Independent Research Podcast

Independent Research Entry

The impact musical scores contribute on films has come a long way since the 70s. For many of us who listen to music and enjoy watching films will recognize the name Hans Zimmer as being a diverse composer whose work has left an imprint on every film he’s touched. In over 30 years, Zimmer has piled up over 100 musical scores, a multitude of awards such as Grammy’s, Academy’s, Golden Globes, Satellites, and many others including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His musical masterpieces include: The Lion King, The Dark Knight, Inception, Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator, Sherlock Holmes, Rango, The Last Samurai, and the list goes on. Renowned film and video game composer Has Zimmer has become the number one sought out composer in both the film and video game industry.

Over the years, Zimmer has experimented with different musical tools ranging from orchestral instruments to electronic music sounds. Before the 1990’s animated release of The Lion King, films weren’t recognized for their music scores. Music was a simple addition to fill in gaps for which didn’t involve composing memorable harmonies. In The Lion King, Zimmer used African instruments to create his composition as realistic as possible according to the setting of the picture. After the film received critical acclaim for both picture and musical score, Zimmer’s career took off. Pirates of the Caribbean became the film to push the boundaries of musical film scoring. Zimmer used harsh and powerful electronic drums, which accompanied the rich and unforgettable themes that became the icon for the film. His use of synthesizers and electronic elements has reshaped the way a film is produced and seen. Audiences expect a sensational musical score that will clench and marry music and picture.

Hans Zimmer is known as the godfather of implementing electronic music sounds with orchestral arrangements. He is also known for being a diverse composer; able to create admirable music for any film or video game. His use of synthesizers is recognized in almost every film he has scored especially Pirates of the Caribbean. Heroic drums pounding against a full orchestra is nook and cranny. Expanding his musical horizons, he composed music for AAA video game title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which was his first video game project. Hans Zimmer has become a name you see in a film and right off the bat you know the movie is going to have remarkable music.

This musical genius has inspired me over the years to compose my own orchestral score. His life story and the accomplishments he has achieved, motivates me to continue my life long dream. In an interview he described his life as a dream come true being able to make music for the greatest films being made and call it his job.

Peer Comment


To Adam Ruiz:


This was a fascinating read on record producer Timbaland. His contribution to the R&B and Hip-Hop music scenes has really made an imprint with a multitude of record hits. Personally I am not a fan of the style of music he creates anymore, but I can say that I used to appreciate a few songs he had produced a few years back. His methods of making music with the use of orchestration interested me. Whenever I hear his music I can acknowledge the complex instrumentation and the detail of his music. Great job on this blog entry, it was concise and properly put together.

Electronic Music Innovations

Too many producers to name (Basshunter, daft punk, Axwell, Benny Benassi, Bob Sincler, Fedde Le Grand, Dirty Vegas, Calvin Harris, David Guetta and the list goes on..)  and give credit to for the innovations and breakthrough they have achieved to make Electronic Dance Music a global style it is today. When I hear electronic music the first artist that pops into my mind is deadmau5. From his eye-catching name to his iconic mau5head image, deadmau5 rose from a few thousand fans on Facebook to over 4 million in a time lapse of a few years. 

deadmau5 is House producer from Canada that has taken the Electronic music into a wild ride. His catchy and harmonic sound textures are blended with fat kicks and low electro bass making him stand out from other top name producers like Benny Benassi. deadmau5 uses a multitude of hardware synthesizers including the Minimoog to create his own unique sound. 

He has worked alongside famous electronic producers and artists like Kaskade, Rob Swire, and Skrillex. Later on in the coming years deadmau5 became fond of the exotic genre called dubstep. He produced a few experimental tracks with singers Sofi and Greta Svabo Bech called "Raise Your Weapon" and "One Trick pony". He tried to implement a combination of House elements with the rough and raw characteristics of dubstep. In 2010 deadmau5 signed dustup producer Skrillex onto his label, mau5trap records. Skrillex immediately became a prime success and is considered as the person who really pushed dustup outside its underground setting into a worldwide phenomenon. 

From his musical masterpieces like "Ghosts 'n' Stuff", "Strobe", "Some Chords", "Arguru", "Faxing Berlin", and "Animal Rights", deadmau5 continues to influence people into electronic dance music. His use of hardware synths has helped him evolve through out the years into a commercial success. Performing at the VMA's then performing at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver makes him a primary example of how far electronic music has come since the days of Kraftwerk.

Electronic Music Entry

Electronic music is made up of synthesis and digital sounds practically unheard of and not made popular before Kraftwerk took the stand. Starting in the 1970's, Kraftwerk had developed a signature sound which combined western classical and repetitive rhythms with catchy melodies. Before their international breakthrough album Autobahn, Kraftwerk released three albums between the years of 1970 through 1973. Albums Kraftwerk and Kraftwerk 2 were mainly experimental music using a diversity of instruments such as guitars, bass, drums, flute, and violin. Both albums were instrumental and from 1972-73 Kraftwerk did live performances for the most part in Germany using an electronic device called drum machine.

The release of Autobahn in 1974 gave Kraftwerk commercial success leading them to a pursue a more sophisticated sound. With the prosperity that brought the group off Autobahn,  they invested on new synthesizers like the Minimoog. Right after the 1975 Autobahn tour, Kraftwerk started to work on their next album, Radio-Activity which pushed them to focus on a central them of radio communication. With the release of these two albums, Kraftwerk had moved on from an experimental concept to electronic pop music. After their Radio-Activity tour the group began recording their newest album to be released in 1977; Trans-Europe Express. The theme behind this album consisted of European's railway system. Much success came out of Trans-Europe Express giving them a disco award in New York. From 1978 to 1981 Kraftwerk released two albums, The Man-Machine and Computer World. 

