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Trent Reznor Wins Oscar for 'The Social Network' Score

FilmMagic

Trent Reznor is having a highly successful year thus far. After earning a Golden Globe last month, the Nine Inch Nails frontman, along with collaborator Atticus Ross, took home the Academy Award for Best Original Score Sunday night (Feb. 27) for their work on David Fincher's 'The Social Network,' which was also up for seven other Oscars.

After beating out composers John Powell for 'How to Train Your Dragon,' Hans Zimmer for 'Inception,' Alexandre Desplat for 'The King's Speech' and A.R. Rahman for '127 Hours,' the musician posted a note on Twitter similar to the one he made after landing a Golden Glob win. "HOLY S[---] doesn't seem enough..." he tweeted.

Reznor's win comes on the heels of landing another high-profile scoring gig. The 45-year-old Pennsylvania native is writing and recording the music for 'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,' based on the best-selling novel by Stieg Larsson. The film is also directed by David Fincher and is scheduled for release in December.

Listen to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' 'On We March'


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FilmMusicBuff

There has been a great amount of media excitement about the "groundbreaking" score for Social Network.

However, music for film is probably the most misunderstood art form in the cinema. Though fashion may play a role, the principles remain the same whether it's an orchestral score, a song over a scene or solely an electronic palette that's being used. Without going into great detail here, that basic principle is–a second by second relevance to a scene's emotional landscape in tone, musical color and theme. The score is an unseen "actor" in the screen play and is to be chosen for it's character and not because it is so "cutting edge" or excluded BECAUSE it uses acoustic instruments, but rather because this "actor" knows how to ACT and can best tell the story.

Scores that are sound design may be closer to sound effects, at least by definition, in that no distinct musical note or melody can be discerned but WILL synchronize to the images (a precept). In a case like this, "Best Score" is a misnomer in that there is NO actual music.

The "rigidity" of today's scoring that Trent talks about then, confuses style with longstanding film scoring techniques and principles. These principles are immutable and can't be changed. For example: singing in tune and ON KEY. Any variation of this is called "bad singing" and you will NOT make it to American Idol.
Throwing music at the picture is called "bad scoring" because there is no dramatic concept being used to highlight and guide the scene as it unfolds.

If David Fincher placed Trent's "delivered" music in the picture, that creative placement is called "underscoring" and it can be argued that David Fincher MADE the music relevant (work) scene by scene with judicious editing of the picture and music… and deserves to share in the award.

March 01 2011 at 5:10 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Penelopy

Honestly, for those of us that grew up with Trent in his hardcore pretty hate machine days, we've all grown up. Why should we expect different of him? I'm glad he's matured the way all the rest of us (probably) have so we can continue enjoying him as we age into a new generation.

February 28 2011 at 1:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sarah Heidt

Kudos to Leon Dewan and his Swarmatron!

February 28 2011 at 2:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kj Sway

Give me a break! Trent has been clean and sober for well over a year
now and he is someone who has earned respect
throughout his career, without needing a brand. It was
his first attempt at creating a musical score and it turned
out to be nothing less than terriffic. Bravo Mr. Reznor !!
Congrats on the Oscar brother !

February 28 2011 at 2:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Caitlind

Personally, I think that it didn't deserve to win, it's not much of a score. But then again, I don't believe that Oscars hold up much weight. I don't need other people telling me what is good music or not.

February 27 2011 at 11:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Caitlind's comment
Xander Sizemore

Then, obviously, and no offense is meant here, you either haven't seen the movie or you have no concept of what setting a mood with a song is.

"Not much of a score"? What's that even mean? There should have been orchestrated instruments and a 20 man violin section?

For the mood of the movie, Trent's music was flawless. You are the only person I've ever seen disagree.

February 28 2011 at 12:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jules

I believe she may have the concept of "theme song" confused with "musical score" here. The two are, as most of us know, completely different. And the exiting comment on not needing to be told what music to like seems to be the clincher on my theory.

February 28 2011 at 11:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply