Can you call the music for J.Bond movies a genre?

[emanresu]

And what you think about it overall?

[Danny W.]

Look up "Spy Music."

Danny W.

[AllanAllen]

I like Henry Mancini

[sgcim]

Look up "Spy Music."

Danny W.

Yeah, there's a great book I read a while ago that was called "Spy Jazz"or something like that, and it goes over the music to every spy movie ever made that uses what the author called 'spy jazz'. That was back when they used to use real composer/ arrangers writing real music for real musicians playing real instruments. I know it sounds ridiculous today, but it must have happened back then; I read about it in a book!
https://blog.musoscribe.com/index.ph...k-bang-part-1/

[starjasmine]

Is it what what WB and DF would call "fake fake jazz"?

[emanresu]

Oh, spy music So nice

[BWV]

This was a good Rick Beato video on the JB theme a talks about film
noir as a genre

[mr. beaumont]

Once, long ago on the jgbe, we set out to find what the James Bond chord was. I'm still not sure we ever found out.

[pamosmusic]

Once, long ago on the jgbe, we set out to find what the James Bond chord was. I'm still not sure we ever found out.

Its baaaaaaaaaaaaack

[sgcim]

Is it what what WB and DF would call "fake fake jazz"?

Read "Unsung," Warne Marsh's biography and find out about the mess they made of the Warne Marsh/Pete Christlieb album "Apogee".
WB and DF produced it and showed they had no understanding of 'real' jazz.

[nyc chaz]

Call it whatever you want but to me John Barry was the greatest film scorer and orchestrator who ever lived.

[wintermoon]

Call it whatever you want but to me John Barry was the greatest film scorer and orchestrator who ever lived.

Barry was definitely cool w the big brass and strings.
I'm kinda partial to Bernard Herrmann and Kenyon Hopkins, for starters....

[JCat]

A genre? Plausible...
Jazz? not necessarily...
In other words, if "spy jazz" is a genre it's not necessarily jazz, therefore the label "spy jazz" would be misleading.

It so happens that I'm working on four tunes as we speak (and this thread caught my attention). One of them is a Bond theme, the others are not, still they share some attributes that possibly could fall under a common genre.
-What are these common attributes?

A certain application of the melodic minor scale, I think, and frequent use of chord inversions.

It's not about some single "James Bond chord", it's about a tonality, a certain mysterious vibe that sticks like white on rice with the spy movie genre, i.e a sub category of film music. However, only one of my four tunes is a film track (a Bond theme).

I look at my four tunes as clear cut compositions that combine elements from classical music and pop, possibly also having a certain theatrical appeal. They all originate from Europe. The harmonic progression is key, meaning there's not much room for improvisation by chord substitution, but it's possible to improvise alternative melodic themes.

The novel approach may be to classify any tension harmony as being "jazz"..."Look, a strange chord! It's gotta be jazz"

Henry Mancini was an Italian-American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. Extremely talented and with broad influences from America as well as Europe. The iconic "Pink Panther Theme" is big band Jazz. And it's also a little bit mysterious. But first and foremost it's film music associated with a certain chief inspector. It's jazz, -but is it "spy jazz"?

This "genre" got roots from the '60s and possibly Italian folk music, like the Sicilian pastorale, I think.

-How about the Midsomer Murders theme? "Spy jazz"? (In this case the melody is very strong and key)

[ruger9]

Call it whatever you want but to me John Barry was the greatest film scorer and orchestrator who ever lived.

That's a mighty tall statement to make in a world where John Williams exists.

[ragman1]

Can you call the music for J.Bond movies a genre?

No, unless 'film themes' are a genre. Which they are not because they don't have any one style. Bond themes tend to echo a certain atmosphere, which is understandable and also a commercial intent, but I'm not sure that's enough to qualify them as a genre.

[emanresu]

The style is not always the main way to define a genre. With movies, the vibe matters most - like comedy, drama - no style specified.
And Bond movies have very specific vibe, the theme music tries to catch this whatever style they may be using.. or rather, start it up.

[pingu]

yes I believe this one incredible
tune ‘James Bond Theme’
has spawned so many other
distinctive tunes and soundtracks ….
that i think of it as a one-tune genre

even the latest Billy Eilish/Finneas O’Connell bond theme tips it’s hat
to the original ….

of course John Barry gets the credit
but a huge Shout out to Monty Norman
who I believe actually wrote it

I will investigate further ….

[wolflen]

hmmm,,,Movie Music ..now we're talkin..

wolf faves ( oh come on..just a couple)

The Long Goodbye..(Altman version)
John Williams meets Johnny Mercer--Tongue in cheek tune --its a doorbell !
very cool version of Marlow..destroys Hollywood rules about "good guys"

Hey ! Dont Laugh..Quigley Down Under (its Magnum,dammit)

yeah its Selleck with a horse..a crazy woman and a gun..

But.. the Soundtrack is a nice surprise ..so is the composer--Basil Poledouris

Now..if your saying.."wolf..you don't get out much "

Grrrrr

[nyc chaz]

That's a mighty tall statement to make in a world where John Williams exists.

You like what you like and i'll like what i like if that is ok with you.Sorry but John williams,Hans Zimmer are obviously great composer's but Barry for me was better at conveying action and emotion in film than these guys.

[ragman1]

The style is not always the main way to define a genre. With movies, the vibe matters most - like comedy, drama - no style specified.
And Bond movies have very specific vibe, the theme music tries to catch this whatever style they may be using.. or rather, start it up.

I didn't see this before I posted.

'Why Film Music Is Not A Genre

Basically, a genre is a category of music, characterized by a particular style, form, or content.

Film music for a specific film can contain many different musical genres. Such as the originally composed film score and the soundtrack. The Soundtrack contains songs from different artists. It's often abbreviated OST.
In film music, the score is composed by a film score composer, who generally writes, records, and produces music specifically for every scene where music is needed. The filmmakers and the composer discuss in a spotting session what music is needed in which scene. The composer takes spotting notes and uses them to create the music in the right mood, emotion, and intention.'

Is Film Music A Genre? — Composer Class

[RLetson]

I think I'm old enough to have ear-witnessed the evolution of the movie/TV scoring that includes the Bondian "spy music" material. Mancini was certainly a key, um, player. The Peter Gunn main theme (1958) was a kind of earworm and radio hit, and that brassy big-band sound became a kind of hallmark of crime/thriller/cop/detective shows and movies--the earliest I can think of is Dragnet*, followed by M Squad, The Rat Race, Mission Impossible, Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, and probably lots of others that are refusing to come to mind.

In Googling around to jog my memory, I came across this essay on this music:

How Jazz Became the Signature Sound for TV and Movie Detectives

Then there's what I think of as the rain-shiney-streets-at-night music--slinky, sax-heavy, cool-jazzy--that became the signature sound of LA/NYC-set noir dramas.

* Whose signature theme, according to Wikipedia, is derived from Miklós Rózsa's familiarly bombastic, brassy march theme for The Killers (1946).

[Christian Miller]

The style is ‘melodic minor harmony’

And also chromatic mediant

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[emanresu]

I agree Ragman.

But the thing that bugs me is that the Bond movies (which itself is not a genre by itself at all.. it is just a mere series), have created this strangely recognizable vibe of how the music sounds and feels.
It feels like it is a mini-genre. Sometimes we stumble on some random pieces that "sounds like a Bond theme". That's very rare for me (mostly listening other kinds of stuff) but that just affirms the idea that it is very much like a separate genre.

Categorizing a certain type of music is often a muddy road.

[Christian Miller]

I regard this as an honorary James Bond song

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[Mick-7]

Does Johnny Rivers count?