In my opinion Kraftwerk's music popularized the use of synthetic instruments and paved the way for Electronic music to rise into what it is today. Their rhythmic ideas and structures carved the influences of modern day pop music. Their albums show a progression of evolution that is heard from the synthesizers used 30 years ago.

The work of Kraftwerk leaves me with the impression of musical and technological evolution. If you listen to Autobahn then Computer World, their pretty much two completely different ideas, sounds, implementations, and characteristics. Kraftwerk evolved along side musical technology as both popularized electronic dance music.

Peer Comment

To Adam Ruiz:

Your blog entry on the moog synthesizer and on the electronic music innovators Kraftwerk, intrigued me as a synthesizer enthusiast and electronic producer. The moog did shape the way Karftwerk made their interesting unique sounds as well as helped pave the way for future synthesizer technological advancements. This great musical instrument is what modern day electronic dance music derived from. Your implementation of Kraftwerk was described legibly and I learned a few key facts that I had not come across in my research. Overall both entries had plenty of interesting details and made the reading of this blog exciting. Great Job!

What’s Going On Entry

Marvin Gaye is respectably recognized as an icon of R&B and soul music. Before his album What’s Going On, Gaye was known to collaborate frequently with his closest friend Tammi Terrell. The duo were successful and made plenty of hits like “Your Precious Love”, “If I could Build My Whole World Around You”, and “If this World Were Mine” which later became a major R&B success being covered by Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn. In his 2 years of collaboration with Terrell, Gaye created a close friendship that would last until she passed away. On March 16, 1970, Tammi Terrell died of a brain tumor. This devastated Gaye and through him off course because she performed every concert along side him. Gaye was so affected by her death that he claimed to no longer record duets with any female artist and neither will he perform on stage again.

Gaye’s most notable album What’s Going On, spoke about the injustice and war taking place in the U.S. Social and national concerns that influenced the lyrical content of What’s Going On are his younger brother, Frankie, experience in the Vietnam War. Another influence included the unfairness and cruelty happening around Marvin Gaye. Upon Frankie’s return from service, he described to Gaye how painful it was to see people abusing each other.

When What’s Going On was recorded, Motown CEO Berry Gordy refused to release the album. Gordy feared people would reject the songs due to his image already being portrayed as a sex symbol. Since Gaye wouldn’t allow himself record anything that was Motown’s sound he didn’t receive much promotion for the album. When the album was finally released, it sold over 2 million copies and shot up the charts crowning the R&B charts for five weeks.

What set the album apart from other Soul records at the time was the instruments and rhythmic ideas used.

Marvin Gaye’s album What’s Going On shows me the amount of change we have progressed through out the years. This album is considered an icon to R&B and soul music, which shaped and influenced future productions at Motown.

Velvet Underground & Nico Entry

The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album of the New York 60’s rock band, The Velvet Underground and has become one of the most influential rock albums in history. This album features a collaboration with the German singer/actress, Nico, singing vocals for four of the songs in the album. The music the band produced for this album was known for the explicit descriptions of topics including drug abuse, prostitution, hostility and sexual deviancy.

Lewis Allan “Lou” Reed was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 2, 1942. He learned how to play the guitar through listening to the radio and became interested in rock and roll and R&B music. His first recording was as a member of a doo-wop style group called The Jades. He later graduated from Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences with a Bachelor’s Degree in June 1964. Reed was the main songwriter for The Velvet Underground, where he wrote about subjects of personal experience including sexuality and drug culture. He was the vocals and guitarist for the band between 1965-1970. John Davies Cale was born in Garnant, Carmarthenshire, Wales on March 9, 1942. He showed an interest in the viola and studied music at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He was the conductor of the first performance in the UK of Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra. He then travelled to the United States to continue his music training, where he then co-founded The Velvet Underground with Reed in 1965 and in the band, played multiple instruments and was also the vocals.

Artist, Andy Warhol, was the only formally credited producer of the album but he had very little direct influence or authority over the album other than paying for the recording sessions. Norman Dolph and John Licata are sometimes credited to producing the Scepter Studios sessions, considering they were responsible for recording and engineering the band. Sterling Morrison described Warhol as the album's producer "in the sense of producing a film. We used some of his money and our money...Andy was the producer but we were the ‘executive producers’ too.” Cale then later recalled that it was Tom Wilson who actually produced nearly all the tracks. Upon the album’s original release, it was widely unsuccessful by popular music standards and was a financial failure. Its lack of success can also be accredited to Verve Records, who did not promote or distribute the album.

The lyrics in the songs set the album apart from the other mid-1960s recordings. Also, the cover of the album, produced by Andy Warhol, is among the most iconic record covers in all of history. It is of a yellow banana that when you peel back the plastic yellow skin, it reveals a flesh-colored banana. It was meant for the listener to “peel slowly and see”.

Peer Comment


To Adam Ruiz:

You executed a reasonable summary on Marvin Gaye’s most notable album, What’s Going On. Great key factors used to describe his pain and glory through out the events that led to the release of the album. On the Velvet Underground and Nico Entry, as I read, I was able to create a mental picture of the events that revolved around this fascinating album. I agree that Andy Warhol played a small role on the album and in my opinion he should’ve been credited as an executive producer not as the producer. Overall both entries were a great interesting read and well out together.

Marvin Gaye - Whats Going on (Podcast)