Music From The Gods: Bear McCreary Captivates With ‘Godzilla’ Score, An Analysis & Review
Music defines the way we communicate. It is another language in our ecosystem of beautiful ways to establish communication. Any genre of this art exudes environments in which we are comfortable in. The sheer power of it can enforce a range of emotions that we do not usually refer to in our usual lifestyle. It is astonishing to conceive how a certain art device, that had ranged in age before our modern day society, still has made a massive impact within pop culture, with one of the components of pop culture being an ancient — Japanese originated — alpha predator.
Godzilla in pop culture has been a cultural phenomenon. The four-hundredth foot radiation powered Goliath has made headlines since the early 1950s, not only for a memorable film with a powerful message on ethical proportions, but rather an unforgettable motion picture soundtrack that has aged as well as the theme to the Bond franchise. The theme to the original 1954 film, composed by masterful Akira Ifukube, is as powerful as it goes well with the content of the story. The main theme invokes fear and tremendous amounts of energy that pumps up the destruction that the ancient beast causes, minute by minute. A culmination of other themes within the movie surround the characteristically surround aspect of the main theme in a way how [for example] peanut butter and jelly compliment each other. This compliment is not only evident in the 1954 classic, but the thirty five films to follow in the massive cinematic universe that helms the nuclear driven Goliath. This includes the most recent entry in the entire franchise Godzilla: King of the Monsters, directed by Michael Dougherty (Krampus, Trick ‘r Treat). It serves as a sequel to Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla from 2014.
The 2019 Hollywood rendition-sequel comes with music, titled Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), composed by Bear McCreary (God of War, The Cloverfield Paradox). McCreary was announced that he would be responsible to helm the music for the film, via a statement by Dougherty at a press conference at San Diego Comic Con 2018. At the same press conference, Dougherty exemplified that the classic themes of the original Kaiju/Titans would be included within the soundtrack. About a year later, that pure exemplification would come true. As a week before the official release for the film WaterTower Music, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., released McCrearys’ work out for the public. As promised by Dougherty, McCreary incorporated his own renditions of the classic themes.
GODZILLA
The main title for the film is Godzilla’s theme. As expected, it is a heart pounding rendition that stays true to the classic created by Ifukube. The track starts off as eerily familiar, as one would consider the fact that whether or not McCreary even composed it in the first place, rather simply being a high definition version of the original. This thought quickly changes within seconds as strong pulses of orchestrated bass, along with a powerful choir exemplifying the titular character in his original Japanese language, move the classic into an epic stature of godlike proportions. The melody gradually increases into a finale that proves to be as true to the original as possible.
RODAN
While a sudden departure from the source material, the main theme of Rodan still brings in a fierce amount of rage to accommodate a scene of volcanic awakening within the film. McCreary gave his own take for Rodan’s theme and it shows. The God of War composer gives an epic spin by increasing the tempo and bass of the orchestrated instruments, along with a snippet of a choir singing ‘Rodan’ in Japanese. The addition of the choir only intensifies the musical action of the track, as it plays to the end. All though not a faithful rendition of the classic theme for the fire demon, it is a welcomed new entry that exemplifies the terror of the flying beast.
MOTHRA
When I heard that McCreary would honor the original themes within King of the Monsters, the first thought was how would Mothra’s theme be revisited? Through Mothra’s reign within the Godzilla franchise, including her own set of films, her theme has been consistent with smaller changes to its melody. That being said, there was no definitive decision and thought in which version of Mothra’s theme would be renditioned into the thirty-fifth film in the Godzilla franchise.
It was a surprising, though extremely welcoming, when hearing McCreary’s Mothra’s Song was his own interpretation of the first ever classic theme for the bestowed butterfly-like insect. The track sways aways from the original lyrics, instead substituting them for a flute. Behind the flute is an epic standpoint in orchestrated proportions, where the melody of Mothra grows into an endgame of standing ovation.
GHIDORAH
The official viral marketing site for the film, Monarch Sciences, states that Ghidorah is the devil with three heads. The theme, that resinates through out other tracks within the original motion picture soundtrack, is hauntingly accurate to the description of the false alpha. Whenever Ghidorah’s theme is heard throughout the soundtrack, there comes a sense of terror and horror. Ghidorah himself(s) is a definitive term of destruction and benevolence to the existence of balance within this universe. To match with that definition, McCreary, and the talent orchestrated staff over at WaterTower Music, developed a musical number that invokes the very same fear a categorically devastating natural disaster would invoke in real life to real people. Godzilla’s main track put the God back in Godzilla, while Ghidorah’s put the devil back in the devil with three heads.
COMPLIMENTARY TRACKS
As discussed previously about the main thematics of the Titans above, we simply cannot ignore the complimentary tracks surrounding the main themes included. McCreary did an excellent job in transitioning from track to track. The movie itself seems like an all out rumble with minor editions of emotional impacts, and so does the entire soundtrack itself. McCreary did a swell job of not overdoing the epic proportions of the music and letting it tone down, sizzling for emotional value when needed.
