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High profile scores to us, but not the general public. Maybe he was just a too nice guy not getting a foot in the door?
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Posted: |
Jul 21, 2017 - 11:46 AM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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While "Rocky IV" was a hit, yes, it didn't get a lot of respect, and I don't think the music made a general impact (in the way the score for the first film did).
I have to disagree. DiCola's tracks Training Montage and War are still being played at sports events all over the world, more than 30 years after the film was made.
Okay, but I don't believe that they're generally identified with the movie. I'm not trying to be argumentative, nor am I making a qualitative judgement. I'm just saying I've been to many sporting events where film music is played – all sorts of film music – and I generally suspect I'm the only person there who can identify the pieces.
But I'm just guessing. Maybe Vince DiCola was impossible to work with, for all I know. (There are some film composers I shall not name whose careers fizzled because of this.) Maybe a family tragedy took him away. Maybe he smells bad. The fact is, nascent careers are easily derailed, sometimes just through random chance.
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Posted: |
Jul 21, 2017 - 1:55 PM
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By: |
Dana Wilcox
(Member)
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Yes, it's weird. ROCKY IV is the best ROCKY score (IMO), and he was right there -- smack in the middle of the electropop wave in the 90s, with his own unique prog slant -- so there's really no reason he couldn't have had a sparkling career. But as others have said, the careers of Faltermeyer, Moroder, Hammer and other 80s synth pioneers also waned from the 90s onwards. They did stuff, but very little high profile.
To the slag heap of time for all of 'em! A fitting fate for those who purvey the electronic sound-maker and eschew the righteous orchestra...
Clueless...
Aw, lighten up, FB. Face it, yours is a niche within a niche. To the world at large, John Williams is king, and Vince DiCola just sounds like some kind of off-brand soft drink.
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Its definitely a strange mystery about DiCola.
For 1985, it was an incredible score. The production is absolutely and technically superior to anything heard before then.
32 years later and it still wipes the floor with many movie scores.
Training Montage, Hearts on Fire and Up The Mountain, the seamless mesh of Synthesizers and mild orchestra,
Its just as Iconic as the original Conti Theme in my opinion.
You will find it as the definitive them of Rocky for many a generation.
It could be that his agent was not very good or he simply wasn't given an opportunity like he should have.
At the minimum he should have been doing TV scoring without hesitation.
He should have done much more, but just that single Rocky score is legendary, nobody will ever match it.
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No one could reasonably argue that DiCola's music for Rocky V is anything like as recognisable as Bill Conti's work for Mr. Balboa. (Also, Sylvester Stallone said that if he could have done it over again he wouldn't have hired DiCola to do the music...)
DiCola's music for Rocky V...LOL!
DiCola's score is highly recognizable, and thankfully without that trite 70s feel Conti's had.
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Yes, it's weird. ROCKY IV is the best ROCKY score (IMO), and he was right there -- smack in the middle of the electropop wave in the 90s, with his own unique prog slant -- so there's really no reason he couldn't have had a sparkling career. But as others have said, the careers of Faltermeyer, Moroder, Hammer and other 80s synth pioneers also waned from the 90s onwards. They did stuff, but very little high profile.
To the slag heap of time for all of 'em! A fitting fate for those who purvey the electronic sound-maker and eschew the righteous orchestra...
Clueless...
Aw, lighten up, FB. Face it, yours is a niche within a niche. To the world at large, John Williams is king, and Vince DiCola just sounds like some kind of off-brand soft drink.
John who?
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Posted: |
Jul 21, 2017 - 4:49 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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What DiCola did was not to my taste, but that's a personal preference. That said, there's no denying that that particular synth sound fell out of favor a few years later. You can regret that, but I think it's pretty hard to pretend it isn't true. Maybe DiCola had all sorts of tricks up his sleeve, and could have written a score in the mode of Gilbert & Sullivan or Gregorian Chant had he been given the opportunity. I have no idea. But the film industry is quick to typecast you, in any event.
But beyond that… we all like to believe that talent ultimately rules the day, but in point of fact, there's an element of luck and timing in everything. I'm a television writer – I've done it for 25 years – and I like to believe my success can be attributed to my talent, hard work, and good looks. And I would say that's some of it. But had I not by chance taken a job on a flop show two decades ago and impressed the creators, whose next show was a big hit, would I still be here today? And had the person they intended to run that hit show not flamed out spectacularly, leaving me to take over, would I own my house? And had I not happened to be walking to lunch only to be randomly introduced to the star of my next show, what then?
Don't get me wrong – I think I do my job well. But I know a lot of other very good writers who wind up on shows that last half-seasons, who haven't gotten those breaks, who worked for people who didn't appreciate them for their own neurotic reasons, and quite a few of them simply haven't worked for years. It's not that they don't have the same talent as I do – maybe they have more – but simple luck of the draw hasn't worked in their favors.
Sometimes, I think it's just a miracle of the universe aligning when anybody manages to hit it big in the entertainment industry. Maybe the question isn't why DiCola's career never took off, but how some others were lucky enough to?
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Vince Dicola does ok, he has web-sites, studios, Dicola runs functions it pays the bills comfortably.
http://tdrsmusic.com/
Perhaps this is more his thing. Maybe scoring movies was just a side project for him. We're just assuming everyone who can write a score wants to be Jerry Goldsmith.
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Very true, theres hundreds of composers that have composed less than half a dozen scores. Paul MCcollough, Night of the Living Dead 1990 has only be credited for 2 scores, he done a few more not credited, but then i heard no more from him, I was expecting good scores from Paul but they never came.
I always felt the same way about Richard Hartley. Had Sheena been a better and more successful film, I think we'd have seen his name on more movies. Same for Frederic Talgorn, and John Beal. Immensely talented composers all.
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Posted: |
Jul 29, 2017 - 9:42 AM
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By: |
leagolfer
(Member)
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Very true, theres hundreds of composers that have composed less than half a dozen scores. Paul MCcollough, Night of the Living Dead 1990 has only be credited for 2 scores, he done a few more not credited, but then i heard no more from him, I was expecting good scores from Paul but they never came.
I always felt the same way about Richard Hartley. Had Sheena been a better and more successful film, I think we'd have seen his name on more movies. Same for Frederic Talgorn, and John Beal. Immensely talented composers all.
Hartley had a lot more success than MCcollough, But Hartley's music still barely gets a release, so I can see your point.
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