Local soundtracks start playing Hollywood's tune

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hollywood movie soundtracks have become overtly cliched and overdone these days -- they are conceived by film producers in one and the same package with the movie itself.

Moviegoers end up buying the cassette simply due to the relentless advertising assault. And as the movie speedily drains its hype quotient, the banal soundtrack races into oblivion at the same pace.

They are hatched according to tried-and-true formulas.

When superhero movies throng the market, a spate of sondtracks with grunge poster boys singing overbaked three-cord angst-ridden tune inevitably ensues.

The Spiderman movie has, among other musical offerings, a tune from the much-hyped group The Strokes, When It Started,, while Evanescence's Bring Me to Life received incessant airplay when people hadn't realized yet how cheesy Dare Devil was.

For a horror movie, the so-called modern rockers, the likes of Disturbed, Marylin Manson and Rob Zombie, will churn out soundtrack specialities that will have the hair on your neck standing with their dismal end-is-nigh tunes.

A comedy movie marks its territory by putting vintage rock on its soundtrack list. The Who's song on failed revolution, Won't Get Fooled Again, ended up, strangely, playing along with the opening credits for Anger Management, while Space Oddity,, David Bowie's 1970s classic cut, was appropriated for Adam Sandlers' Mr. Deeds.

Rare is the movie that has coherent music selections, such as I am Sam, involving scores of carefully chosen musicians from Paul Westerberg, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam to The Vines cover of The Beatles tunes from Let It Be, You've Got To Hide Your Love Away and I'm Only Sleeping. Simply beautiful and enchanting.

Or, in the case of Almost Famous, where the music selection is diverse, it managed to spell out exactly what Cameron Crowe wanted to say. Lynard Skynard's Simple Man clearly depicts what was going on in the young Crowe's mind, as did Led Zepppelin's That's The Way; although less grand than The Song Remains The Same, it evinces the psychedelic experience of members of Stillwater, the aspiring rock n' roll band in the movie.

Simply put, most soundtracks -- just like the films they are aimed at endorsing -- were not built to last, and if there are any good soundtracks around, they were made long before the movie was conceived.

The Indonesian movie scene has yet to be plagued by Hollywood's excessive commercialism, and it used to be the case that soundtracks were more true to the film.

In the late 1970s, Badai Pasti Berlalu (The Storm Will Pass) by respected director Teguh Karya, carried a soundtrack penned by composer Eros Djarot. Sung by singer Chrisye and Berliana Hutauruk, the soundtrack was built to succeed on its own merits even though the movie was a commercial success.

Haunting piano works and string arrangement have stood the test of time, and Chrisye's own remake of the soundtrack was a big hit in the 1990s.

Two decades later, in the early stage of the revival of Indonesian film after years in the doldrums, the groundbreaking movie Kuldesak (Cul-de-sac) featured a powerful song of the same title composed by Dhani and Andra Ramadhan of the then top band Dewa. It was probably the first batch before other soundtracks swarmed movie theaters and eventually music stores.

In 2000 came what might be the turning point for Indonesian movie soundtracks. Local film company Miles Production released the first local box office hit after a long period of slumber, Petualangan Sherina (Sherina's Adventure). With the savvy of Hollywood executives, producer Mira Lesmana marketed the movie musical in the same package with its soundtrack.

The movie earned US$723,000, a fortune by the standards of Indonesian movies, while the soundtrack went multiplatinum, with sales of more than 200,000 copies and revenues of $387,000.

The movie set a new standard for subsequent film productions: A soundtrack had to be composed with the same intensity as the movie itself, and had to be marketed through every means available.

In 2002, Mira and co-producer Riri Riza repeated the success with the release of the blockbuster Ada Apa Dengan Cinta (What's Up With Love). To accompany the teen romance, the producers and scriptwriter Jujur Prananto came up with a soundtrack that would blend with the storyline. Jujur said that a good soundtrack was one that did not feel like a soundtrack to viewers.

And Melly Goeslaw and Anto Hoed of the band Potret -- with a group of able musicians including Wong Aksan, Tohpati, Andi Rianto and Indra Lesmana -- crafted a worthy soundtrack that beautifully complemented the storyline. It also spawned a number of hits.

Dimas Djajadiningrat was one among the country's young directors who was fully aware of the new rules of the game.

"A soundtrack is necessary if we mean to create a movie as product, it plays the same role as music score, graphic design and montage in the making of a good movie," he told The Jakarta Post.

However, he believes the soundtrack had to be closely related to the movie's storyline, and not somehow stand alone as decoration.

Dimas directed Tusuk Jelangkung, the sequel to box-office smash Jelangkung, and recently wrapped up production of 30 Hari Mencari Cinta (Finding Love in 30 Days), with all the songs on its soundtrack done by teen heart-throb band Sheila on 7.

Indra Yudhistira, director of teen flick Andai Ia Tahu and currently directing a local version of John Travolta's Grease, Biarkan Bintang Menari (Let The Stars Dance), shared Dimas' view, saying that a soundtrack constituted part of a promotional strategy in movie marketing.

"In line with Holywood's tradition in making and selling movies, incessant airplay of a tune from our movie will arouse curiosity from moviegoers and eventually drive them to cinemas," he told the Post.

That cookie-cutter formula for success is here to stay.