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IMAscore...overhyped?
N
_nemesis_
Have you not heard it? Its simply magical. I don't get that feeling from any other piece of music. Yes, Mozart and Beethoven included! But as Rob rightly said, its a matter of opinion.
Alastair
TS Team
Thomas Bergersen could produce that in his sleep. He has multiple albums out with music better than that. Each to their own though.
Just caught up and this is the most ridiculous thread I've ever read.
I know you lot get uncomfortable when people are saying too many nice things about something, but seriously? On the whole IMAscore are doing by far the most exciting stuff when it comes to theme park music atm. There's a reason a lot of parks have started utilising them for different projects.
Criticise them if they do something bad but geeeeeeez.
I know you lot get uncomfortable when people are saying too many nice things about something, but seriously? On the whole IMAscore are doing by far the most exciting stuff when it comes to theme park music atm. There's a reason a lot of parks have started utilising them for different projects.
Criticise them if they do something bad but geeeeeeez.
Dave
TS Founding Member
We will ignore the fact this whole production as good as it was is basically a rip off of Beauty and the Beast.
Plus most compositions when played by an orchestra sound better, hell the towers street theme would sound slick played by an orchestra.
Compare like for like, most parks are just not going to pay the costs associated with a full orchestral recording. IMA do good computer based music composition and market it well.
Rob
TS Team
I'm sorry but just because you don't like what IMAscore do and don't think they are as good as numerous others does not mean they are silly. Go to Toverland, Phantasialand or Liseberg; spend time in the areas that their music is playing, and then tell me they look silly. The music they have created is perfect for the rides/areas it is meant for and creates a real atmosphere. Perfect for a theme park.
Hendrik Schwarzer is a brilliant composer and the Europa Park Original Soundtrack is utterly brilliant. I also really enjoyed Spook Me!, it was a top notch theme park production (I don't care if it's a Disney fairy tale rip-off, many stories like that are as they are somewhat generic, you could even say Disney rip-off themselves at times but doesn't make it any less good). But why should IMAscore be degraded just because they aren't as good as others? Of course they're not bloody Beethoven but do you really expect them to be?
E
electricBlll
Music is so incredibly subjective that the question of IMA Score being overhyped is pointless. You could be totally ignorant of how music actually works and still get a lot of inspiration from a really basic track. IMA Score are brilliant at production in particular, and its often the effect of the production that leads people to think one way or another about a track. You could have a really trite composition and make it sound amazing if you know all the tricks of the trade.
A lot of theme park music is trite and production-heavy by its very nature, a lot of it is created to produce specific effects so won't have any musical merit on its own. It's rare a composer will get to rely on their own imagination when they are being commissioned by a client who has their own intentions for the music, so it's not easy to compare.
For the last few years theme parks in the UK have been using some admittedly gaudy and cheaply synthesised music (Towers Street theme at Alton Towers comes to mind) which is why I think IMA Score has suddenly grabbed people's attention with their fiestier production and versatility. Also because they are very good at marketing.
But that doesn't mean they are 'better' composers musically or technically. You can start an endless storm comparing one person's taste in music to another because different people look for radically different things. I really enjoy a lot of IMA's work, but it's not particularly outstanding when you consider all the other musical talents used by parks outside the UK. My favourite piece of music ever is a badly recorded demo of an obscure synth song by an unknown band from 1983, doesn't mean it's better than all the great composers out there.
A lot of theme park music is trite and production-heavy by its very nature, a lot of it is created to produce specific effects so won't have any musical merit on its own. It's rare a composer will get to rely on their own imagination when they are being commissioned by a client who has their own intentions for the music, so it's not easy to compare.
For the last few years theme parks in the UK have been using some admittedly gaudy and cheaply synthesised music (Towers Street theme at Alton Towers comes to mind) which is why I think IMA Score has suddenly grabbed people's attention with their fiestier production and versatility. Also because they are very good at marketing.
