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Art of the Score

Episode 14: Stranger Things

Art of the Score

Nicholas Buc

Education, Tv & Film, Music

5624 Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2018

⏱️ 112 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After a short break, Art of the Score enters the new year with a trip to the Upside Down to take a close listen to Stranger Things. With the help of synth expert, musician, and podcaster Seja Vogel, we pull apart this wonderfully analogue score, its influences, and how it all works over the course of Season One of the Netflix hit. Episode notes: 2:35 – Welcome to special guest Seja Vogel. Find Seja’s podcast, ‘Hear Sej’ here (https://itunes.apple.com/bw/podcast/hearsej/id1168366353?mt=2), and her amazing Etsy store for felt synth models here (https://www.etsy.com/shop/pulsewidth). 5:20 – Into the nostalgic world of Stranger Things 8:41 – The ‘nostalgia film’ and Fredric Jameson 10:30 – Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon and their analogue synth band S U R V I V E 13:24 – ‘Dirge’, the track that formed the Stranger Things sound 15:05 – The influences and musical tools of S U R V I V E 19:00 – How the music works in Stranger Things – a scene comparison with Williams’ E.T. 25:14 – The main title – is it E minor or C major? 28:51 – Seja breaks down the synths involved 31:47 – Seja’s meticulous reconstruction of the Main Title 34:00 – Square waves and pulse waves, filter sweeps and resonance 44:33 – ‘Kids’ and keying between worlds 51:55 – Nancy and Barb 55:06 – Eleven’s theme and its development throughout season one 1:05:45 – Lay-Z-Boy couch theme 1:10:20 – The Upside Down 1:13:55 – The Demogorgon 1:18:11 – Searching the woods 1:20:42 – The government evildoers in portamento bass 1:26:37 – ‘This isn’t you’ 1:32:01 – Linking sound with image – was Stranger Things written to footage? 1:35:45 – How each kiss is scored 1:40:04 – Pop music in Stranger Things: The Clash – Should I Stay or Should I Go? 1:44:02 – Stranger Things’ secret pop: We Can Be Heroes We love to hear from our listeners – get in touch via Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and if you like The Art of the Score, please take a moment to subscribe, rate and comment.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Art of the Score, the podcast that explores, demystifies and celebrates some of the greatest soundtracks of all time from the world of film,

0:21.6

TV and video games.

0:23.4

I'm Andrew Pogson.

0:24.5

And in each episode, we'll be joined by Daniel Golding and Nicholas Buck as we check out a soundtrack we love,

0:30.1

break down its main themes, explore what makes the score tick,

0:33.4

and hopefully impart our love of the world of soundtracks.

0:59.1

In episode 14, we explore the music from the Netflix smash hit, Stranger Things, created by the Duffer Brothers and score by Michael Stein and Kyle Dixon.

1:03.8

Stranger Things is set firmly in the 1980s and delivers nostalgia hit after nostalgia hit with

1:09.0

references to 80s movies, it's rock bands and pop

1:12.5

culture in general.

1:13.6

However, it's through the show's synth-heavy score that it ties the world together and it

1:18.1

provides a sense of both days past along with a distinct presence of otherworldly dread.

1:24.1

And joining me on our journey to the upside down is composer, a ranger, orchestrator, conductor and ego tycoon.

1:32.8

It's Nicholas Bark. How are you doing, Nick?

1:34.5

Yes, that's right. I am the retail demigorgon of frozen waffles. You've got me there.

1:39.8

Very looking forward to this episode. Something very different for us, not only is this a long-form series, but quite a different type of score.

1:49.0

So, yeah, it'll be very interesting.

1:51.3

Absolutely.

1:51.7

And we've only done one other TV show at this point being Star Trek.

1:58.0

And so this is sort of, this is our second TV show.

2:00.6

I think it's sort of timely because we've just had the release of the second season,

2:05.0

which is very exciting.

...

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