Did John Williams get you into classical music?

Yes, indeed. It broadened my scope.

 

Not really into classical music but John/Star Wars got me into movie scores. But I never got into Beethoven or anything. As a kid, before I got into the popular music and rock of the day as a teenager, the only music I owned were Weird Al albums and movie scores. I had all three OT soundtracks, Aliens (a really great one), Jurassic Park, and some others I forget. But once I got older I got more into other music and while I appreciate a great film score I don't own any. I Youtube them from time to time though.

 

THE MAESTRO.

He got me into movie scores that's for sure, or at the very least appreciating the importance they bring to a movie. As for classical music, I've always enjoyed that (not 24/7 of course) but sometimes the time is right to whack some on and chill out, rest, unwind or just float off for a bit.

 

Yeah, he's probably the best, maybe slightly ahead of Ennio Morricone in my book. Though a lot of his Spaghetti Western scores weren't your traditional symphonic stuff.

 

Morricone is fantastic. Hans Zimmer should be on the list too.

One of my favourites of Morricone's is annoyingly form the steaming crap pile that was Exorcist II: The Heretic, "Regan's Theme". He readapted it for the Hateful Eight recently too.

 

Not really, i just like the SW music. If it's not familiar to me, the ears won't be encouraged to hear.

 

My childhood, magic mushrooms, and acid got me into classical music

 

So you only listen to music that's familiar to you? How does something you've never heard before become familiar to you, unless perhaps you've heard it in the womb. In which case you only listen to music which was played to you before you were born. Your record collection must be miniscule. Just think of all that music that's out there, being written every day, that you will never hear because it's unfamiliar to you.

Such bewildering comments aside, I have to agree with earlier comments that Williams's music didn't get me into classical music (that would've been Tchaikovsky) but it did get me into appreciating film scores. I'm not really a classical fan, though; I just like bits and pieces.

 

Fair enough.

 

He got me into Gustav Holst.

 

I first got into classical music in elementary school through playing violin.

I didn't see Star Wars until middle school. I can't think of any other John Williams movies I saw before that, although I did see Jurassic Park around the same time.

So the answer for me is no, although he is an amazing composer.

 

I grew up playing classical music and was first introduced to SW as a 7 yr old. I remember going to my teacher after watching ANH and getting her to teach me the imperial March (I played Double Bass so the tone fit)
from there I learned as many of Williams scores as possible. It added a 'cool' aspect to the music I was learning which was a lot for a 7 year old.

John Williams is the man

 

He clued me into some of his main inspirations - Gustav Holst and Vaughan Williams. I absolutely adore Vaughan Williams now.

 

My parents bought me the Star Wars soundtrack LP record when I was ten years old and begging them for every Star Wars merch item in existence.

I remember asking my mother why Leia's Theme made me cry. I had assumed that music was referential, that is, we cry when we hear the theme to Old Yeller because the dog dies in the end of the film and we're associating the music to the death of the dog we grew to love through the movie. Leia's Theme brought me to tears each time I listened to it, but I couldn't understand why, since nothing bad happens to Leia and the good guys win.

John Williams didn't turn me on to classical music - that would take another ten years - but he did teach me that music is emotional by itself, that it doesn't need sad lyrics or sad memories attached to it to bring me to tears.

 

Yes and no. I was in band in jr. high and high school. And my band directors got me into so many forms of music. But JW's scores did amp up my classical appreciation. I often listen to the "Symphonic" channel on Pandora. I highly recommend it.

I also have to give nods to Zimmer, John Barry, the late James Horner.

 

Just thought I'd add for those like myself who love to listen to movie scores.

The "CineMagic" channel(750) on SiriusXM is really good. The great thing about this channel is almost no daily/weekly repeat. However, it's spends time evenly across all score/movie genres and decades whereas some like myself might want to have more of the recent "big movie" scores(I.e. Williams, Zimmer, Howard, Shore, Horner, Djawadi, Jackman, Tyler, Giacchino, Silvestri, Goldsmith, etc).

For those who do prefer the aforementioned "big movie" scores, the "Movie Music" channel on Slacker is also very good. On this one however, you will have to deal with some repetition.