But that doesn't mean they are 'better' composers musically or technically. You can start an endless storm comparing one person's taste in music to another because different people look for radically different things. I really enjoy a lot of IMA's work, but it's not particularly outstanding when you consider all the other musical talents used by parks outside the UK. My favourite piece of music ever is a badly recorded demo of an obscure synth song by an unknown band from 1983, doesn't mean it's better than all the great composers out there.
Poisson
TS Member
Regarding opinion on it, I could happily say Sea Goat (Part 1) be Gregorian is better than some IMAScore stuff, but The Smiler theme is better than that, all taste is subjective. People can say Slipknot are overhyped but I'd disagree but agree with saying YM@S are overhyped as they are dreadful IMO. Music is a pain for being completely subjective.
Rob
TS Team
Indeed. What is good music for one person may be bad for another. However saying "oh look at this, it makes IMAscore look silly" makes the person saying it look silly rather than the music itself look silly. If IMAscore did not produce a certain standard/quality of theme park music then they would not keep getting new projects. It is hard to deny that they are good at what they do, whether you like what they produce or not.
There's a lot of music I cannot stand but I don't doubt that those that make it are good at what they are doing. It's just not my taste. And the music I do like does not make there's look silly.
There's a lot of music I cannot stand but I don't doubt that those that make it are good at what they are doing. It's just not my taste. And the music I do like does not make there's look silly.
TheMan
TS Member
Oh do be quiet you laborious little yellow man.
Seriously I agree with @electricBlll for once
. He does sum up how I feel about this. And he is spot on about production being such an important part of what makes people think a track is better. In fact, an entire movement based on "Loudness wars" and bringing in defined dB industry standard thresholds perfectly supports that view, because it became simply a battle of loudness as our ears perceive a louder track as "better".Don't get me started on how labels didn't realise this... and thus we ended up, especially in dance or popular music, with a race for a waveform that looked like a breeze block without any light and shade or dynamic variation. (Think Merlin dark themes compared to Europa's blend or early Chessington).
Theme park bosses are unlikely to be playing it through some insane high volume top of the range 40k monitor system, they're also in a less competitive market, and produce for my ears a high standard technically, if not always "musically" complex.
I still maintain, in a few years, if the Smiler hasn't totally sunk lol, the music will be unbearable and dated. I am really not sure their work will age as well as others. It is very of the moment in both production AND musically, few of their pieces to me have a timelessness about it that will age well.
I don't know who wrote Oblivion's theme, but I have to say, for such a stylised contemporary piece that's aged brilliantly well. Nemmy, Catanga, they're all timeless.
Alastair
TS Team
Let me metaphorise here for a minute. IMAScore are kind of like Zamperla. They produce decent, average coasters for parks with very little money that can't afford better. The quality of their rides might not be the greatest, but they do a job and parks are on the whole happy with what they get for the money. That doesn't stop people from laughing at how poor Zamperla are in comparison to the likes of B&M. Isn't that the same?
Rob
TS Team
Yes, parks like Europa Park (Blue Fire onboard), Phantasialand (Chiapas), Alton Towers (The Smiler) and Liseberg (Helix). Definitely all parks with very little money and not ones that spend tens of millions on new attractions. You cannot make such an absurd comparison.
Alastair
TS Team
Yes, parks like Europa Park (Blue Fire onboard), Phantasialand (Chiapas), Alton Towers (The Smiler) and Liseberg (Helix). Definitely all parks with very little money and not ones that spend tens of millions on new attractions. You cannot make such an absurd comparison.
There are exceptions to the rule of course. Knott's Berry have a Zamperla, as do numerous Six Flags parks. That wasn't really my point though. I accept that IMAScore produce soundtracks that somewhat suit the areas/rides they are composing for, what I'm saying is that they just aren't brilliant at it. In the same way with Zamperla.
N
_nemesis_
Sorry, but to suggest that IMAscore are the Zamperla of music is quite frankly ludicrous! Why would such big parks CONSTANTLY commission them if they were mediocre? If you don't like them though, go your own way.
Alastair
TS Team
Because of the hype they have generated within the ride score niche? As @TheMan said on page 1, if someone does a perceived good job and markets themselves well, then others will use them. Frankly though, I can't understand why anyone would have hired them after the abomination that is The Smiler soundtrack.