus fulfilling his role as the deus ex machina of Barbieland perfectly. From Dua Lipa to Billie Eilish, songs Barbie they’re the hit boosters that kill any chance of winning for anyone who wants to compete in the Best Original Song section of the next Academy Awards. And the film is sort of an introspective yet deliberately glamorous musical, given that it starts with such a well-known and “fashionable” icon.
At the same time, Ludwig Göransson assumes the role of Oppenheimer’s physicist in exalting the emotional-sensual consequences of what such a powerful and destructive discovery for the whole world entails, namely the atomic bomb; he faces the fears inherent in the consequences of what he has done, literally withdrawing into his own world in the same way that an American physicist transferred his team to New Mexico for the Trinity project. These are the feelings that give him the path, the space that has always represented him, ultimately creating a soundtrack that eludes contemporary rules in its transformation into sound art.
interview in the format Negotiation As spokesmen for the new music mecca for the recording industry, Ronson and Göransson question the cyclicality of what they produce and what will change with the need to compose more and more music, elements that we find perfectly well also in the two films, which they do. representatives. Will their music always have a way to fulfill itself, or will it be first uplifted and then used to destroy them?
At the heart of all this, obviously, is not a real challenge, but the observation that film music provides more and more ways of free expression for those who approach this art, from Ronson, director universal, which penetrates the soul to communicate literally “the search for a new path of identity for such a unique and stereotyped beauty doll” to Göransson, the creator and direct heir of the founding fathers of this art, who, with his romantic and high-tech attitude, brings a new revolution to life and healthy vision. Barbenheimer also finds expression in music.